On Tue, Nov 10, 2020 at 04:02:55PM +0000, Sad Clouds wrote: > On Tue, 10 Nov 2020 08:32:29 -0500 > matthew sporleder <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Indeed -- casting a wide net is in our interest. I hope you are able > > to use one of our many potential donation offerings -- paypal, stripe, > > amazon smile, github sponsorship.. any I am missing? > > I think what may be missing is sponsorship for specific features. > NetBSD foundation normally decide where to spend the resources. It may > be used for worthwhile projects, but for different people some features > are more tangible than others. > > For example, I'd be interested in sponsoring NetBSD on sun4v > architecture with support for LDOMs. OpenBSD have done a lot of work in > this area and there may be a lot of potential for porting their code. > Some of their developers could be interested in doing it if NetBSD > agreed a full-time paid project. > > 1. Identify the scope and cost. > 2. If cost is feasible, setup project sponsorship page. > 3. If enough money is raised over a set period of time, project goes > ahead, otherwise money is returned to the sponsors. > 4. NetBSD oversee the delivery and quality of the project. > > This approach is more targeted and allows the sponsors to have a say in > how their money is spent. If nobody is interested in a project and not > enough money is raised, then - c'est la vie...
The usual way that TNF funding of projects work is that a developer will come to TNF with a proposal for the project to fund their work. Actively seeking out developers when nobody has come forward is a challenge, because the sums of money are usually too little to have consulting firms interested. In the absence of any framework, I've shamelessly posted that I am offering a bounty for some netbsd/pkgsrc related work on tech-pkg/tech-kern and it was successful (IMO). We can write down all the names & offers if there are too many, but this is not the case now. As for sun4v, I believe Palle is doing work on this sometimes.
