Although he is from the Hawaii, he has Italian Sicilian blood, which means that his first reaction tends to be a bit off piste. But he listens well, he has an amazing breadth/depth of technological skills and is (like me) trying to change/fix the world.
These days, since I'm not in any position of power at OWASP (I left the Board two years ago), I am in a very privileged position where I can speak freely about my ideas (see You will not have your best ideas when you are in a position of Power). And as you can see by the 46 posts (so far) on this blog about OWASP I have been doing that a lot :)
Since I know that I can hard to deal with and can sometimes cause offence with my comments, views or actions (see Why do others think that I'm "hard to deal with" and that "I don't listen" ), I asked him recently: "Jim, are we ok? or have my latest OWASP related emails pissed you off."
And true to form, here is Jim's answer (re-posted with permission) which just shows how an amazing person he is:
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Dinis,
Sure you annoy me sometimes, but more importantly you always stay on topic around web security, OWASP governance and OWASP's future. And you are solid about respecting OWASP's basic ethical guidelines.
The fact that you annoy me irrelevant. This is not about me. The fact that you are "on point" around OWASP issues is what matters. It's about what is good for OWASP.
I really don't agree with you that much either. On occasion I do agree, but I often do not.
But this is ok, we need to keep rattling each others cages. I can take it. We are pushing for the same thing - a healthy OWASP.
So, Dinis. Bring it, man. Give me your best. It's my **job** and **responsibility** as an OWASP board member to engage with you respectfully when you express ideas about making OWASP better.
