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2010 Candidate:
Ed Merks

President, Macro Modeling

Nominee for Committer Member representative

Eclipse Modeling Project Lead
Eclipse Modeling Framework Project Lead

email:  Ed.Merks at gmail.com

Vision

Eclipse's momentum continues to build despite tough economic times. It's increasingly driven by smaller organizations and of course by a dedicated committer community, i.e., by people like you and me.  With this increasing diversity, our influence as individuals continues to grow, presenting new and exciting opportunities. As a committer representative on the board, I will continue to promote the rights and privileges of committers and to take forward the issues and concerns that are near and dear to developer's hearts. I intend to be a visible and approachable technical representative, not a politician.  I feel I've demonstrated this with my track record over the past three years. I believe that helping others is its own reward. With many thousands of answers to questions across a wide range of Eclipse's newsgroups last year, and with active blogging to promote a sense of community, my track record of helpfulness speaks for itself.  I believe in being a positive influence, of balancing the drive to fix problems and to make improvements with a recognition of the fact that most problems are very hard to solve and that what constitutes an improvement is often highly subjective. I will continue to foster a diverse and growing community that encourages and strives for the type of excellence that has made Eclipse what it is today. The modeling project, something over which I have more direct control, is just one example of the exciting things that a diverse group of individuals can accomplish. Eclipse's release train process is yet another success story that demonstrates the kind of cooperation that can help our community strive for ever greater achievements.  I'm very proud of helping more and more people get involved with modeling and with Eclipse. I will continue to work hard to ensure that Eclipse's processes are the best they can be and are ever improving. I believe in encouraging and rewarding positive behavior, and in defining minimal processes that focus on best practices and achievable realistic results. I oppose restrictions that seek to coerce compliance to arbitrary questionable rules, i.e., rules that are primarily designed to exclude certain groups or to make first and second class citizens in our community.  It's often a tough struggle in the face of complacency, but I can be counted upon as the person who will speak up diplomatically even if there is personal risk involved. I like to lead by example, to have others do as I do, rather than set unrealistic benchmarks for others to follow and then sit back with the expectation that others should do my bidding. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well and it's worth participating. As your representative I commit to working tirelessly to promote not only Eclipse itself but also the community that drives it. Collectively, we are Eclipse and I would be honored to serve Eclipse for yet another term.

About the Candidate

Ed Merks founded his own small consulting company, Macro Modeling.  He is a coauthor of the authoritative book “EMF: Eclipse Modeling Framework” which is published as a second expanded edition.   He has been an elected member of the Eclipse Foundation Board of Directors for the past three years and has been recognized by the Eclipse Community Awards as Top New Comer Evangelist, Top Ambassador, and Top Committer.  Ed is well known for his dedication to the Eclipse community, posting literally thousands of newsgroup answers each year.  He spent 16 years at IBM, achieving the level of Senior Technical Staff Member after completing his Ph.D. at Simon Fraser University.  He is a partner of itemis AG and Cloudsmith.  His experience in modeling technology spans 25 years.

Affiliation

Macro Modeling, President
itemis AG , Partner
Cloudsmith, Partner

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