OASIS BoD Elections

[Italo Vignoli <italo@documentfoundation.org>]

I apologize for the interruption, but I would like to add some
information to those already provided on my candidate page. As I said, I
have been a marketing and communication professional for most of my life
(before and after getting involved in free open source software and open
document standards). When I started to contribute to FOSS, I realized
how much the ecosystem is technology driven, to the point that even the
most basic marketing strategies are often overlooked or ignored.

I think that OASIS does not represent an exception. While this might be
rather normal for Technical Committees in charge of creating, developing
and evolving standards - tasks where tech skills are of paramount
importance - it represents an obstacle when it comes to creating and/or
raising the awareness of standards, especially at end user level.

I have been involved for years in migration projects from proprietary
software to FOSS, and especially to OpenOffice and LibreOffice. During
these years, I have fought with a global ignorance about open standards
in public administrations and enterprises, where people in charge are
often taking the wrong decision, with a negative impact on
interoperability (and related costs).

I have organized seminars to educate people about open standards, from
primary schools to the highest ranks in the Italian Army (suggesting ODF
over OOXML). During these projects, I have realized that without a large
body such as OASIS backing these efforts it will be impossible to reach
the objective of raising the awareness of open standards to a decent level.

So, in addition to leading the re-launch of the now defunct ODF Adoption
TC as ODF Advocacy Open Project, I have decided to apply for the OASIS
BoD to contribute - based on my personal experience - to a marketing
effort to educate about and support open standards.

Thanks for reading so far. I would really like to help OASIS evolve to a
new level of open standards advocacy. Best regards, Italo

-- 
Italo Vignoli - Marketing & PR
email italo.vignoli@documentfoundation.org
mobile/signal +39.348.5653829 - skype italovignoli
hangout/jabber italo.vignoli@gmail.com
The Document Foundation, KurfÃrstendamm 188, 10707 Berlin, DE