Re: Solid CG Chair Election 2023: Chair Self-Nominations

Hi Ila,

Thanks for asking, these are good questions!

Ponder Source is a post-capitalist steward-owned non-profit. The legal form
is a foundation, of which I am the founder and which employs me as its
director (steward). We are a team of currently 5 full-time software
engineers and one intern.

There are no shareholders of Ponder Source, so if we get more work we have
to work harder or grow the team, but our salaries will stay the same.

That’s why I didn’t say “my company”, I don’t own it, I just work there.
One of the goals of the Ponder Source is to help technologies like Solid
get adopted, which is also why we are allowed to contribute during work
time.

I don’t think there will be a conflict between the CG and the WG. In the WG
too, we will try to help build great technology, as part of Ponder Source’s
mission.

Let me know if you have further questions!

Cheers,
Michiel
On Sat, 25 Nov 2023 at 17:25, <ila.benjamin@tutanota.com> wrote:

> Hi Michiel,
>
> Great to see your self-nomination, I am sure the group will thrive under
> your leadership/chairship.
>
> In the interest of transparency, may we just inquire regarding employment,
> to understand which parties are actually involved?
>
> > I registered my employer Ponder Source as a paying W3C member and
> attended TPAC in Sevilla to help represent the Solid community towards the
> rest of the W3C.
>
> > I also registered my employer as a sponsor of both the first and the
> second Solid Symposium <https://events.vito.be/sosy2024>
>
> Who exactly is Ponder Source, and more specifically, who is / are the
> decision makers at Ponder Source?
>
> Because in this email, you seem to be the main/sole decision maker (you
> registered your employer), and also from the website (
> https://pondersource.com/) it seems to be you as the only decision maker,
> plus a couple of highly part-time freelancers / interns.
>
> So just for clarity:
> - "my employer Ponder Source" = "Michiel De Jong"?
> - who are the decision makers?
> - does this conflict with Ponder Source participating in a potential
> working group, given that other chair nominations so far are not company
> affiliated?
> - what companies support Ponder Source and to what extent are their
> opinions part of decisions processes in the community and/or working groups?
>
> Kindly let us know here and good luck all with nominations and elections.
>
> Ila B
>