Will Sheward for Board 2014

Who?
I'm the head of the "not allowed/able to write code" department in a closed source software company, I served on the XSF Board in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Now that I've recovered I'd like to do so again.

You left, why?
Good question! I had a great deal of fun on the Board and I think the Boards that I was lucky enough to serve as a member of did a good job and achieved some good things (not just drinking beer and trying to sell really bad t-shirts). But I personally felt that 3 years in a row of "Will on the Board" was enough, you probably felt the same way!

Also there was work, which got really busy after 2010 as our own small slice of the XMPP market really got going. I didn't want to serve on the Board unless I was absolutely sure I could devote enough time to it to do a good job.

Now you want to come back, why?
Another good question! Work is still busy but now I have minions to do some of the things I take credit for. This, combined with the fact that I basically have no life, means that I have the time available to do the Board job properly.

On a more serious note, over the last few years I've been involved in a lot of projects where adherence to (or even awareness of) open standards would have made life so much easier for us, our customers and the people whose systems we were attempting to integrate with.

There are, sadly, still far too many organisations producing software based on very sketchy understanding of the XMPP standards they claim to be implementing. Raising awareness of the XSF and encouraging an understanding of and participation in the standards process is both technically and commercially the right thing to do. I think I can help.

Can we talk?
Sure, if you have any questions, please contact me using the following details:


 * XMPP: xmpp:will.sheward@isode.com
 * E-Mail: mailto:will@willsheward.co.uk