From: Eric Sinclair (esinclai_at_pobox.com)
Date: Wed Sep 01 2004 - 04:37:59 PDT
On Aug 31, 2004, at 1:45 PM, Dan wrote:
> There was talk of setting up a "fund" for developers. But the
> management of such a fund would be a nightmare. So I don't believe it
> ever got past the "discussion" stage.
This is a bit of a pity, though there are certainly some ingredients
that would need to come together for doing so in the Newton community.
The best model I know of a self-organizing community that has done this
is the Perl community, who through the Perl Foundation (nee' Yet
Another Foundation)
http://www.perlfoundation.org/
have pulled together grants over the last several years for various
developers contributing deeply to the language development.
There are some advantages they have that the Newton community,
presumably through WWNA, would have to plan around.
For one, a handful of current TPF beneficiaries are in cooperation of
larger organizations who can provide additional sponsorship.
Secondly, the Perl community, through small individual donations across
a larger audience, can amass more money - looking over the 2004 grants,
most of those related to development work are $2000 each.
Some community agreement in what needs to be sponsored would be good to
come by (is it continuing development on the freely licensed NewtSync?
Or building up the WiFi stack to allow SSID discovery?).
So for the current (and as of Sunday future) WWNA board - is this
something that is on the agenda for the WWNA to look into further?
> The best way to help developers is to purchase the software you like
> when it is available (sooner rather than later). And secondly (and in
> the very least) support them vocally. Tell them it is great software
> etc etc etc. Also if it is free, make doubly sure you voice how much
> you like it. And even if you don't like it, tell them you support
> their
> efforts.
With this I wholeheartedly agree. Each of us can make mini grants of
gratitude and individual donations every day.
-Eric
-- esinclai_at_pobox.com aim: esinclai http://www.kittyjoyce.com/eric/log/ -- This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/ WikiWikiNewt for all kinds of articles: http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/
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