[maemo-community] Council thread : who wants my vote - and why?

[From: Simon Pickering]

> My turn...

And now mine, sorry for the delay. Feels like filling in a job application :/

>> What do you bring to the council that no other candidate does?

I have a lot of experience of interacting with community members and  
translating between users' and developers' requirements/demands and  
ways of speaking. I started my Linux experience in the Zaurus  
community where I was a major contributor to the zaurus.org and then  
oesf.org forums (as lardman). I provided many posts/hours of advice  
and help to members of the Zaurus community and especially OpenZaurus  
adopters as well as helping in the organisation and writing of the  
OpenZaurus.org website wiki When the Nokia tablets came out they were  
a natural progression from the Zaurus.

I have a fair bit of experience of talking to people and explaining  
things to them both through my days on the various forums, and through  
my experience while working at University - writing and presenting  
courses, mentoring, conferences, etc.

The last thing I should say about myself is that I love learning -  
although my pet interests are the PowerVR, IVA, DSP and GPS, before  
coming to the Nokia tablets I knew nothing about these. I have really  
enjoyed applying myself to these topics - learning how to reverse  
engineer kernel drivers, writing ARM assembly, learning the quirks of  
the DSP, and the nuts and bolts of GPS operation. I?m always keen to  
learn more, whether it?s doing my part in a community council, or  
being introduced to other people?s areas of interests and  
learning/working out how closer interaction with Nokia might benefit  
both sides.

>> What do you expect to achieve on/with the council? What's your top
>> priority issue to resolve, and how do you plan to help make that happen?

In terms of my specific goals, I would really like to push for further  
involvement of the Maemo.org community in the software development  
process - whether this is by allowing us access to code which is not  
(yet) up to Nokia's standards (e.g. PowerVR) or in allowing us access  
to alpha-/beta-code so that we can give input and have some idea and  
input on the direction of the platform. I would also like to engage in  
discussion that will hopefully open up more of the closed Maemo  
components, or at the very least let us understand why they remain  
closed.

>> Where do you want to see the council at the end of your term in 6 months?

I think this has probably been covered pretty well already. If I'm  
elected, I will be a member of the first council, and I think we will  
probably spend a lot of time just working out how things are going  
work. I would like to make sure we establish what sort of role the  
council will be taking, how the elections should work, how the  
interaction with Nokia and the community should be handled, etc.  
(impeachment proceedings? ;). Infrastructure stuff mainly. Any real  
progress and major interaction tasks we make/handle over and above  
that is a bonus IMO.

>> What are you going to do if you get it?
>
> Go to Disneyland.

lol, I only read that bit as I was replying. I'll just continue doing  
exactly what I have been doing (though I will try to refrain from  
fruitless debating with Darius, even though I do enjoy a good debate ;).

Cheers,


Simon