[squeak-dev] Craig's answers to the 2008 candidate questions

Hi all--

 > 1. Approximately, how much time do you plan on spending on Squeak
 > during the coming year (in any kind of unit)?

      I plan to spend Mondays on Squeak for the indefinite future (I was
able to start doing this in mid-February 2008). A year of weekly
eight-hour days is about 400 hours, or about ten full-time weeks. The
work I do for my primary client the rest of each week is also with
Squeak, so there may be some overlap there.

 > 2. What are in your mind the three most important issues (not
 > necessarily technical) we need to address in the coming year?

-    Producing a release composed entirely of appropriately-licensed
      material (this will enable our membership in the Software Freedom
      Conservancy, and in turn the ability to receive tax-exempt
      donations, which could fund a great deal of important effort).

-    Improving the modularity of our system.

-    Spreading the word about Squeak in the media and at conferences.

 > 3. What is your view on fund raising and how any such collected money
 > should be dealt with?

      I think we should be receiving tax-exempt donations (see previous
answer). The elected leadership should decide how to spend all such
money, reporting all expenditures to the community and delegating
spending decisions as it sees fit (e.g., it may decide to allocate some
money to a team with its own reported budget).

 > 4. What is your view on the ongoing process of making SqueakFoundation
 > a not-for-profit legal entity?

      What the leadership elected in 2007 is attempting is membership
for the Squeak project in the Software Freedom Conservancy. The
Conservancy will be the legal entity, but the Squeak project will gain
many of the benefits of that status (please see the Conservancy's
website[1] for details).

      I think being able to receive tax-exempt donations is vital to our
goals as a community. With it we can pursue development, documentation,
and advocacy far more effectively. Conservancy membership remains our
best option for being able to receive tax-exempt donations.

      There is a stark tradeoff here between waiting and spending money.
Joining the Conservancy is taking so long because our membership is
contingent upon a Squeak release composed only of appropriately-licensed
content. This requires obtaining license agreements from many
contributors. While establishing an independent entity might lessen that
burden, it would require personal investments of time and money that we
are not willing to make.

 > 5. Do you think the Team model is appropriate for organising our
 > efforts or should we come up with something else?

      I do think the team model is appropriate. It's simple and clear,
and works to the extent that the participants have time to spend. No
rearrangement of policy is going to create free time for anyone (sadly
:). If we're not meeting our goals for a role, then people who think
they can do a better job need to volunteer. I think that's simply the
nature of volunteer work.

 > 6. Do you have any specific views on how the Squeak board and the
 > Squeak community should work together with the Squeak satellite
 > communities (Croquet, Seaside, Sophie, Squeakland, Scratch etc), also
 > referred to as "stakeholder communities"?

      These groups should communicate their desires and constraints to
each other early and often.

 > 7. The squeak.org release is our most important asset. How do you see
 > it evolving over the next few years?

      The release is our most important artifact, but the community
itself is our most important asset. At any rate, I see the release
moving to a clearly minimal kernel with a system for extension while
maintaining modularity. I see the behavior we're using now organized
into intelligible modules, and flexibly loadable from local or remote
peers. I see a system which a newcomer can start exploring and reusing
immediately, experiencing competency in a day.

 > 8. Do you have any thoughts on the current relicensing effort?

      It is well worth finishing, and I'll be very glad when it's done.

 > 9. How would you like Squeak to be positioned in the open source world
 > in year 2012?

      I'll be very happy if the open-source world sees Squeak as a
familiar, reasonable alternative for software projects of any size.

 > 10. What do you see as the overall role of the board?

      The Squeak leadership should represent the project to the
Conservancy, act as the authoritative decision-making body for the
community, and delegate responsibility to capable and motivated
participants who can commit the necessary time.


      thanks!

-C

[1] http://conservancy.softwarefreedom.org

--
Craig Latta
improvisational musical informaticist
www.netjam.org
Smalltalkers do: [:it | All with: Class, (And love: it)]

Hi Craig and all!

First - thanks for the answers. :) Secondly, I got one extra question
sent to me, though too late (sorry, gotta stick to my own rules) so I am
not adding it to the official list of questions but I am reposting it
here:

"What actions would you take to promote Squeak as an environment for
professional software development?"

regards, Göran

Here are my answers to the questions:

1. Approximately, how much time do you plan on spending on Squeak
   during the coming year (in any kind of unit)?

        I actually make my living through Squeak so all my working
        time is spent on Squeak (except a few odd dlls).

 2. What are in your mind the three most important issues (not
    necessarily technical) we need to address in the coming year?

        Three? Why stop at 3?

        I am very happy to see Dan stepping in and I would like to
        see why we lost some major contributors of the past. It
        would be injustice to state some names here but at first
        glance some people that immediately come to my mind are
        some Squeak-Central folk, Bob Arning, Ned Konz, Jim
        Benson, a lot of the individuals from the great
        Argentina group that were with us from the beginning,
        other heavyweights such as Dave Thomas, Andrew Greenberg,
        and many other people that drifted away or we lost contact
        with. One aim is to attract/re-attract and maintain such
        people in the community.
        Related to the same topic there are some amazing projects
        That were done and faded through. Morphic Wrappers and
        MathMorphs were great examples. Anything Takashi-san makes,
        like Language-Game were incredible.  

        I see licensing as a very important issue that needs to be
        resolved

        Also:

        Making Squeak more friendly towards newcomers
       
        Making Squeak more popular

        Making Squeak more able and friendly towards developing
        commercial strength applications

        At least having the option of making Squeak prettier
        looking by attracting more graphics artists and some UI
        gurus into the process

 3. What is your view on fund raising and how any such collected
    money should be dealt with?

        We need to look at the models of similar non-profit
        organizations and learn from their ways of attracting funds.
        One good way of obtaining funds is through donations/
        sponsorship from corporations. Making Squeak commercially
        strong is a good way to motivate corporations to donate
        generously. It is great to see some very strong projects
        with very good prospects in this area.
 
        I am impressed with ESUG's abilities to organize events,
        and raise money and support. We have a few things to
        learn from them and team up with them more often.

        When it comes to how this money should be proportioned,
        the board should have the flexibility to use the money
        in ways its collective wisdom dictates. Squeak is a very
        innovative system so should the raising and usage of funds.

 4. What is your view on the ongoing process of making SqueakFoundation  
    a not-for-profit legal entity?

        I think the current board did what they can to continue the
        process, it is a slow one and it is coming to a point we'll
        start reaping the benefits. Squeak needs a strong organization
        and a strong legal base besides a strong community behind to
        eliminate or minimize concerns of people and organizations
        considering adopting it.
        By the same token I don't want the Foundation a total dictator
        which will discourage forks. Some of the most innovative things
        will come from so called "forks". I see Squeak as a family that
        covers all its varieties from Spoon to Tweak to Morphic 3.0.

 5. Do you think the Team model is appropriate for organizing our  
    efforts or should we come up with something else?

        Teams do work to the extent that they can be more than the sum
        of the individuals. In certain areas we certainly need teams,
        efforts such as the current re-licensing effort. But actual
        power of Squeak is making individual all powerful again.
        So I say do not underestimate the individual.  

 6. Do you have any specific views on how the Squeak board and the  
    Squeak community should work together with the Squeak satellite  
    communities (Croquet, Seaside, Sophie, Squeakland, Scratch etc),
    also referred to as "stakeholder communities"?
       
        As I commented above I see us all a part of a bigger family.
        Certainly as much cross communication as possible. For instance
        efforts in preparing Sophie as an application are relevant to
        most of us

 7. The squeak.org release is our most important asset. How do you see
    it evolving over the next few years?

        It may be so at the moment but instead of focusing just
        squeak.org which should be more end user content manageable
        we need to create more assets.

 8. Do you have any thoughts on the current relicensing effort?

      A giant effort definitely worth completing!

 9. How would you like Squeak to be positioned in the open source world
    in year 2012?

        I'd like to see Squeak and Squeak based systems to be seen as
        the "Benchmark" of the systems that other systems are measured
        against.

 10. What do you see as the overall role of the board?

        The board needs to determine and work on technical, tactical
        and long term strategic goals. I currently see most of the
        technical and some tactical decisions. What I would like to
        see the board to act as a visionary also. Squeak is created
        on the Blue Plane but it currently mostly resides on the
        Pink Plane ;). However as far as I can see Squeak is the
        only tool around (with possible exception if Ian's fizzy
        stuff!!) with a built in mechanism to evolve to the next
        best thing.

 11. What actions would you take to promote Squeak as an environment
        for professional software development?"
     
        First obviously by using in commercial projects. I think
        examples are the best attractors. Especially when they are
        quantified so people can see and compare the times and effort
        they would need to develop a comparable system.

        Last year in Kyoto at C5-07 We organized a workshop entitled:
        "Beyond Education: How can Squeak Make a Lasting Impression in
        Developing Commercial Software" precisely to lay down a path
        for making Squeak the premier tool for commercial developments.
        Continuing such activities and showcasing such commercial
        software would be a good start.

As last words I would like us to "play Squeak grand!"
as Alan Kay told us to in his OOPSLA 97 speech. Not by a few
individuals but by the entire community!

Tansel

Hi Tansel--

 > > 1. Approximately, how much time do you plan on spending on Squeak
 > > during the coming year (in any kind of unit)?
 >
 > I actually make my living through Squeak so all my working time is
 > spent on Squeak (except a few odd dlls).

      Okay, but how much time will you have to spend on Squeak
independently of your work priorities?


      thanks,

-C

--
Craig Latta
improvisational musical informaticist
www.netjam.org
Smalltalkers do: [:it | All with: Class, (And love: it)]

 > "What actions would you take to promote Squeak as an environment for
 > professional software development?"

      I want to produce great systems with Squeak, and spread the word
about others I see.


      thanks,

-C

--
Craig Latta
improvisational musical informaticist
www.netjam.org
Smalltalkers do: [:it | All with: Class, (And love: it)]

Currently my work week is 80hrs + so it doesn't leave much time for me to do
something for leisure and even then I find places to use Squeak for hobbies,
charity, etc. (See our C5-08 presentation re- Autistic children
http://www.cm.is.ritsumei.ac.jp/c5-08/index.php?Program ). But if the
question is how much time I can spend for Squeak foundation that's another
question. I can simply proportion the required time as necessary because I
see Squeak strategically important to the future of our company, and as the
CTO of our company I can officially sanction myself to spend some of my
working time on Squeak Foundation activities. My work priorities dictate a
good strong base underneath our systems and that is Squeak. Another thing is
our team is growing and I am becoming more independent.

I am more concerned about my abilities to contribute than my time, as the
last few years I was really working hard to create a foundation for our
company. Now I feel myself a more able person who can contribute powerfully
to the community.

Tansel
 

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Craig
Latta
Sent: Wednesday, 27 February 2008 7:01 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [squeak-dev] Re: Tansel's answers to the 2008 candidate questions


Hi Tansel--

 > > 1. Approximately, how much time do you plan on spending on Squeak  > >
during the coming year (in any kind of unit)?
 >
 > I actually make my living through Squeak so all my working time is  >
spent on Squeak (except a few odd dlls).

      Okay, but how much time will you have to spend on Squeak independently
of your work priorities?


      thanks,

-C

--
Craig Latta
improvisational musical informaticist
www.netjam.org
Smalltalkers do: [:it | All with: Class, (And love: it)]

> 1. Approximately, how much time do you plan on spending on Squeak  
> during the coming year (in any kind of unit)?

I work with Squeak full-time, on OLPC-Etoys, sponsored by VPRI. On  
top of that I usually find a few hours a week to work  in the Squeak  
community, mostly doing email and sometimes even IRC. And I attended  
most board meetings last year :)

> 2. What are in your mind the three most important issues (not  
> necessarily technical) we need to address in the coming year?

Release management, licensing, and incorporating.

> 3. What is your view on fund raising and how any such collected  
> money should be dealt with?

Making Squeak attractive for professional use is necessary to raise  
funding. In turn, the money should primarily be used to sponsor  
developers improving the core and tools.

> 4. What is your view on the ongoing process of making  
> SqueakFoundation a not-for-profit legal entity?

It's going slower than we (or I) hoped. Still, I think the Software  
Freedom Conservancy is our best option because we lack the man power  
to incorporate independently. Finishing this requires a fully  
relicensed release.

> 5. Do you think the Team model is appropriate for organising our  
> efforts or should we come up with something else?

The "non-developer" teams like the box admins or the news teams work  
great. For development itself and for the release it has not worked  
out so well. OTOH I cannot think of a better model so I'd attribute  
the shortcomings simply to a lack of time.

> 6. Do you have any specific views on how the Squeak board and the  
> Squeak community should work together with the Squeak satellite  
> communities (Croquet, Seaside, Sophie, Squeakland, Scratch etc),  
> also referred to as "stakeholder communities"?

Having a stable core release would benefit these communities - so  
that's what we need to focus on. Communication does happen through  
individuals from these communities here on squeak-dev, and for the  
time being I do not see the need for a more formal approach.

> 7. The squeak.org release is our most important asset. How do you  
> see it evolving over the next few years?

It needs to become more modular. We need a stable core that other  
projects can rely on, which should be evolved with caution (we need  
to establish a decision process for that). And a core release should  
come with (gasp!) documentation.

> 8. Do you have any thoughts on the current relicensing effort?

It is sad that we even have to deal with that - or does anyone  
seriously believe there is code in the image that was not intended to  
be free? Unfortunately, we have to be afraid of malicious lawyers, so  
we have to see this through whatever it takes. I'll be glad when it's  
done.

> 9. How would you like Squeak to be positioned in the open source  
> world in year 2012?

It should be known as an easy-to-learn yet very powerful programming  
environment.

> 10. What do you see as the overall role of the board?

It should coordinate and lead the community, as well as represent the  
community to the outside.

> 11. What actions would you take to promote Squeak as an environment  
> for professional software development?

Again, having a rock-solid core for professional development will  
attract developers, and the resulting projects will attract more.

- Bert -

Here are my answers to the questions:

1. Approximately, how much time do you plan on spending on Squeak
during the coming year (in any kind of unit)?

In the conventional sense of "on Squeak", probably around two hours a
week, plus occasional chunks of solid do-what-it-takes time.  In this
sense I shouldn't be competing for slots where there's a real need
for time commitment.  i have no attachment to how this comes out.


  2. What are in your mind the three most important issues (not
necessarily technical) we need to address in the coming year?

In many cases the purpose of an organization is survival of the
organization.  To me the question before issues is what are we trying
to save, and to create? When I step back from it all (and I have ;-)
the most critical thing to save is the vitality of this community.
And my sense of what has fed that is a subtle combination of
mathematical cleverness, immersion in media (and other real effects)
and joy of creativity.  We've always nourished a tool that is second
to none in productivity, and we've always been fed in return by all
the fun things that are possible.  The question was specific, so...

        What excites the most active members of this community

        What opportunities exist in today's world to leverage our
current strengths

        How can we best feed that energy back into our community and
out into the world


  3. What is your view on fund raising and how any such collected
money should be dealt with?

Sadly, this is not my strength.  I am bad with money.  My strength is
a certain grounded cleverness that produces things of value.
Fortunately, this has caused enough money to fall from the sky to
keep me going.  My approach to fund raising for Squeak would be
pretty much the same perspective.  I can lend a name that is known,
but if you want a good fund-raiser, you need someone else in addition.


  4. What is your view on the ongoing process of making
SqueakFoundation  a not-for-profit legal entity?

If we're going to have an organization, then this is the right
approach.  Again, sadly, it's not my strength, but I certainly
support this effort.


  5. Do you think the Team model is appropriate for organizing our
efforts or should we come up with something else?

We always had a team when I was involved. But it wasn't because
having a team was the goal.  We had a mission that was, by the way,
not Squeak.  It was to bring the joy of mathematics and media to life
(for kids (of all ages)). We had the good fortune that Alan
campaigned for this mission, and that we assembled a crew that could
pull it off with very little resources (on the scale of Microsoft and
Google).

To come back to the question, though, it feel split when I read it:
There's organizing, and there's doing. I'd like to figure out some
way to leverage the stakeholders (to anticipate #6).  It would be
nice to work more closely with them, feed their energy back into the
community, maybe organize some of the community around supporting
them in various ways.  They are already Squeak teams, and they're
doing some great work.


  6. Do you have any specific views on how the Squeak board and the
Squeak community should work together with the Squeak satellite
communities (Croquet, Seaside, Sophie, Squeakland, Scratch etc), also
referred to as "stakeholder communities"?

I think these stakeholders are the key to Squeak's future -- more
than Squeak itself.  These are where "the rubber meets the road" --
ie where Squeak's power and leverage create effects and artifacts in
the world, that bring attention, people, ideas and resources back
into the community.  Step one would be to ask them how we could most
effectively give energy to them and bring it back to the community at
large.


  7. The squeak.org release is our most important asset. How do you
see it evolving over the next few years?

I disagree that this is our most important asset.  Our most important
asset is our cleverness and our joy in this pursuit that has kept us
together through years of little pay and little acceptance in the
world.

The Squeak release is a great asset, it's true, and it's certainly
worth some strategizing on how to make the most of it and take it
forward into the future.  This is an area I'd like to which I would
enjoy contributing.  So you can know, my intuition of the important
challenges and opportunities in, say, the next 10 years are

        Web relevance - Ease of deployment, ability to interoperate

        Security with simplicity - As Mark says, it's just extreme modularity

        Multicore opportunity - Simple solutions can be fast


  8. Do you have any thoughts on the current relicensing effort?

It was always the model we worked with, and it's only an accident
that everything isn't free and clear.  It would be a huge release of
energy to complete this, so I am willing to work at it, even though,
again, this is not my strength (except maybe as a "persuader").


  9. How would you like Squeak to be positioned in the open source
world in year 2012?

I'm not sure how to answer this. I'd like it to be viewed as (and to
actually be) totally free.  I'd also like it to be one of the most
vibrant communities in the computer world.  To do this, though,
Squeak will need to change, but I don't think the Squeak spirit needs
to change a lot.


  10. What do you see as the overall role of the board?

In the early days of Squeak we had no board.  Squeak Central operated
out of its own convictions, and this delightful community formed
around that activity.  The need for a board arose when that situation
changed, and I'd be inclined to reflect on that earlier chemistry and
interplay to understand the best role for the board.  To me this goes
back to my comments on #6.

I tried not to look at any of the other statements, but I did see a
response to something Yoshiki said.  And I'm on his side.  It could
be that the most important role of the board in the next few years is
to guide us as a community through significant changes in our
language and our image (in both senses of the word ;-).


  11. What actions would you take to promote Squeak as an environment
for professional software development?"

It's hard to promote a professional software development that's
different from everything else.  To me some of the keys are to offer
things that no one else can offer, to be light on our feet to use our
metacircular leverage to adapt to new situations,  to morph into
something else, to look like something else, etc.  Look back at
number 6.  That is where the action is, and it is what will feed life
back into Squeak and this community.  I didn't answer the question,
did I?

;-)
        - Dan