2026 Board Candidate: Jonathan Blandford

Community Elections and Referendums
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My name is Jonathan Blandford, and I am submitting my candidacy for the GNOME Board of Directors.

I’ve been part of the GNOME community since nearly the beginning. My first contribution was for GNOME 0.12 (Aisleriot, aka GNOME Solitaire) in 1997, and I’ve been involved in the project ever since. I worked on GTK2, wrote the original control center, and was one of the original co-authors of evince.

I’ve spent a significant part of my career in leadership roles that deal directly with the challenges of shipping a cohesive, user-centric Linux Distro. I spent a decade running the Red Hat Desktop team, and another five years as VP of Engineering at Endless. Beyond the technical side, I’ve served on the GNOME Board previously (2001-2006) and as an Advisory Board member for both Red Hat and Endless for over a decade. I also have run the ED search committee, helping interview every ED for the Foundation since 2011. I currently work at Google. However, my job there has nothing to do with GNOME (or Free Software) and I’m running as an individual community member, and will participate on my own time.

These days, I spend my free time working on GNOME Crosswords. It’s a passion project, and it keeps me grounded in the GNOME application developer experience. My ambition there is to provide both a fun game for GNOME, and to produce the premiere Free Software puzzle authoring tool (think Musescore or Inkscape for puzzles). The game is most of the way through the GNOME Circle process.

If elected, I want to focus on:

  • Navigating the Current Moment: This is a pivotal moment for GNOME. We are seeing a significant shift in the desktop landscape as users increasingly seek alternatives to the established platforms. I believe the Foundation should be more active in this space, in capitalizing on this trend where we can.
  • Navigating the Current Moment (part 2): In addition, the transformative rise of AI and LLMs is undeniable. There’s a lot of bad (AI slop applications, the current state of the extensions, every third post to r/gnome), and a lot of potential to use it responsibly. I do not believe that the Foundation can be passive in this space, nor do I think it’s the Board’s place to decide on behalf of the community. Instead, I think it has a major role in facilitating a wider conversation about this issue.
  • Branding and Storytelling: We have built an consistent ecosystem of incredible apps. I think we have a real opportunity to use these to attract new users and contributors. I’d like to see where the Foundation can help strengthen our developer experience so that we can continue, and I’d like the Foundation to try to find ways to get developers paid for their work.
  • Strengthening the Foundation: It’s no secret that the Foundation has had a rough couple of years. I believe my long management experience and history with the Foundation will bring additional stability to our org.

I’d be honored to bring my experience back to the Board, and to help guide GNOME through this next era.

My Details:

  • Name: Jonathan Blandford
  • Email: jrb@gnome.org
  • Corporate affiliation: Google
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GNOME Board of Directors Foundation Elections 2026 - Candidates
Question to candidates: Gross Conflicts of Interest
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It is wonderful to see first gen GNOMEies still willing to go another round. I support this candidacy!

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I wholeheartedly endorse JRB’s candidacy!

If you think of the large number of GNOME developers who started their careers at Red Hat, that’s in large part thanks to him. He saw the value of focused development on desktop infrastructure and made sure that resources were dedicated to that. Later, he did the same at Endless. JRB knows GNOME’s history and community dynamics intimately. I am very happy to see him run for the board.

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Not too long ago I dealt with the CoCC of another free software project. There was a process in place to escalate from the CoCC to the board to address conflicts of interest, apparent conflicts of interest (something that GNOME does not even acknowledge), and other issues that might arise. The reality of the situation however was very different from what was written. The board and the CoCC had huge overlap, and the people on the CoCC that had an apparent conflict of interest did not recuse themselves, and in the capacity of the board told me essentially “that’s a you problem, I got voted in here”.

Given the weaker rules in GNOME and the problems caused in part by the overlap between staff, board, and CoCC in Sonny’s case, I am very uneasy about having a director whose wife was staff until recently, and is still part of the CoCC.

Would you recuse yourself in matters related to staff and CoC? Would you pursue systemic changes to ensure that I don’t have to take your word for it?

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Question to candidates: Gross Conflicts of Interest
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Hi Sebastian,

I’m not 100% sure what you’re asking for here or how I can make you comfortable, so this is a little hard to address. What I will say is:

  1. The Board requires Directors sign a Conflict of Interest statement, and I would be bound by it. I have had to sign such statements throughout my career and take them very seriously.
  2. I’ll have to defer to current board members for more actual details, but AFAIK the Board isn’t involved with the running of the CoCC, or even particularly involved. I would recuse myself from votes involving the makeup of the CoCC. A director with a spouse on the CoCC is not without precedent.
  3. I don’t understand why I would recuse myself in matters related to staff. The board is responsible for setting the direction and it’s intrinsic to the role. I have 20 years experience as a manager and I hope I can help work with the rest of the board to improve staff/board relations. Given that my wife is no longer on the staff I don’t understand what your particular concern is. Perhaps you can be more specific about what scenario you’re envisioning.
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