openSUSE:Board election 2011 platform template funkypenguin

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Platform

Note: This page is used by the candidate of the board election as a platform to show his views and answer some standard questions.

Introduction and Biography

Me being attacked by Geekos

Aloha! My name is Andrew Wafaa, most people just call me Wafaa or FunkyPenguin. I'm 34 (and a bit) years old living in a small town in the East of England, although I originally come from Aberdeen. I'm a happy husband and father to three crazy kids aged 3, 6 and 7. In addition to my native tongue of Englis, I can get by in Arabic (spoken only), can sort of speak French and know a handful of words in German.

  • My e-mail is awafaa at this domain
  • My random ramblings on Twitter can be found here
  • My random ramblings on Google+ are here
  • You can find me on IRC using the the nick FunkyPenguin (normally on Freenode or OFTC)
  • My stamp on the web can be found here

I'm employed as a Senior Solutions Architect at Fujitsu Services in the UK, supposedly dealing with Linux based solutions but invariably doing whatever is thrown my way.

I've been involved in Open Source in one form or another for over 10years, and have been using openSUSE and its predecessors since 6.2. I didn't start contributing until about 6years ago when I decided to scratch my own itch.

Since then I have contributed to numerous aspects of openSUSE from advocacy to code to packages to crazy ideas (I get lots of these). Many people know me for getting MeeGo's NetbookUI over onto openSUSE and doing a usable release, unfortunately the upstream project died not long after. I've have been heavily involved in the past with the GNOME Team but I do also like all desktop environments ;-) I am now heavily involved in the porting effort over to the ARM Architecture.

I have attended hackweeks in Nürnberg as well as participated from the comfort of my home; I have attended and also presented at each openSUSE conference so far (I hope to continue this); and I also regularly attend the fine FOSDEM conference where I have presented a couple of times.

Major Issues

  • openSUSE has been consistent for many years in one of its biggest issues - Communication (or lack thereof). Things have improved recently, but we have a long way to go still.

I would like to continue improving the communication, both internally with the openSUSE community where much has been done; but crucially with external parties. There are several entities that are potentially beneficial to openSUSE that don't actually know who we are and what the relationship is with our Enterprise cousin.

  • openSUSE appears to lack the same take-up by developers as some of our counterparts.

I would like to try and reverse this trend by working with current contributors to see what from a top level we can do to improve the situation.

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


Role of the board

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


Why you should vote for me?

Aims/Goals

Please list your aims and goals for both the openSUSE project and also the openSUSE distribution. You may highlight specific projects within openSUSE or sow the seed for new ones.


Endorsements

Room for your supporters to leave a word about you