Spanky

My campaign platform. Seconded by Jodok Batlogg.

Greetings and thanks for reviewing my "platform". My name is Spanky and I want your vote for Plone Foundation Board member! Please take a moment to read over my quick summary below, and when the time is right, choose Spanky for Plone Foundation Board!

About Me:

My REAL name is Tom Kapanka, better known as Spanky in some circles. I was born and raised in Connecticut, USA, went to university at NYU in New York City. There I began my adventures into internet technology and multimedia production. Upon completion of my studies, I moved to Virginia where I worked as a systems administrator for a startup ISP called LifeStat, and later for CrossLink Communications. I was later hired by Piedmont Press & Graphics to jumpstart their internet division. There, I developed, built, and managed servers and networks as their webmaster. After about 3 years there, I decided to realize my dream of moving to the San Francisco Bay Area.

Upon arrival in San Francisco, I began working as the Senior Systems Administrator for AspenMedia, where I developed and maintained back end systems for many high profile clients including KFOG, KSAN, KNBR, and KTCT radio stations. There, I built many PERL and PHP applications for our customers, always trying to push the edge of customizability and standards. Later in life, I realized that what I was trying to build all along was a CMS. After the collapse of the DotComs, I worked for an independent web hosting company called Laughing Squid, but soon realized that my skills were needed full time for the Burning Man Project. I have been with the Project now for over 6 years. Currently, I am start ingmy own business venture using Plone.

While at Burning Man I gained many skills related to working within a volunteer-based organization, skills which have been very beneficial in terms of the Plone community.  I have been working with both the Burning Man and Plone communities now for over 6 years and hope to bring this skill and perspective to the Board.

My Goals for the Board:

I believe that I bring a different perspective to the Foundation Board. I am not a hard core developer and my developer skills are not all that great. Instead, my perspective comes from my experiences developing for Plone for my customers. I have a keen sense of what it is that Plone can do, and what our market expects from it. Rather than a "nuts and bolts" perspective, I see, from direct experience, the strengths and weaknesses of Plone. I would like to leverage the strengths and improve the weaknesses by helping the Foundation navigate the waters of CMS and Open Source, and helping to keep Plone on course in order to be successful.

I have two goals if elected to the Foundation Board.

First, to continue to build the Plone Community. Our community cannot be taken for granted as it is one of the major strengths of Plone. I hope to encourage, expand, and support the developers, contributors, as well as prospective users. I would like to see coordination amongst the user groups, sprint planners, and developers worldwide. I have many years of experience and training working within a volunteer-based organization and hope to bring this experience to Plone to help us retain and recruit more effective and active members of the community.

Second, to bring a front-end user perspective to the direction of Plone. I want to make sure that the underlying technical decisions eventually manifest themselves into useable and well-defined features that customers want. I want to make sure Plone maintains its focus while growing to better meet the needs of those who use it. I hope that we can make Plone faster and easier to use and configure, while at the same time keeping the robust and extensible 'framework' that gives Plone its power and flexibility.

My background with the Plone Community:

Burning Man took me on full time where I met Rob Miller and began my adventures into Zope and Plone. With a team, we developed the Burning Man Extranet, my first Zope/Plone project. Rob, Whit and myself then attended the first Snow Sprint in Austria where we all became heavily involved with the Plone community. Since then I have gone on to implement several other Plone-based projects for Burning Man, the Black Rock Arts Foundation, my own company (3x6x9) and others. While at Burning Man, I have attended many sprints and conferences, and even hosted a sprint of my own (Calendar Sprint). I have been a foundation member since its inception. I have contributed to many Plone products including TeamSpace, CMFMember and Archetypes. Within the last year I helped to found PloneLounge, a support group for Plone users and am actively working to help other Plone User Groups share resources and work together under the Plone Lounge name.

I am now moving on from the Burning Man project to start my own Plone-based business. Starting Nov 1, I depend solely on Plone and the Plone community for my livelihood as I build a community and tourism destination for the island of St. Barths. I am dedicated to Plone as a technology and hope to work closely as I learn, contribute, and document what I have learned for others to benefit from.