Board Election/2008/Platforms/Bryen Yunashko

From openSUSE

Introduction and Biography

My name is Bryen Yunashko and I'm running for openSUSE Community Board. You probably know me online as suseROCKs

I'm 40 years old (almost in December, can't wait!) and currently reside in Chicago, Illinois in the U.S.A.

I am a consultant who specializes in implementing Novell products for customers and have been doing this for almost 9 years now. I am also the Director of Technical Services for an online Sign Language training service. Prior to that, I lived in Los Angeles where I was in charge of database management and analyzing business relationships for the fundraising efforts of a major university and even prior to that, I worked in the entertainment industry.

I first started using NLD, the first Novell release of a SUSE Desktop after its SUSE acquisition and quickly moved on to SUSE Pro 9.3. I joined the community after the release of openSUSE 10.3 and have been pretty active ever since then. I'm now known as the a11y advocate and am committed to raising awareness of accessibility not just in openSUSE but globally.

Shortly after I joined the community, I quickly realized there was a disconnect between new users and the developer community. With that, I founded the openSUSE Helping Hands project, dedicated to both groups coming closer together through presentations and interaction. I'm still very much involved with the activities of the openSUSE-GNOME Team and currently am involved with Chris Hobbs's efforts to do a wiki-cleanup of the GNOME pages.

I am also a co-editor of the www.opensuse-tutorials.com project and the openSUSE-Marketing Team. Additionally, beyond that, I am a member of the GNOME Foundation's GNOME-A11y team, promoting open source a11y and the founder of www.planet-a11y.net.

Major Issues

Please list any issues you feel are of a high priority that need to be addressed by the Board and how you would like to address them should you be elected

I think the single most important issue is that we need to unify the various segments of our community. Presently, we have three main sections: IRC, Mailing Lists and Forums. Sadly, activities happening in one section aren't always known in another section. We need to bridge those gaps and spur further collaboration amongst the community and Novell.

I also think we need to do more to empower our community and formally recognize the projects happening within our community. While we applaud people for their efforts, we don't give official endorsements nor mentoring support for these projects. Helping Hands, as an example, never had an official endorsement. openSUSE-EDU is another example where they have asked for official recognition of their project.

These are just a few of the things I recognize. Please do follow my blog for more of my musings as I continue my campaign.

Minor Issues

Please list any issues you feel are of a medium/low priority that could be addressed by the Board and how you would like to address them should you be elected

Rule of thumb. What might be minor to you might be major to someone else.

Role of the board

Please describe your vision for the Board and how you would like to see the Board shaped under your tenure

The openSUSE Community Board is first and foremost an agent, representative and nurturer of the community. It goes beyond the duties of approving membership and being the mouthpiece of the community when conveying issues the community sees as important.

An openSUSE Board is aware of various efforts within the community, as well as individuals who contribute and finds ways to educate them, mentor them, foster them, give them the tools they need (within the resources available to the Board) and empowers the community at large.

I think it is also important to emphasize and recognize that the definition of community does not just mean Official members, or those who have signed the Guiding Principles, but ALL users of openSUSE. If you are a new user, if you are someone who simply downloads openSUSE but never participates in any of our community centers (IRC, Mailing Lists, Forums), you're still a member of the community in my book. We must recognize that our community extends beyond our immediate circle and it is a vibrant and diverse community worldwide crossing many languages and cultures.