Re: [OSCOM] Reminder: Public email for OSCOM board

Hi, All --

I would like to put forward my name for consideration as a member of the 
OSCOM board.

About Me
----------
I have over 20 years of experience in building software and managing a 
consulting practice. My work has included the development of 
applications in online publishing, financial services, ecommerce, health 
care, higher education, customer relationship management, life sciences, 
and other domains. My current focus is on business development and how 
open source technology can support client needs. A recognized expert on 
open source and content management, I have written articles for several 
publications, such as Cutter IT Journal (http://www.cutter.com).

I live in the South End of Boston, with my wife Jodie and daughter 
Isabel (7 going on 17). We spend as much time as possible outside - 
hiking in the brief New England summer and cross-country skiing in the 
winter. The Red Sox usually break my heart, except once. I am proud to 
have been a member of the Men's Varsity Fencing Team at Penn State from 
1982 to 1986.

About Quoin
-----------
One of the strengths of my candidacy is that it includes the commitment 
of the principles and staff at Quoin. We have a full-time staff of 20 
engineers, project managers, and support staff with extensive experience 
in building applications using open source, and contributing to open 
source communities. The depth of resources here will help ensure that I 
can always take an active role in the work of the OSCOM board.

With Jean Pierre Lejacq, I founded Quoin (http://www.quoininc.com) in 
1993. Our company focuses on application development, system 
integration, and and software engineering methodology. We have 
implemented content management systems using both proprietary and open 
source systems for a range of media, online publishing, and IT clients. 
We have built very sophisticated content management systems for large 
organizations, such as WashingtonPost.com and Choice Media. We have 
participated in a number of open source projects, including Lenya, 
Cocoon, and Debian (on which JP has been a commiter).

OSCOM
---------
I believe that the essential mission for OSCOM is to facilitate the 
adoption of open source solutions for content management by promoting 
standards for interoperability, data interchange, and and understanding 
the diverse needs of users. A reinvigorated OSCOM could help to define 
these standards, and increase the market acceptance of open source 
systems as robust, reliable, and supported alternatives to closed or 
proprietary systems.

I would support initiatives to increase the visibility and contributions 
by OSCOM, including new conferences (both as part of established 
conferences and independent) and efforts to create new technology 
standards. I worked extensively with the Object Management Group 
(http://www.omg) in the 1990's. The OMG was successful in creating 
standards for application development and distributed systems. I think 
that the OSCOM community could follow a similar model as "champion" for 
open source content management standards.

A successful OSCOM would be active in defining and creating technical 
standards, facilitating communication and collaboration between 
projects, and always trying to be relevant to developers and end-users.

In many ways, I hope to represent end-users (who are my clients at 
Quoin) and developers using open source (who are my colleagues). Since I 
am not associated with a specific platform, I am more interested in 
standards than promoting a particular technology. (For full disclosure, 
  we do a lot of work using Apache Cocoon and Apache Lenya.)

Best regards,

Brad Kain

_______________________________________________
General mailing list
[email protected]
http://oscom.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/general

begin:vcard
fn:Brad Kain
n:Kain;Brad
email;internet:brad.kain-wlE4jI9Qa9lWk0Htik3J/[email protected]
tel;work:617.357.5233
tel;fax:617.357.5234
tel;cell:617.429.4516
x-mozilla-html:FALSE
version:2.1
end:vcard