On Thu, 2008-10-23 at 07:08 -0400, John R. Frank wrote: > A benefit of identifying goals for funds is that, if properly selected, > they enable the project to point to achievements enabled by sponsorship > dollars. It's tough to raise money when past money was spent merely on > t-shirts; it's much easier to raise money when past money "enabled the > project to achieve __strategic_goal___" (the implementation of which > happened to have involved t-shirts).
John, I agree completely with your analysis, and, while I acknowledge the value of quantifiable goals, I wonder about their actual utility vis a vis the project. The key overall objective in seeking sponsorship seems to be to liberate developers' time to focus on crucial but under-attended facets of the project, and I worry that targeting extrinsic objectives with an emphasis on quantifying results may only serve to divert rather than focus our energies. I think the main selling point of OpenLayers sponsorship revolves around trust in the project leadership; we have stewarded the project well enough thus far; I think we can stand on that established reputation to ask earnestly for financial support with the expectation that the money will be well spent on the objectives that Christopher and others have already outlined. Good point, though: T-shirts? Cute, yes, but maybe not the best use of our time or money. Code sprints, on the other hand? If we can come up with a compelling agenda and use a code sprint to deliver on that agenda, that's another thing entirely. SDE _______________________________________________ Dev mailing list [email protected] http://openlayers.org/mailman/listinfo/dev
