Thanks Frank, I think this is exactly the feedback we needed. On 17-Oct-08, at 8:19 PM, Frank Warmerdam wrote:
> Paul Spencer wrote: >> Frank, >> In relation to OpenLayers pursuing sponsorship via OSGeo, could you >> provide us with a brief summary of your experience with OSGeo >> sponsorship program as it relates to GDAL/OGR? I think this would >> help us crystalize our thoughts on how OpenLayers would like to >> proceed. > > Paul, > > I'm not sure the experience will be all that similar for OpenLayers, > but > I'll make a few observations with regard to GDAL, and perhaps > editorialize > a bit. > > First, please be aware that participating in the sponsorship program > involves some effort. Beyond setting up initial documents, and > soliciting > sponsors, it is expected that any project that participates in the > sponsorship > program will produce an annual report to sponsors summarizing at > least how > the sponsorship funds have been used over they year. This isn't > onerous, > but someone has to get this done. > > Second, I would observe that Tyler takes care of the invoices for > sponsorship, > and the collection of money. So generally speaking once I have a > verbal > (or email) agreement from an organization to sponsor GDAL I pass on > the > contact details, the start date, and the sponsorship level to Tyler > who > prepares the invoice, and takes care of contact with the sponsor. > This is > a huge help and without Tyler handling this professionally the whole > effort > might well be too much for me pursue. > > For GDAL it is considered allowed to sponsor for any amount of above > $500, but the invoicing and other hassles involved in small > sponsorships have > resulted in me only actively pursuing sponsorships of $3000 or more (a > silver sponsorship). I accept smaller sponsorships (gracefully I > hope), > but I don't pursue smaller sponsors for annual renewals. > > An items that has proven a bit challenging for GDAL is that sponsors > are > permitted a logo and block of text on our sponsor page. > > http://www.gdal.org/credits.html > > It has proven surprisingly hard to get an appropriately sized logo, > and > appropriate text from sponsors. Sometimes they don't respond. > Sometimes > they give me huge or otherwise inappropriate logos. And they give me > highly variable text for inclusion. So I've had to set fairly > specific > rules for the maximum number of pixels in the logo (I take care of > resizing > and confirm with the sponsor) and an upper limit on the descriptive > text > (50 words at silver). I still have some sponsors I've not been able > to get > the logo and text from and they go uncredited. In retrospect I > wonder if I > would have been better off with a simplier scheme - at least perhaps > no text. > > As for actually soliciting sponsors, I have (I think) been > responsible for > soliciting all the GDAL sponsors so far. I generally don't try to > hard, but > I do have to make some effort. I don't recall any stepping up and > volunteering > their interest just based on the sponsor solicitation page. I've > directly > approached a few organizations I knew were heavy users of GDAL and > that I > know well. I also will often mention GDAL and OSGeo sponsorship > opportunities > to folks when I answer technical questions about the project and > related > software if they look like they might be getting significant value > from the > software. I generally just approach companies under the assumption > that > sponsorship is pretty hard to arrange for a government > organization. My > pitch normally goes something like: > > """ > If you find you are getting substantial value from GDAL/OGR and you > would like to help sustain the project you might consider becoming > a sponsor: > > http://www.gdal.org/sponsorship.html > > Sponsorship helps us fund bug fixing and other efforts to sustain > the project. Sponsors get some degree of priority in getting > bug fixes, and receive credit on our credits page. Let me know > if you might be interested, or have any questions about sponsorship. > """ > > In a few cases I've offered to waive an hourly fee to fix some bug or > implement some small feature if an organization would like to become > a sponsor. I've turned what might have been a personal invoice for > $500 into a $3000 silver sponsorship a couple times this way, though > generally these organizations might already have been well disposed > to sponsorship without my sweetening the pot. > > I do avoid situations where sponsors are offered specific promises > in return for sponsorship unless it is something I'd be doing out of > my own time. For instance I discussed possible sponsorship options > with > a large company who seemed to want to tie it to efforts to incorporate > or do work on a particular library of theirs and I stressed that > sponsorship would need to be distinct from any efforts in that regard. > > Well - thats the collection side. > > The other side is making productive use of the money. > > In the GDAL project we have only used the money for two things so far. > One has been funding a contract paid maintainer position which is > focused > on bug fixing, though it also takes on some other project tasks. We > have > also used it to purchase project t-shirts handed out at the 2007 code > sprint. > > We have been very lucky to have Mateusz Loskot available as our paid > maintainer. He is a skilled self-starter and does not require much > direction, though he has responded well to my priority setting. We > have > a written up RFC describing how the paid maintainer role works: > > http://trac.osgeo.org/gdal/wiki/rfc9_maintainer > > My main problem so far in this regard has been Mateusz' limited > availability, and in fact we have accumulated a significant amount of > money in the project fund as he hasn't had enough time available to > consume it all. > > With regard to paid maintenance I will note a couple things about the > GDAL project. > > 1) I have deliberately kept the remuneration fairly modest for this > role. > $20/hr or so. This is for a couple reasons. First, it helps avoid a > sense amoung the unpaid developers that someone is getting rich off > the > project. The maintainer pay isn't enough to make anyone particular > jealous though it may still cause some existing contributors to "leave > it to the paid guy" for some things. The other reason is I want the > sponsors to feel that their money is being stretched fairly > effectively. > > Actually, the third reason is that I like to see this maintainer role > as a sort of stepping stone that could lead the maintainer to more > lucrative private contracting related to the project. > > 2) I have deliberately avoided having the funding go to the existing > core team - especially to the PSC members who actually decide on the > dispersement of the funds. In particular, I've never taken any GDAL > project money for myself. I've been concerned about appearance of > self-dealing or our profiteering off the project. I'm not sure how > reasonable these concerns are - but to me it was important that the > money be seen going to bring additional resources to the project > that wouldn't have been their otherwise and to avoid any appearance > of impropriety in the handling of the money. > > -- > > Mateusz is no longer available for the maintainer role (he has > accepted > a related full time job), so now we are having to search for a new > maintainer. It isn't so easy to find someone with good dev skills, > a pre-apparent interest in GDAL and a willingness to work for modest > financial returns. Our ability to find a new maintainer may well be > a major test for our sponsorship program. > > Overall, the sponsorship program was one of the reasons I was > interested > in launching OSGeo and having GDAL join it. I wanted an orderly, > transparent > mechanism where organizations could help fund the project > development in > a way beyond funding specific new features. I think it has gone > fairly > well though I hope for a more stable maintainer role in the future. > > I will say that I think using some of the funding for team building > activities is a good idea. We did the t-shirts from this fund, and in > the future I could imagine using the funds to help support a GDAL > code sprint, or perhaps cool prizes for the best bug report, best > patch etc. > > -- > > One other point I'll mention is that 25% of the sponsorship funds > collected go to fund general OSGeo activities. I have not heard > any complaints about this in the context of the GDAL project (from > sponsors or developers) though I have heard resistance on this from > other projects. I think it is important to see this as supporting > the underlying infrastructure and community that OSGeo provides to > projects. > > But if you see the project sponsorship program as a way to raise > money to fund specific new developments then this cut may seem > painful. I do think it is important to *not* treat project > sponorship as a mechanism for an organization to fund a specific > development. Direct contracting with a consultant is still better > for that sort of thing. > > I hope this is somewhat helpful. > > Best regards, > -- > --------------------------------------- > +-------------------------------------- > I set the clouds in motion - turn up | Frank Warmerdam, [EMAIL PROTECTED] > light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam > and watch the world go round - Rush | Geospatial Programmer for > Rent > __________________________________________ Paul Spencer Chief Technology Officer DM Solutions Group Inc http://research.dmsolutions.ca/ _______________________________________________ Dev mailing list [email protected] http://openlayers.org/mailman/listinfo/dev
