Running for the board

> I've decided to run as a freshman of the Squeak Oversight Board.  I am
> privileged, for 2010-2011 at least, to be afforded an opportunity for
> some growth and community service.
>
> My first introduction to Squeak was, literally, on an airplane in
> 2002.  I had been using using VisualAge for the prior 8 years and had
> just started some initial sketches of Magma in it.  Squeak, back then,
> was still using change-sets as its primary source storage for goodness
> sake.  That I would leave ENVY (which, at the time, I thought was
> great) for change-sets, and a fast commercial Smalltalk for a
> much-slower Squeak VM, and a Smalltalk backed by a big company for one
> that was just a small group, I hope, illustrates my position about
> Squeak.  Abstractly, my motivation has been to develop and,
> subsequently enjoy unlimited rights to operate, a general-purpose
> software engine.  For me that's what Squeak has always been; a tool
> for wielding the computer.
>
> I'm very grateful we have the Pharo team that has taken on the huge
> responsibility of meeting the expectations of the flood of new
> developers brought by Seaside.  They've given Squeak a great make-over
> and a tough name (not to mention the good language and image
> enhancements).  Agassi is right, "Image is everything."  The Pharo
> group should be applauded for their work because it relieves
> tremendous pressure from Squeak needing to be those things.  The
> creative juices of some of Squeak's other deep-thinkers can flow,
> unimpeded, toward the goal for Squeak, to be the greatest multimedia
> software engine we can _imagine_ for ourselves, without needing to
> worry whether it will be readily accepted by outside corporate
> culture.
>
> Borne of the same ancestor (Squeak 3.9), it is my hope the two
> communities will recognize our brotherhood, and take advantage of the
> great potential for advancement of both communities, through exchange
> of ideas and code.  Many ideas will only be appropriate for one or the
> other, and code-exchange might take some manual work, and possibly
> even multiple platform versions to be maintained.  But if an idea is
> compelling enough then, by definition, the work will probably get done
> one way or another.
>
> I will be the first to admit, serving on the board is uncharted
> territory for me.  I am not yet familiar with the processes or
> politics, if any.  But I know what I want for Squeak and, I hope my
> vision mirrors the majority of the Squeak community.  It's our shared
> vision of Squeak, what I believe I hear everyone wants; a compact
> engine, on which a customized system can be easily assembled via the
> loading of modules.
>
> Elected or not, I intend to continue my work within the community
> toward our vision.
>