Candidate Q&A - List of Questions

[Matthias Hopf]

On Feb 14, 11 12:20:17 -0500, Alex Deucher wrote:
> The election for the X.Org Foundation Board of Directors will begin on
> 21 February 2011 and will come to a close 28 February 2011.  We have

The election team has received quite a number of questions from a few
members that I'm forwarding to the candidates herewith. Many thanks for
the amount of work that obviously went into formulating the questions!

It's too late in the election process to let the board decide on an
official questionaire, but eventually this will be discussed in a later
board meeting.

I'm forwarding the questions anonymously, if you sent us questions and
want to break anonymity, feel free to reply to this mail.


Now on to the candidates:

Due to the number of questions please consider terse answers for the
questions that allow that, and send your answers either to the members
list (preferred), or directly to me.  I will collect all answers that
reach me prior to election start in a wiki page.

Remember, answering the questions will help you solidify your position
in the upcoming elections, when elected to the board you will be a
representative of all members after all.

Thanks for your time during candidate Q&A.

Matthias

-- 
Matthias Hopf <mhopf at suse.de>      __        __   __
Maxfeldstr. 5 / 90409 Nuernberg   (_   | |  (_   |__          mat at mshopf.de
Phone +49-911-74053-715           __)  |_|  __)  |__  R & D   www.mshopf.de
-------------- next part --------------
So please take some time to answer all questions carefully. And be genuine.


 1) In the last year, the membership gained a lot more insight in the activities
    of the board. What is your opinion on this new-gained transparency? Do you
    see options for improvement?

 2) In the past, X.org financials have been dealt with in a less than optimal
    way, but in the last year a lot of effort has been put into creating solid
    financial records for the last 5 years, so that incorporation can happen.
    This work is still underway. What is your opinion about this, where do you
    see room for improvement?

 3) As stated in the X.org Foundation bylaws, only a maximum of 2 of the 8 board
    seats can be taken by employees of the same company. In the past there was a
    situation where there were more than two of the same company on the board,
    after some board member changed affiliation. What is your opinion about
    this, how would you prefer to resolve such a situation?

 4) What is your opinion about the past and the current X.org board elections.
    Do you have any suggestions for improvement?

 5) This years X.org conference was held in Toulouse, France. Did you have the
    chance to visit this, or any previous conferences? For 2011 one proposal was
    already made to hold the conference in Chicago.
    Opinions/Suggestions/Proposals?

 6) A big chunk of spending goes to travel sponsorship. When he learned about
    the practices of the more recent years, the current treasurer voiced that,
    when the X.org foundation was formed, travel was usually not sponsored for
    those gainfully employed to work on X.org related topics. What is your
    opinion on this?

 7) Now, a topic quite close to the heart of the author of this questionnaire:
    FOSDEM. 4-5000 free software users and developers over a weekend in winter,
    join up in the center of Europe. X.org used to have a hugely popular
    Developers Room there. But the interest from the X.org community has
    dwindled now. Why do you think this is so? Should this be different? Do you
    have any suggestions?

 8) The topics of an X.org trademark and a new X.org logo have been talked about
    since the formation of the current X.org foundation. Are these really
    important topics for the X.org board? What is your opinion, do you have any
    suggestions?

 9) Coordinating Google Summer of Code is another initiative supported by the
    X.org board. There have also been follow-up initiatives started by the
    board. What is your opinion about these initiatives and their results? Any
    suggestions?

10) X.org hosting infrastructure has had its hiccups over the past few years.
    The loss of all users home directories on freedesktop.org and the breach of
    trust through defamation of a driver repository by former board members
    come to mind. What is your opinion about the current situation, how would
    you want to improve it?

11) The membership of the X.org foundation is not completely representative
    with respect to its contributing audience, and it is hard to motivate
    people to become a member of the X.org foundation. Some people suggest
    linking commit access with membership. What is your opinion, and do you
    have any further suggestions?

12) Are there any topics that were overlooked in this questionnaire? Is there
    something else that you would like to talk about now and/or work on during
    your term on the board?

13) What do you think about this questionnaire? Should this initiative be
    repeated, and do you have any suggestions for such future repeats?

14) How do you feel about the size of the Xorg board?  Should it be changed?

15) Some have argued that the current election process is flawed.  Do you
    agree?  What do you think is flawed and how can it be improved in the
    future?

16) The Xorg Foundation has been working on getting 501(c)3 non-profit status
    for a while now.  Would you be interested in getting involved with this
    work?

17) It has been brought up in several board meetings that we should donate some
    money to the SFLC (Software Freedom Law Center) for their help various
    legal matters.  Do you agree with this?

18) Non-profit corporations have certain requirements with respect to where
    their funding comes from depending on the type of non-profit they are.
    Should the Xorg Foundation actively solicit donations from the community to
    fund it's activities (developer conferences, travel expenses,
    infrastructure expenses, etc.)?

19) If you agree with the soliciting funding from the community, would you be
    interested in taking on a role to help reach that end?  If so, what ideas
    do you have for soliciting these donations?  If you don't agree, where
    should the Xorg foundation look to get it's funding?

20) With new platforms such as android and programs like wayland, some would
    say X is becoming less relevant.  Do you agree with that statement?  Where
    do you see X going in the future?


Thanks for your time, and good luck with the elections,