Professional web developer since 2000. Owner of an agency on the south coast of England which builds websites for politicians and campaigners. Organised the PHP London user group and annual PHP UK conference until 2010.
Matt, I would be interested in your perspective on a governance question that, to me, is directly relevant to this election.
If a governance or organizational model is being prepared that would materially influence the relationship between leadership, accountability, and volunteer autonomy in TYPO3, I believe members should be able to take that into account before electing Board members for a three-year term.
Would you support discussing such a model openly before the election, if it exists or is currently being developed?
And more broadly, do you think a more hierarchical leadership model is a good fit for a volunteer-driven open source community like TYPO3?
Jo,
I haven’t been particularly heavily involved with the Association thus far so I’m not party to anything that isn’t public information. I agree that any sufficiently large scale changes to organisational structure should be democratically approved by the membership. The best structure for this is most likely through a vote at the General Assembly.
I don’t have a specific role in mind when standing for the board. If elected I plan to dive right in to anywhere there is a gap or work waiting to be done. As I’ve said in my nomination though, I’d love to see how I can help increase TYPO3’s recognition outside of central Europe and make it feel as welcoming as possible to newcomers so I think communication and outreach is likely to be more my focus than strategy and governance.
On the broader subject of my personal opinion on leadership models, I am open to hearing specifics and what other members think before making up my mind but I think a balanced approach is probably the right answer. I would say though that as an outsider who is primarily a user of TYPO3, I think the project’s direction of travel can feel a bit confused and unplanned sometimes. There often seem to be lots of ways of achieving the same goal, in various states of completeness with names that don’t clearly explain to me what they are or how they differ. So as an Association member I would be interested in hearing proposals that might favour clearer decision making and having more of a master plan, as long as they don’t discourage volunteer engagement and community spirit.
I agree that TYPO3 clearly needs improvement in how structure, contribution, and responsibility work together. My concern is not change as such. My concern is trust and timing.
If a draft could materially change how contributors, volunteers, leads, and teams are expected to work together, then members should know that direction before electing people into positions that may soon shape or carry that structure.
So for me, the immediate issue is not whether every paragraph is good or bad. The immediate issue is whether a potentially major governance shift is visible early enough for members to make an informed choice about the people they elect.
I’m afraid I don’t share your anxiety about when strategic documents are published. I can’t think of any reason it would affect who I voted for. The best board members are likely to the best board members either way.
Even if it did make a difference, only 3 of the 7 board members are up for election. Whenever the draft is published, the majority of board members will have been elected prior to its publication.
And assuming the membership can vote in or vote out the strategy at the GA, even if it were published in advance of the board election, and even if the strategy did make a difference to the best choice of board members, you could still end up with the “wrong” people if the GA vote went the other way.
If there are to be governance changes, I would expect them to be published and debated. But I am unconcerned whether that discussion happens before, after or during board elections.
Hello Matt,
serving on the TYPO3 Association Board is a significant responsibility and an important volunteer commitment to the community.
Based on my experience, I estimate that fulfilling the role properly requires roughly 8 hours per week on average, including preparation, meetings, coordination with the Association and the community. In addition, there may be travel for events such as QSA meetings and other in-person gatherings.
Since this is a volunteer position without proper financial compensation, it requires a strong personal commitment of time.
How do you plan to ensure that you can realistically dedicate the time needed to fulfil the responsibilities of a Board member?
Matt, thank you for your reply.
Just to be clear, this is not about anxiety. It is about clarity.
This is not a neutral question for board elections. If a substantial shift in governance, roles, and power is underway, it can absolutely change what kind of Board members TYPO3 actually needs.
If nothing substantial were changing, then continuity might well be enough. But if the current process creates mistrust, hardens positions, and changes the political reality in which the Board will have to operate, then the best Board members may no longer be simply the ones who represent continuity. In that situation, you may need people who can carry trust across different parts of TYPO3, bridge divides, and stabilise a situation that has already caused serious friction before anything is even formalised.
That is why I do not see timing as neutral. To me, this is not a side issue. It is part of democratic legitimacy.
Ingo,
Yes, I am confident I can dedicate the required time to the role and be available to attend relevant events. I run my own agency and have good support from my colleagues. I have worked in volunteer roles in the past. I organise my own schedule and plan to include fixed time every week to dedicate to the Association.
As a member trying to make an informed decision, I’d like to ask:
After one year on the Board, how would we as members be able to tell whether you’ve actually delivered on what you’re promising today? What would be a concrete indicator of success that we could point to?
I think it’s fair to ask this before voting – not just “what do you want to do” but “how will we know if you did it.”
I think it is necessary to have a good list of videos for TYPO3 beginners even in native languages. Only by this it will be possible to spread the community into more countries.
That’s a great question, and I’m afraid I don’t have a great answer. I’ll be new to the board and I want to hit the ground running and get stuck in wherever there is work to be done. But this does mean I don’t really know precisely what jobs I’ll end up doing so telling you in advance what I’ll achieve is something of a challenge. As Rachel has pointed out in her answer to your question though the annual outcome agreement should help keep things on track.
On the broader goal of increasing TYPO3’s recognition outside DACH I don’t imagine this will happen overnight but you should see a number of new agencies with Association memberships by the end of the three year term.
Why could TYPO3 not spread outside of the DACH countries? Is there a British mentality which brings them more to Wordpress than in the DACH countries? What does TYPO3 wrongly?
More awareness should be the main push. The TYPO3 Camp in London last year helped, as does outreach work at local conferences, but it’s expensive and getting the message to larger numbers of people while still targeting decision makers and agencies is key. There needs to be a clear elevator pitch explaining the strengths of the platform for regions currently unaware of it.
When I was considering CMS platforms for what became our first big TYPO3 project, online case studies were the platform’s most effective marketing tool. It’s a shame that official case studies are now a perk of the partner programme which limits its usefulness as a marketing tool in underrepresented regions where agencies aren’t as willing to sign up for the scheme but any other ways of getting content out there about international uptake are valuable.
In the UK specifically, internationalisation isn’t really a very important feature for a lot of customers. Combined with WordPress’s market share this perhaps makes it an easier call. But there are certainly large niches where TYPO3’s multiple language and multiple site support, emphasis on security, long term support, great performance, and structured approach to content can still sell really well. We should sing its praises to government organisations, universities and healthcare institutions in particular.