Subject:
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Steering Committee candidate Larry Pieniazek - backgrounder and position statement
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.cad.dev.org.ldraw
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Date:
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Sun, 29 Feb 2004 01:46:31 GMT
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First, I would like to thank the community and the large number of members of it
that have put a lot of thought and effort into getting ldraw.org to where it is
today. I think it’s important that the community is choosing to organize to take
ldraw.org to the next level and I look forward to being part of that process
whether or not I am ultimately elected.
I think many people in the overall LEGO community know who I am and have already
formed opinions of my activities, approach and level of contribution, but for
those that may not, the Brickfest PDX 2004 website has a good capsule summary
here.
More specifically to LDraw, I have been a part of efforts to organize it for
some time now, I’m the “+1” in the “4+1” ad-hoc organising committee, I
participated in the discussions around the formation of the LDraw Standards
Committee, and I am on the content and tech mailing lists for the new site, as
well as having participated (I’d like to think as a significant contributor) in
the bylaws process itself.
In general I am a keen student of, and participant in, organizations (1) and
think they add a lot of value to the sense of community we enjoy in the hobby as
well as giving a vehicle for individuals to contribute their talents to enrich
the hobby for all. I think LDraw.org will play a key part in this, as the web of
organizations grows and meshes together, each organization brings a different
and unique viewpoint and contribution to the overall fabric. And that’s
fascinating to watch and to be a part of.
But my LDraw interest is more than purely organizational. I am an LDraw user,
first and foremost. The rich toolset that the LDraw standard has engendered
enables me to quickly and efficiently produce illustrations and instructions
that rival what LEGO itself does for my commercial models at
MTW. I’m also a reviewer with a number of
reviews, some controversial some not, to my credit, although I wish it was more.
I have also dabbled with parts authoring... while I am not as proficient at it
as some, I do have some parts that are now official,
So I am vitally concerned with LDraw and its success internally. I don’t want
things to ever get to the point where parts authors don’t want to do new parts
because it’s not fun, or where reviewers view reviewing as a drudge that is not
at all interesting, or where tools authors don’t want to contribute new tools to
the community because they’re concerned about licensing or support or misuse of
their work, or where modelers don’t want to share their models in ways that they
consider appropriate. None of that has happened so far to any great extent and
I’d like to keep it that way
What does that all mean? If elected, you can expect that I will be focusing on a
number of things
- keeping LDraw.org firmly part of the community, ensuring a good flow of information and ideas and actions both inward and outward, among the various other organisations that I am part of (2).
- Watching out for the needs of the contributors. I plan to work to solve issues around licensing, ownership, credit and recognition so that those who want to contribute find it fun and not cumbersome to do so, and find that their rights are protected appropriately. Different classes of contributions have different needs but all need to be treated fairly. Getting the parts license resolved will be a huge focus for me, immediately on election.
- Watching out for the needs of the users. I am primarily a user, and I will bring a user’s perspective to this that not all of the other candidates (however well qualified) will be able to have. Users need to be able to use the tools without in so doing getting restrictions imposed on what they can do with their work.
- Watching out for the needs of the spirit of the organization. LDraw is something that a lot of people have a unique emotional investment in, something that means a lot to many people and something we need to protect.
In summary, I think that I will be able to add a lot more to the organization
beyond what I already have so far, and I ask you, gentle reader, for your
support. If you have issues or concerns please feel free to mail me about them.
Thank you very much.
++Lar
1 - I was on student council in high school and in college, I was an officer
in my fraternity, I was president of a 700 member PC club in the late 80s, back
when PC clubs were an important vehicle to disseminating knowledge to hobbyists,
I was around at the start of LUGNET and am still advising to this day, I’m
active in ILTCO, I co-founded the Guild of
Bricksmiths, I helped get my local club, MichLUG/MichLTC, better organized, I’ve participated in the formation of
GameLUG, I’ve been a significant contributor to various
BrickFest events, I am a
“US Observer” to EuroBrick, I am a member of Brickish.org, and observe on many other club lists, and I have advised several
local clubs on organizational issues, and on and on and on...
2 - and I think
I’m uniquely positioned in this regard with my broad organisational reach and
ability to travel and actually talk to folks worldwide, gathering input and
sharing information
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