Life is so good, it gets better every day

OGB Reflux

February 26, 2008 9:42 am gman OpenSolaris

It’s been a very difficult year for most of the OGB members. We came to the table having ratified the current constitution, trying to figure out where we fit in. While I think the OGB made some good positive progress in some areas, it also feels like we lost the ability to talk with our community and pro-actively work on a plan for growth and prosperity for our community. It would be so, so easy to walk away after a year…

But I’m not. Consistency and context of past discussions is hugely important for subsequent boards, and so far in the nomination process, Alan and I are it. I’ve always said that I’ve wanted to stay on at Sun because I think I can still add value. When that day comes when I can’t add that value, and there are other better experienced people around, I’ll leave. The OGB is no exception to that (though the current constitution states there’s a maximum of a 3 year period).

So I’m in. I’d probably give myself a C+/B- on last years performance, and I’m interested to improve that this year – on retrospect, being Secretary sucked a great amount of time and I’d like to move away from that role so I can focus on the discussion rather than trying to take notes.

There’s a couple of things I’d like to see happen next year –

• At least one face-to-face OGB meeting
• At least one face-to-face Sun/OGB meeting (and an option for other meetings with other corporate members – ideally we need to get towards an Advisory board )
• Defined focus areas for each of the OGB members, outside their normal duties
• Working group to start re-assessing the current constitution and figuring out what our community has grown into, and what changes to the constitution are needed to reflect that

Bio: Glynn Foster. Almost 30. Joined Sun in 2000, working on the GNOME project. Past GNOME Foundation Board Director, and current OGB member. Joined the Project Indiana team in 2007 and looking forward to focusing energies to product a first release OpenSolaris OS later this year.