Bradley M. Kuhn

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Proud to Be a Member of GNOME Foundation

Tuesday 26 January 2010 by Bradley M. Kuhn

I suppose that I should have applied years ago to be a member of the GNOME Foundation. I have served since 2001 as the Free Software Foundation's representative on the GNOME Advisory Board, and have worked hard the last nine years to maintain a good relationship between the FSF and the GNOME Foundation. Indeed, I was very glad and willing when FSF asked me to continue to serve in this role as a volunteer after I left employment of the FSF in 2005.

Regarding actual GNOME Foundation membership, though, I suppose that I previously felt under-qualified to apply since (a) my personal avoidance of all things GUI is widely known, and (b) obviously I haven't contributed any code or even documentation to GNOME. The most I've done on the development side is the occasional bug report over the years. Yet, ever since I was finally able to switch the non-technical users in my life over to GNU/Linux, I've been very grateful and supportive for GNOME and its mission to create a Free Software desktop that everyone — not just computer geeks — can use effectively.

Meanwhile, Leslie Hawthorn reminded me recently to stop perpetuating the false belief that the only useful FLOSS contribution is code and documentation. I think that it was her point that encouraged me to apply for GNOME Foundation membership. I was excited to receive my acceptance this morning.

Many people in the GNOME community already know that I'm a good contact person if you have any issues that relate to the relationship between GNOME and GNU or between FSF and GNOME Foundation (these are, BTW, two clear and distinct sets of relationships). I'll take this opportunity to remind everyone that if you ever have a concern related to these relationships, I am always glad to assist in my diplomatic role between the two organizations (and projects).

And, of course, as I have for years, I remain available to the GNOME community for the occasional licensing policy questions and/or GPL enforcement assistance.

I very much hope to go to GUADEC this year, as I have not been in six years! However, I'm a bit worried about the tight scheduling between it and OSCON (which would mean at least two and a half weeks away in a row!), but I'll strive to be there.

Posted on Tuesday 26 January 2010 at 10:10 by Bradley M. Kuhn.

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