Hello ownClouders! My name is Tobias Gerlinger, and I am happy to introduce myself to the ownCloud community today.
I’m a graduate in business administration and mechanical engineering and I started my career as a sales and marketing manager in the software industry before taking several roles as an active investor in different companies. As it was announced on the company blog, I joined the German ownCloud GmbH as one of two managing directors, bringing in some fresh money to continue the great venture and the ownCloud project . My Co-Managing Director and ownCloud founder, Holger Dyroff, will work with you on product strategy and technology.
Our mission is to continue building up the business around the ownCloud project by creating a sustainable product and to provide an industry-leading service and support for both new and existing customers. I was happy to find a very motivated and professional team here at ownCloud GmbH that burns for open source and has already proven able to deliver just that to big customers like Deutsche Bahn and CERN. And I am so proud to join this team.
I understand that the only way to succeed is with a vital and happy open source community, as well as an open and fair collaboration between the company and the community. ownCloud GmbH will continue to support the community as it has done since day one, and we will further improve our open development process based on the open source best practices that you guys have helped to build and have lived every day. One of the most important tasks right now is to get the Foundation on its way. The Foundation will be the base for the ownCloud community and guarantee its future. I’m excited that I am now an ownClouder and will be happy to contribute to the community.
Let me end by asking each of you to judge for yourself what you think ownCloud should doing the next months, rather than on what biased authors might spread on the web. Open source software means actually doing things; it is not about recycling what others did, or about sweet talking. 😉
