Hi Michael,
happy to answer your questions.
In relation to your introductory statements I understand that it’s difficult for you, as it is for every other member, to collate all the information that is necessary to avoid coming to incorrect conclusions. This is one of the many issues the candidates supporting the Pledge for LibreOffice want to tackle from the very beginning as it’s the duty of each director to take informed decisions and to provide to the trustees the information required so that they can understand what actually happened and why some decisions have been taken.
Answer 1:
The toxic atmosphere at TDF is one of the problems me and my fellow candidates from the Pledge want to address. For many yeas people have been walking away from TDF, many just silently, other more publicly expressing their unhappiness with the situation. Each of them is a loss and each of them is sad news for a community that is built on appreciation, trust and mutual respect.
By working much more transparently and sourcing the skills of the community amongst which we see us as equals, we will work on a much better environment where people do not have to fear to speak out, where everyone has a voice, everyone is heard and can bring in their opinions.
I don’t think we should talk about individuals here, there are many who could be mentioned who stepped down out of frustration. many that repressed their frustrations and didn’t step down to avoid sending out negative signals about TDF. We also see repeated attacks on other founders, as you call them.
The goal of the Pledge group is to solve these problems to provide a welcoming and open environment for everyone.
Answer 2:
Working positively with others is exactly what the Pledge is about. We have seen an environment were members of the board and the team got attacked and where community members are tired of reading long email threads. Many discussions and decisions took place in private and were not shared, or when it happened too late to understand their ramifications, with the community. That made it even more difficult for the members to understand what was going on.
The goal of the friends who support the Pledge is to make things transparent, public and accountable from day one. Everyone will be able to make up their own mind without the need for “summaries” that could be seen as biased. By encouraging every community member to speak up, including the members of staff, all opinions will finally be heard including those who currently fear to say anything in public.
Transparency is key and by starting with it from day one the community gets reliable, trustworthy and direct information. They will be involved in the discussions, which the Pledge will ensure with translations and monthly meetings with the community as well as with regular status reports.
The group that supports the Pledge ensures that direct information is available to everyone at the same time so everyone can make their mind up based on factual information and can contribute with their experience to the decision processes.
Answer 3:
I am very open to discussion as everyone can see. There are certain topics where wiggle room for positions is narrow, especially when it comes to legal topics and legal advice. Many issues and delays, also with the tendering, could have been avoided if we had followed the clear advice given instead of discussing it endlessly with arguments that had no relevance with the legal frameworks TDF has to respect.
However, after the legal situation is sorted, there will be many other more exciting projects to work on collectively as a community. As all other supporters of the Pledge, I am happy to be challenged, I will be transparent and accountable and very happy to discuss my positions as a member of the board in public to receive feedback that would help in taking better decisions for TDF and the community.
Answer 4:
I would have loved to be present when times were more exciting and fun as TDF was being created from scratch out of passion and determination with people working as equal and with a common goal. You mentioned in a press article from 2020 that 2012-2014 from your point of view those were the “flourishing years”
Also others, who have been around for many years, refer to the past as much better than now. Memories might give a feeling that the past was much better than the present, but recollections by those present at the time present an era where discussions, fights and attacks as we see them these days were not such a dominant part of TDF.
We can’t dwell on the past but we must learn from it to create a better future. I guess we all agree that the status quo is not a good one and we owe to our community and to all our contributors, being them volunteers, ecosystem or members of staff, a much more welcoming environment.
Toxicity has been mentioned in old board minutes before my and other people’s terms. I was not in the board back then so we can infer that this problem did not develop recently making it an even more urgent and important matter to address at TDF.
The group supporting the Pledge makes strong commitments and promises. We are committed to work together in an environment where we all consider each others as equals, where we want to include the wisdom of the worldwide community, encourage everyone to speak out and enable them to bring their skills and talents into the foundation and its projects.
It is already a good sign that eleven people from different parts of the world with different backgrounds agreed on one common Pledge. This shows our strong commitment to work together.
I cannot do this alone, no one can. As a group of eleven people with a common vision that is enshrined in the Pledge, together as a community, as a group of friends, we can absolutely achieve this.
Answer 5:
While the question is surprising and no one else pointed at interesting facts about other companies, I’ve always been transparent about my company. You will surely find confirmation in your email client that we discussed business models that were more or less suitable for a changing market. I very openly told you and the board, back in 2021, that I’ve been wind down that company in the UK as that business model fulfilled its role for several years but wasn’t necessary for the market anymore.
I had left the UK already and it hasn’t been trading since nearly 2 years when we discussed the matter.
I consulted my lawyers about it, did a risk assessment and eventually, I took the decision to let the company be closed down with funds still in there that surely covered for the service. Things could have been done differently but it was a personal and pondered decisions which was a result of several circumstances in which government decisions to push away EU citizens and their families and then the pandemic were contributing factors.
Answer 6:
For many months if not years I spent a lot of my time to improve the situation at TDF, solve legal issues and work on a tender process that will also benefit the ecosystem. I continued to do so even when unsubstantiated attacks took place, because I am a firm believer that we need to work together with the ecosystem, grow and diversify it and provide a welcoming environment for everyone.
All friends who share the Pledge support this idea. We are firmly committed to provide a proper environment for the ecosystem to grow and be an equal part of the community just like all of us.
During the last two board terms we had robust and frank discussions about various subjects but at the end consensus was found for working with the whole board to tackle several issues. We did agree to shelve the TDC project as it wasn’t fit for purpose and with a lot of efforts we managed to agree to have the Conflict of Interests Policy approved. All of this was done not only by the board, but with the support of the community, the companies and the staff.
I do understand that you, your contractors and business partners that are/were in the board had a collective understanding of how to deal with things and visions shaped by your collective commercial activities so I fully understand that it took and still takes a lot of effort to create a consensus around subjects that need to be reshaped to fit within the constraints of the legal framework that has been purposefully chosen for TDF.
We did talk about it openly in person also in Milan, I respect the confidentiality of the various items we discussed and will not share details here.
Let me know if you’d like to discuss the matter further. I’m, as well as others, always open to talk and find compromises and solutions that are mutually beneficial for TDF and the community.
The Pledge that 11 people support is about finding solutions, provide a proper environment for everyone including the ecosystem, and shape a community that is vivid, happy and healthy. This way everyone can benefit, from individual end-users that can download a product free of charge, to contributors who can bring in their skills and talents to make a better world for millions of people, and of course the ecosystem, which can base their complementary business models on a reliable, trustworthy and stable foundation.
Ciao
Paolo
