Yesterday I finally made the big step, I decided to run for member of the board. There are many reasons for that decision I made and I'll try to analyze some of them as I analyze my thoughts and myself to you through my blog in the next days. I am going to try to give you to understand from what I am made of, so that if you decide to support me to be sure that you are doing it for the right reasons. Today I will try to give you to understand why I really enjoy the work I am doing for the openSUSE community,by giving you my background history of my decision to contribute in FOSS generally and what I believe about the way contribution should be done.
Contributing is a very noble thing and I think myself as a noble man. Putting the need to share and give before the need to take certainly makes me feeling better. I discovered that some years ago at my day-job and I became 'addicted' to it. A few years later by accident I discovered FOSS. Although when I started I was a bit disappointed because people I knew back then made me think that in order to contribute in FOSS you should be a programmer. So I started making tries to learn a bit of programing myself, I am telling you that it was a great failure. I never really gave up trying until today to learn programming but back then I was a bit disappointed because I had no real help from no one at that time. At that time my way to contribute was helping at various translations and planning events like the R.M. Stallman speech and host for GREEKLUG.
And then in Greek FOSSCOMM 2010, were I was with some friends from my Lug, I attended a speech of a Debian ambassador were he spoke about who could become an ambassador, saying that programming was not a demand about it, there I said to my self that this was the way to contribute to a community. At that time becoming an ambassador was not an option since we had a lot of work and planning for RMS's speech so I left that aside.
The four days I spend with Richard Stallman was an experience I could really write a book about it. He showed me the greatness of simplicity. He also gave me to understand that planning is good but there is a time that we must stop planning and act. A not so perfect something is better than an imaginary perfect nothing. Please don't get me wrong, I don't mean no thinking just acting, that is unacceptable for me, but only thinking and talking and thinking and talking without finally making something because you haven't found the perfect solution I believe is stupid. Anyway when you are in a community there are so many versions of perfect as the people inside the community. My experience of interaction in communities is really big, but about that you can read it in a next article. I believe you got a clue about me and what is on my head. I really hope you liked what you read and that finally I will get your support.
Kostas Koudaras
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