I'd like to announce my candidacy, as of today, for the position of President of The Perl Foundation.
As President, my first task will be to institute the creation of a formal registration system for Perl developers [hey, you gotta steal the good ideas...]. While NOT a formal certification, this membership will allow you to do the following.
1. Support Perl and The Perl Foundation via your annual membership fees. Fees will be fixed, but they may vary depending on several factors [...and then you gotta improve those ideas].
2. Entitle you to place your registration on your CV and website, and entitle you to the use of the Perl Foundation Membership Logo for your membership level, customised with your membership number.
3. Entitle you to an amount, equivalent to your registration fee, for use at your option in The Perl Foundation Ideas Market, a market-based system for harvesting ideas and voting for them based on merit.
Any registered member will be allowed to add an idea to the market. The allocation based on registration amount is in recognition (in particular for the two company levels) of the importance of businesses in the creation of more and better jobs for Perl programmers.
This market will help you to help me guide the development and direction of the TPF itself, and although the TPF will not be bound by the market we will use the market as the basis for areas we should be focusing on.
4. Entitle you a copy (or 10 for companies) of an exclusive Best of YAPC DVD. This DVD will contain a high-quality edited collection of the best and YAPC talks for that year, recorded live at YAPC conferences around the world. Additional copies may be purchased (hey, everybody should have the right to information).
5. From year 2007, membership will allow you to vote (1 vote per individual, 5 per company) for your favourite from a nominated group of candidates in the annual White Camel Awards.
And from year 2008, membership will allow you to vote in the first annual elections for members of the TPF board of directors.
6. Registered Perl Partners will additionally recieve 2 free tickets (and Corporate Perl Partners 10 free tickets) to any YAPC event for that year in any of the countries in which it is held, to be allocated to your developers as you wish.
The funds raised from the membership program will help in our ongoing efforts to fund exciting new projects via the grants committee, and to support a variety of efforts worldwide.
The creation of this membership system will be the focus of my year as TPF President, in the hope that we can harness the world wide attention and enthusiasm of the Perl development community.
Thank you and I hope I can look forward to your vote in 2006!
Jose Castro
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Now of course, this is just another entirely fictional scenario, and I'm _not_ actually putting up my hand for the TPF President role (not this year at least) but I thought it would be interesting to note what I thought could be improved in Adam's proposal and, also, be another target for the flames (OK, this part was his idea).
As for the "official bagde of a serious Perl developer", I think the issue is just too controverse, but yes, we should think about it, and having something that isn't certification-based might be a possibility.
I also agree that we should all contribute regularly.
I also agree with bringing the companies closer to the community.
As for the ideas market, I think it would be great, and maybe we could also have people voting on the grants candidates (I need to think about this one a bit more and discuss it with my people, before I'm president).
That said, it seems I agree with much of Adam's viewpoints and I'd now (that I have his ideas) try to do pretty much the same thing he would...
But still, I'd make a much better president, just because, so you should vote for me instead :-)
Oh, and I also think Bill (who I'm sure is doing a great job) should be more visible :-) I'd like to see him now and then :-)
Re:A word on my opponent
cog on 2006-03-28T15:17:44
my opponent [...] has shown NO originalityHey! Wasn't this original?
:-) Besides, who would want to vote on a candidate that starts right off by attacking his opponent?
:-) Plus, I smile a lot more than you do
:-) Re:A word on my opponent
Alias on 2006-03-28T15:27:02
My opponents accusations that I am stooping to attack ads are indicative of the way my opponent is again following and decending to snide comments of his own, even if he does hide then with his pretty-boy good looks and charming smile.
Don't be fooled. I am the FAR taller candidate, and thus clearly more suitable to the position.
Re:A word on my opponent
cog on 2006-03-28T15:28:57
Dude, you're not even in the right hemisphere:-) Re:A word on my opponent
Beatnik on 2006-03-28T16:53:58
You can count me in.. if being a TPF President gets you all the girls, tons of cash, nice wheels, fame and fortune. I am in the right hemisphere, I can smile and I too am taller than you:) But I hardly have time to even finish my personal stuff, have a social life, make my girlfriend happy, spend hours on mindless Sudoku games, explore uninhabited planets, learn Swahili dialects and improve cold fusion reactions.. Now that I have had measily seconds to think about it, I think I'll pass ;)
Kwa heri! And see you on Koho Loho 27a
