Will Sheward for Board 2010

Who Am I?
I'm a non-programming marketing guy who works for a closed source software company.

Despite this I've been lucky enough to get elected to serve on the Board of the XSF for the last two years. If you're really interested in finding out more about me then I'd suggest:


 * http://www.linkedin.com/in/willsheward
 * http://www.facebook.com/willsheward
 * http://xmpp.org/about-xmpp/xsf/the-xsf-board-of-directors/ <- look, new website!

... or you could just contact me directly:


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

Why am I standing for Board?
The XSF is too small. It is ridiculous to believe that there are only 50-60 people in the world who are both capable of and interested in making a contribution to the development and promotion of xmpp.

We (and I include myself) have been very bad at promoting membership as a positive step and at obtaining sponsorship to help us do that. If elected my goals for the year would be:


 * Persuade potential sponsors that association with the XSF is good for them.
 * Get at least some of those potential sponsors to make real cash contributions to the XSF.
 * Use that cash to promote the XSF to those who might be interested in applying for membership and invest in community XMPP events.
 * Make sure the next set of t-shirts we try to sell are an actual recognisable colour (black).
 * Make sure that the structures and volunteers are in place to keep the website up to date and interesting. The website is, and should continue to be, a team effort.

We've taken a significant first step this year by getting the new website up and defining precisely what benefits we'd offer our sponsors. It's important that we build on that work.

Why didn't I do this last year?
That is a very good question. I have no excuses. I expect to be less busy for at least some of the next 12 months.

Why am I standing for Board (part 2)?
I hate leaving a job half-finished and I actually enjoy marketing (that's pretty sad isn't it?).