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From: Andreas Bartel on 21 Jun 2010 11:31
Hello fellow members,

Many thanks to Christoph! Now, I'd like to take the opportunity and
introduce myself to the rest of the community in detail and answer your
questions.

Am 16.06.2010 23:21, schrieb Christoph Noack:
> Hi everyone,
>
> I would like to thank both Thorsten and Andreas for their nomination for
> the "Product Development Representative" in the Community Council.
> According to our election process, we are now in the introduction phase
> - the nominees do have the chance to introduce themselves to the
> community.


I joined Sun Microsystems in the OpenOffice.org Dep. in Hamburg in April
2008, right after my graduation in Cognitive Science. My studies taught
me a lot about the human mind, how people perceive, think and act.
However, most important were the insights regarding human cognition and
behavior as they are reflected when people interact with each other and
with technology. I also learned a lot about how to systematically
address and solve any problem or challenge, with focus and the
application of best-practice methods. All this, was so far particularly
helpful to me when working on OpenOffice.org user experience topics -
preaching how important an accurate understanding of our users is, that
an in-depth analysis of feedback should guide our design decisions, not
opinions or gut feelings, and how lucky we are to have a gigantic amount
of people who are willing to provide feedback for free.

Consequently, I am a huge fan of focusing on people instead of
technology when thinking about product or service design. I strongly
believe in people who drive all our community projects and I believe
that we can deliver a product of great quality if we communicate more,
collaborate with more focus and use all available sources wisely.
However, I also believe that we must be aware that we are not perfect,
yet :-). There is a lot of room for improvement how contributing
projects work, communicate and deliver. Yet, improvement regularly
necessitates change, and I believe that change has been too often the
victim of fears of something new, something not yet proven within our
community. I strongly believe that change is something good, that change
provides opportunity, an opportunity for OpenOffice.org to become a
great product as a result of our collaborative efforts, a product for
people to ease their lives, not just a huge pile of code.

>
> Moreover, each of us might ask questions to the nominees ... this is
> helpful, since they might represent "us" for quite some time ;-)
>
> I would like to start - so please answer the following questions:


> * What is your idea by the work/tasks of the council?
Despite the official definition, my personal view of the council's
responsibilities adds a slice that I've been missing so far. In addition
to planning, public relations and arbitration, I expect the council to
provide some sort of vital sparks for the rest of us. Some things to
think with, ideas to rack our brains. It maybe a question or just a
thought like “How will collaboration look like in 10 years from now?” or
“How could OpenOffice.org help teaching school kids science?” or “Does
mail merge really have to be that hard to use?” etc. In my view, we need
more direction; more visionary thinking and we need an organ that
evangelizes that sort of thinking, and that could be the council to
start with. Not by dictating what to do but by inspiring people. Making
people think about, focus on and solve real life problems such that each
member of the community can identify the value of her contribution to
OpenOffice.org.


> * Do you have any special areas of interest/ideas?#
I am especially interested in design thinking, a collaborative and
iterative process to “produce” innovative ideas/concepts/solutions as a
systematic outcome of interdisciplinary groups working together. I am
also an enthusiast of Agile practice and Scrum as a project management
method.


> * Is there enough spare time for the work in the council?
Since my job at Sun is a 100 percent assignment for OpenOffice.org,
fulfilling the duties of a Product Development Representative will just
become a further part of this job.


>
> Thanks a lot!
>
> For all, if you have any questions with regard to the current Community
> Council Election, please have a look at the status page in the wiki:
> http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Community_Council/Elections/2010-06
>
> Any other questions? Go on community, go on :-)
>
> Have a nice day,
> Christoph

Once again, thanks a lot! I am open for any questions.

Best,
Andreas
>

--
*********************************************************************

Sun Microsystems GmbH Andreas Bartel
Nagelsweg 55 User Experience Engineer
20097 Hamburg Phone: (+49 40)23646 672
Germany Fax: (+49 40)23646 550
http://www.sun.com mailto:andreas.bartel(a)sun.com

*********************************************************************

Sitz der Gesellschaft:
Sun Microsystems GmbH, Sonnenallee 1, D-85551 Kirchheim-Heimstetten
Amtsgericht München: HRB 161028
Geschäftsführer: Jürgen Kunz

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