Re: Squeak Oversight Board Election 2026

I am a new member of Squeak Dev and very much a learner of Smalltalk.
However I do think the advantages of Smalltalk being a 'live' OS are
incredibly useful to novices. As such it would indeed be a great loss if
Squeak were to wither on the vine. I'm sure that some monetisation effort
would indeed be worthwhile.

By the way how does one vote?

Kind regards

Simon Green
Stroud
Glos
UK

On Fri, 8 May 2026, 07:32 Eliot Miranda, <[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi All,
>
>     I would like to stand for re-election to the Squeak Oversight Board in
> 2026 on a very narrow platform. If you do not agree with this platform
> please do not vote for me or put me last in your list. I ask that if you do
> support my platform you put me first on your list. My platform is as
> follows:
>
> The lack of funding for our community restricts the activities of the
> community to those achievable by members of the community. In particular
> this means we are unable to fund general marketing activities that raise
> awareness of Squeak and its capabilities, and more generally of Smalltalk
> and its capabilities, in several useful contexts. For example now that we
> have lost Mark Guzdial’s involvement we have no marketing of Squeak as a
> teaching language at university or high-school level. In the long term this
> lack leads to the eventual extinction of our community. The kinds of
> marketing we could fund include blogging, video production on specific
> topics such as frameworks, applications, solutions of general interest to
> the programming universe.
>
> The lack of organization for monetization of programming effort, for
> example being able to field programming teams to implement frameworks,
> applications, and solutions, that industrial customers would pay for, means
> we fail to meet those needs, fail to demonstrate that Squeak can meet those
> needs.I have been employed by such customers for some time so I know they
> exist. Selfishly I would like to continue to do so; unselfishly I would
> like to do so as part of a team, both to broaden the skill base and
> strengthen the effort we as a community can provide.
>
> What monetization means in reality is as yet not well-defined, beyond
> requirements. But viewing the Squeak community as a commons gives us strong
> clues. Human communities have solved “the tragedy of the commons” (if you
> haven’t heard the term then google it) for millennia. Elinor Bostrom won
> the Nobel prize for economics for analyzing several such communities and
> deriving “Eight principles for the management of a commons” (if you haven’t
> heard the term then google it).
>
> My platform is therefore to generate a productive discussion within our
> community leading to the design of a generally agreeable monetization
> framework that aims at the above stated goals and embodies Bostrom’s eight
> principles. If this resonates with you then I am your candidate.
>
> If it does not resonate with you I accept your silence, but would find
> your articulation of why you find it repugnant, threatening, or otherwise
> repulsive, in an email message to this list much more helpful than angry
> silence.
>
> Best, Eliot, Thursday May 7th, ‘26
> _,,,^..^,,,_ (phone)
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