June 2011 – GNOME Foundation

A Conversation with Dirk Hohndel, Desktop Summit keynote speaker

Continuing our series of interviews with Desktop Summit keynote speakers, William Carlson spoke to Dirk Hohndel, Intel’s Chief Linux and Open Source Technologist, about the relationship between business and Open Source. Interesting insights from a hacker-turned-businessman with a track record in the Linux kernel and XFree86.

On whether Open Source is a selling point for consumers:

Consumers shouldn’t need to know or care whether the product they are using is based on open source software or not […] I believe that consumers should feel the consequence of more open source software – in the sense that they see more innovation, better software, better ability to upgrade and modify software if they so choose. Those are qualities that are meaningful to consumers. The license used to create the software IMHO isn’t.

Read the full interview here.

Interview with Desktop Summit keynote, Claire Rowland

The second in our series of Desktop Summit keynote interviews is with Claire Rowland, Head of Research at Fjord, an international digital service design agency.

Claire will be talking to us about user interface design in the era of cloud services: the axis of user experience has shifted away from the desktop towards services delivered through multiple platforms of widely differing form factors and the cloud. What does this mean for what users expect from their devices, and what does effective design across platforms, and the cloud, look like?

Among other things, Claire talked to us about what inspires her:

Wondering how people and cultures will change in the future in response to changes in society and technology. I’ve tried very hard to overcome this, but I have only a limited interest in cutting edge technology for its own sake; I want to know how we can use technology to improve people’s lives, make them smarter, happier, healthier and all sorts of other good things.

Read the full interview here.

Karen Sandler Named New Executive Director of the GNOME Foundation

June 21, 2011: The GNOME Foundation today announced that it has appointed Karen Sandler as Executive Director. Sandler’s dedication to software freedom, her non-profits experience and her involvement in a wide range of free and open source software communities distinguish her as the logical choice for GNOME. “I’m very excited that Karen is joining the GNOME Foundation as Executive Director!”, says Stormy Peters, former Executive Director who has recently joined the GNOME Board as a new Director, “Karen brings a wealth of experience in free software projects and nonprofits as well as a passion for free software. That experience will be invaluable as GNOME continues to expand its reach with GNOME 3.0 and GNOME technologies.”

Sandler joins the GNOME Foundation from the Software Freedom Law Center where she has been General Counsel, advising a wide range of free and open source software organizations such as the Free Software Foundation, the Apache Software Foundation, the X.Org Foundation, Software in the Public Interest and the Software Freedom Conservancy. With SFLC, she also led an initiative advocating for free software on implantable medical devices. “Karen Sandler has been essential to the success of SFLC over the last six years,” said SFLC’s founder and executive director, Eben Moglen. “As our general counsel, she has been in the truest sense a lawyer’s lawyer. In representation of our clients she has been a superbly creative and conscientious practitioner. As mentor to younger lawyers here, she has set the finest of examples. The GNOME Foundation could not have chosen more wisely.” Sandler will continue to work on some legal matters pro bono at SFLC as well as regularly host an oggcast, Free as in Freedom, with Bradley Kuhn.

Sandler is a frequent speaker on free and open source software issues at corporate based conferences such as the the O’Reilly conferences and the Linux Foundation conferences, as well as community and nonprofit driven events such as the Free Software Foundation’s LibrePlanet and SCaLE. Prior to SFLC, she held legal positions at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, LLP and Clifford Chance, LLP. Sandler earned her legal degree from Columbia Law School and her engineering degree from the Cooper Union.

About GNOME and the GNOME Foundation

The GNOME Project was started in 1997 by two then-university students, Miguel de Icaza and Federico Mena Quintero. Their aim: to produce a free (as in freedom) desktop environment. Since then, GNOME has grown into a hugely successful enterprise. Used by millions of people across the world, it is the most popular desktop environment for GNU/Linux and UNIX-type operating systems. The desktop has been utilised in successful, large-scale enterprise and public deployments, and the project’s developer technologies are utilized in a large number of popular mobile devices.

The GNOME Foundation is an organization committed to supporting the advancement of GNOME, comprised of hundreds of volunteer developers and industry-leading companies. The Foundation is a member directed, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides financial, organizational and legal support to the GNOME project. The GNOME Foundation is supporting the pursuit of software freedom through the innovative, accessible, and beautiful user experience created by GNOME contributors around the world. More information about GNOME and the GNOME Foundation can be found at www.gnome.org and foundation.gnome.org. Become a friend of GNOME at http://www-old.gnome.org/friends/

For further comments and information, contact the GNOME press contact team at gnome-press-contact@gnome.org.

Karen Sandler Named New Executive Director of the GNOME Foundation

About GNOME and the GNOME Foundation

For further comments and information, contact the GNOME press contact team at gnome-press-contact@gnome.org.

Paul Cutler stepping down from the board of directors, replaced by Stormy Peters

Due to being busy with other matters, Paul Cutler has decided to step down from The GNOME Foundation board of directors. Andreas Nilsson will replace him as Chairman and Bastien Nocera will take the role of Vice-Chairman.
As the board needs to consist of 7 members, Stormy Peters was asked by the board to step up and fill the empty seat. Having previously served as Executive Director of the GNOME Foundation, Stormy is quite familiar with the organization and is able to get started with her feet running.
The board of directors would like to thank Paul for his time serving on the board and wish him luck with his future endeavors!

Call for Participation: Workshops and BoFs at the Desktop Summit 2011

The Desktop Summit 2011 is a joint conference organised by the GNOME and KDE communities in Berlin, Germany from the 6th August 2011 to the 12th August 2011. Held annually in cities around Europe, GUADEC and Akademy are the world’s largest gatherings of those involved with the free desktop or mobile user interfaces. Developers, artists, translators, community organisers, users, and representatives from government, education, and businesses and anyone else who shares an interest are welcome. GNOME and KDE are Free Software communities that drive the user interfaces of many GNU/Linux-powered devices, ranging from smartphones to laptops, or personal media centers. This year, for the second time, both communities have decided to organise a single, joint conference expecting over a thousand participants, covering both projects as well as related technologies.

Not Just Presentations

The Desktop Summit will have an exciting program of talks). But the most important part of the conference are the Workshop & BoF days. This is the part of the conference where the participants get together to discuss and work on the future of the Free Desktop. It is where the latest technology is demonstrated in a one-to-few setting and where decisions are made. The organisation committee would like to schedule as many of these sessions beforehand as possible. We expect over 1000 visitors and scheduling helps to ensure minimal overlap with other sessions and allows us to provide a clear timetable for the visitors. The remainder of the rooms will be scheduled via the wiki but we urge you all to try and get a proposal in before the deadline! We realize that many sessions are meant to be about current and urgent topics so we don’t expect proposals to have an exact agenda, nor do we mind if the subject changes later on. Continue reading Call for Participation: Workshops and BoFs at the Desktop Summit 2011

GNOME Foundation IRC Meeting: June 15th, 2011

Howdy fellow GNOMErs!

I’d like to invite you all to join us once again for another GNOME Foundation IRC Meeting!

When: Wednesday, June 15th, from 14:00 to 15:00 UTC (your local time)
Where: irc.gnome.org, #foundation

Foundation IRC meetings are just that, meetings held on #foundation in irc.gimp.org to discuss current matters related to the GNOME Foundation. Any GNOME Foundation member or non member are welcome. As long as you contribute positively to the discussion you are welcome.

The meeting is moderated by Board members that are present, and they will guide the discussion through all the Agenda topics. Everyone can comment and speak at any time, just remember to be respectful and concise so it’s easy for everyone to follow the discussion.

Tthis is a great opportunity to discuss the topics you care about, or to get more information from the Board if you think we’re not communicating enough on some topics 😉 The agenda of the meeting is really up to you!

So please add the agenda items you’d like to discuss to http://live.gnome.org/FoundationBoard/MembersAgenda

Your topics will automatically appear on the meeting page: http://live.gnome.org/FoundationBoard/MeetingAgenda

For reference, the minutes of the last meeting are available at: http://live.gnome.org/FoundationBoard/Minutes/

Thanks,

Og Maciel, on behalf of the GNOME Board of Directors

Interview with Desktop Summit keynote, Thomas Thwaites

Desktop Summit keynote speaker Thomas Thwaites gave an interview to us recently, covering a wide range of subjects. Thomas, who launched the Toaster Project in 2008, explores the relationship between technology, design and society. This interview is a sneak peek into the kinds of subjects that he is interested in.

Q: What makes you happy about what you do?

A: Well I think kind of trampling across boundaries between disciplines, areas of knowledge and so on, makes me quite happy about what I do. So I can be doing research in to something from a range of directions – browser tabs open for a particular project I’m doing at the moment range through medical prosthetic suppliers, journal articles on the evolution of flying dinosaurs and stress response in childhood, ebay auctions for deer skulls, WW2 gas rattles, and orthopaedic slings etc… and then I’m off to this workshop to mould some fibreglass… So I guess I really like the variety in the work I’ve found myself doing.

Read the full interview here