Hello Gnome community,
I am Erik Albers and I am a Gnome user since the release of GNOME 3, a release from wich I never went back : ) Although or because I am not a Gnome Foundation Member yet, I think I can do my best to help growing the impact and funding for the GNOME Foundation with a different angle and an external perspective. Robert McQueen invited me towards taking this step, and after looking at the current status of the Foundation and its desired developments, I am now convinced that I can bring something meaningful to the table and that I would like to do this by running as a candidate for the GNOME Foundation Board of Directors 2023 election.
During the last decade I spent my time mainly contributing to the Free Software Foundation Europe - as a member of the association and as an employee, where I was in charge of community development, outreach, public relations and in creating a sustainability sector. Within this role, I had the pleasure to learn, help and develop an international Free Software organisation that has its roots in the community and who supports its volunteers with staffers – very similar to what the Gnome Foundation nowaday is. Also in that position, among other things, I developed the FSFE’s code of conduct, a diversity strategy, countless smaller and larger community meetings, internal and external communications, and I always enjoyed serving the community and its needs, outcomes and energies.
In recent years, however, I spent a lot of my working time on explaining various stakeholders, political actors, and decision takers, as well as the general public, how Free Software and its reusability offers a more sustainable approach for technological developments. More and more it also becomes apparent, that the public development and release processes, that are inherent in Free Software, not only lead to better software but also lead towards more efficient and therewith towards more environmentally sustainable technologies.
Mentioning all this, because meanwhile several grants focus on or favorite projects that have an eye on software sustainability. Gnome for me is a cornerstone of a user-friendly and efficient GNU/Linux experience and I would be very happy to help sustain fundings and development for Gnome with this approach in mind. Meaning I can help support the foundation in finding grants and help thinking through how Gnome can apply in particular for those giving an extra eye on sustainability. For example Initiative 3: Local-first applications for the GNOME desktop from the “Gnome’s strategy for 2022 and beyond”, imho gives a good base to apply for such grants.
Also I can profit from some synergy effects here, as I successfully applied to such kind of grants for FSFE and for Open Source Gardens, a community project I gave birth a little while ago. Both grants however are based in Germany and not applicable for Gnome, but the more challenging, the more interesting : )
Well, apart from all the funding and sustainability topic, I would also be more than happy to bring in my experience in community growth and communications in support of Gnome’s “Welcoming newcomers” strategy and the “diversity and inclusion initiative” which I feel is an outstanding important initiative for sustainable and healty community growth of any Free Software. And I am aware that such initiatives have best success when supported from bottom-up and top-down similarly, so I will do my best to live the values of the initiative within the board and support community activities.
Very much looking forward to stand as a candidate and towards your questions and my gratitude to the Gnome community for gifting me with such a great piece of Free Software. I have no corporate affiliations and no conflict of interest, and please remember that in order to stand as a candidate, it would be great if you can second my nomination.
Best regards
Erik Albers
eal@fsfe.org
