Well.. this is cool... 11 candidates for the SqF Board elections. I hope 
that count is correct - we've had a flurry of candidates in the last 
couple of days.

Please add me to that list!

* About Me:
I'm not a professional programmer. I compose music and design sound 
effects for a living, although I use Squeak, C and Java to create audio 
tools for our internal use (I'm forced to use C and Java on mobile 
phones.) In the past I've also written several real-time audio 
applications, including a real-time OS for arcade games on custom 
hardware. I'm currently creating a commercial application using Squeak. 
I'm also on the Squeak web team, the newly formed PR team and on the 
Steering Board of the Interactive Audio SIG (part of the MIDI mfrs 
association.)

* What the Board should do:
- As you may know, I believe Squeak should be made more accessible to 
users. I'm glad to see new "developer tool" ideas and projects. But, I 
don't believe there are enough applications for end-users, and that is a 
shame. I would like to see the board develop initiatives that support 
the development of new user apps (even a bullet-proof commercial image 
base would be great) in addition to making forward progress in the 
various research and developer projects.

- We advertise Squeak as a multimedia authoring tool. But, I think it's 
a bit forgotten in regard to audio, video and graphics. Yes, it has 
great potential but it needs some cleanup and a few new applications 
that can really show off the multimedia capabilities of Squeak. I'd like 
to see the board develop initiatives for the advancement of multimedia 
on Squeak.

- For the future, and along the idea of the dynabook dream, I'm very 
jazzed about the NSF Grant that Alan, Dan, Yoshiki, Ian and Andreas 
proposed. I'd like to see the Board create initiatives to help the 
Squeak community support their effort.

- I believe the board has done a great job of bootstrapping themselves. 
The monthly reports have been great and as a user and supporter of 
Squeak, I see great progress. I think the board can be more proactive 
about their progress and where they are headed. I propose that the SqF 
Board build a better presence on the SqF website to:
  - Promote the Board
  - State their goals and how they will achieve these goals
  - Provide dynamic updates of the current progress toward their goals.
  - Provide a place where team leaders and others can provide updates to 
their individual projects.

- I'd like to see the board have more visibility in the larger open 
source development community. Being associated with, or having a 
presence at, community events (such as Smalltalk Solutions Conf.) could 
help promote Squeak to other developers and open up avenues to funding.

Can the board do all this? Probably not. I really don't know how much 
influence the Board has, yet. It's still at a point of learning about 
itself and it's influence in the developer community. But I do believe 
the board should be an advocate of the various needs of the Squeak 
developer *and* user community and provide guidance that an otherwise ad 
hoc group can not provide.

Thanks for listening and don't forget to vote!

brad