Geir Bækholt

Plone core developer and open source activist. Geek and 'suit' combined. Managing director of Plone solutions provider company Jarn AS.

Geir Bækholt

Plone contributor in some form since the early days of the project. I have contributed user interface design, CSS, javascripts, bug fixes, core components in Plone itself and a handful of add-on-products. Currently mostly working on CMSUI with the aim of inclusion in Plone 5. 

Managing director and co-founder of Jarn AS — A Norwegian, internationally oriented Plone consultancy and development company. My job involves managing a distributed workforce including a significant chunk of the active core contributors to Plone. The company has close ties to the Plone community and contributes a fair share to the development of Plone and its surroundings.

  • An all-hands type person who enjoys working with people and organizations as much as writing code. I have a diverse background in marketing, design/art, sociology, film-science and web-applications. I worked 5 years with large scale web-applications and payment management databases (as well as with visual design) before i started doing Plone full-time in 2003.
  • In April 2006, Arranged the Archipelago Sprint, gathering 40 developers from around the world, spearheading the development of what became Plone 3.
  • Speaker at most Plone Conferences but the first. 
  • Has a large interest in Open source business models, software patents (no way!), marketing and licensing. 
  • Instigated a name switch from Plone Solutions to Jarn AS in 2007 to make for a cleaner competitive environment among Plone companies. (CMSWatch)
  • Works with key organisations for improving government- and general public awareness on Open Source in Norway and Europe.
  • Even though i probably represent developers and small businesses best, i meet and work with people in universities, government organizations, NGOs and larger companies, – and get to share their challenges and experiences with Plone, both on a technical and on an organizational level.
  • Jarn was recently granted the "Environmental beacon" certification for environmental awareness and care.
  • Founder of the 10% Plone Manifesto and active evangelist for commercial entities contributing back to Free software. 
  • Participant at the 2008 Plone Strategic Planning Summit
  • Planned and pushed for the creation of the Plone roadmap team. 
  • Proud to be serving on the Plone Foundation Board (2006-11, including 09-10 as president) and would be proud to provide continuity into the next term as well. I am an active participant in board and committee work for the Plone foundation.

Forward:

Issues i think it would be interesting to work on with the foundation in the next term, should i be trusted to keep serving on the board.

  • Help improve  the roadmap and the communication of it.
  • Help Plone companies thrive and profit. We have to admit that much of Plone is a business ecosystem, and that Plone needs it to develop further.
  • Find more ways to make Plone companies commit to furthering the development of Plone itself. (like the Plone Tuneup-days, 10% manifesto and similar approaches —  stuff that goes beyond the single developer's goodwill. To get real impact we need real effort — and Plone companies need to help pull this weight together. 
  • Work out a way to allow companies to gain memberships in the Plone Foundation. We must come to the realisation that most of Plone is driven by small businesses, not only individuals.
  • We need more new community member and foundation members, especially new blood.
  • Find more ways for the Plone foundation to collaborate more with similar or related entities, like the python foundation. how can we communicate more with the other python or cms communities?
  • Improve our processes for pushing development forward and staying competetive in the CMS market.


Seconded by Mark Corum and Steve McMahon