The openSUSE Project's first board elections
An election committee has been formed to oversee the elections. Four people, two from Novell and two from the community, will organize and oversee the election. Committee members Claes Backstrom, Andrew Wafaa, Marko Jung, and Vincent Untz have agreed not to run for this election so that they might remain impartial.
The initial openSUSE board was
appointed by Novell. Pascal Bleser, a member of that board, has written a
blog post about the openSUSE Board and the elections giving his view of
the what the board does and does not do. "One point that really must
be clarified (again) is that the Board is not responsible for taking
technical decisions. That's other people's job, e.g. AJ as the director of
openSUSE and platform, Coolo as the openSUSE distribution project manager,
or Michl as the openSUSE product manager.
" Pascal also has a followup
post answering some additional questions about the time commitments and
involvement expected of a board member.
Andreas Jaeger, also a member of the current board, has also written
about the board, how it's organized and what upcoming board members
might expect. "I'm part of the first openSUSE board and in my
opinion we're still bootstrapping it and forming it. Federico mentioned
that it took the GNOME board several years until they were really
functional - so this shaping of the board is not only in the openSUSE
project an evolutionary process that takes time and is influenced by
e.g. (constructive) criticism, praise, communication in general, and
decisions.
" New board members will be able to shape the board from
the inside. With a new board, community members can also help shape the
board with questions, comments and letting their expectations be known.
The board will consist of five members, a Novell appointed chairperson, two Novell employees and two community members (not employed by Novell). So far there are three Novell candidates and five non-Novell candidates. The list of candidates with pointers to their platforms can be found here.
We will soon be into the campaign period, which runs from September 25th to October 9th. During this time period will be blog entries from the candidates, interviews by the openSUSE news team, and a moderated Q&A session on IRC. There is also a feature in the openSUSE election in which each eligible voter may appoint a second openSUSE member to be eligible to vote. The option to appoint a second voter will be available during the campaign period and may allow a few people who missed the September 24th deadline to vote.
The actual election begins as the campaign period ends. Each eligible voter will be able to cast their votes once. No changes will be allowed. Votes will be stored anonymously in the electronic system. Ballots will be closed October 23rd, the winners announced once the election committee has had a chance to verify and count the votes.
If you care about the openSUSE project, this is a great time to get
involved. Run for the board, vote in the election, and have a say in the
shape of things to come.