There are some changes in roles of OSAF staff that deserve mention. Chao Lam, Chandler's Product Manager, will be switching to a part-time role as an individual contributor. Mitchell Baker, who has been working on OSAF staff one day per week, will be giving that up to focus 100% on managing the Mozilla project. Mitchell will continue on as an OSAF Board member.
Chao has decided for personal reasons to move to working three days per week at OSAF as of the end of January. He says:
"I'd like to start exploring doing a small "life-style" start-up involving open source technologies, hopefully involving the PIM domain and the Chandler platform (if anyone has ideas to share, please let me know), and adds, "I want to spend more time with family and, likely, to extend the family."
I've asked Chao to focus as an individual contributor on product planning as it relates to identifying and segmenting the market for Kibble and Westwood adopters, especially but not limited to migration from Outlook and Outlook/Exchange by individuals and small organizations, respectively. Chao's work will supplement and refine Kibble's and Westwood's product focus. It will enable us to make incremental changes to the Kibble product plan for both the 1.0 and 1.1 releases which will contribute to more successful adoption.
Mitchell says:
"I have tried to convince myself that I can continue to add value to Chandler on a daily or weekly basis, but have reluctantly admitted that this is unrealistic. Ted's focus and experience with open source communities leaves me very comfortable that OSAF has the necessary resources and expertise to grow. I plan to be an active Board member, please feel free to ping me when you think I can be helpful."
As of February 1, Sheila Mooney and Mimi Yin will move into the engineering organization, with Mimi working for Sheila, and Sheila reporting to Lisa. Both will continue with their existing responsibilities, Mimi as designer and Sheila as Program Manager (helping the trains run on time as well as helping clarifying exactly where we're laying down new tracks).
Sheila has done a terrific job coming up to speed in the last six months and has taken on significant project management responsibilities. Chao says: "I'm not ashamed to say she does a lot of things better than I, and many of these are exactly the things that need to get done in the next phase of Chandler's product cycle. I have full confidence that she will excel in her expanded role."
We wouldn't be where we are without Chao's and Mitchell's efforts. We look forward to working with them in their new roles and wish them good luck with their other endeavors.
Posted by mitch@osafoundation.org at January 24, 2005 10:36 AM