On 16/09/2010 6:49 AM, jaropis wrote:
A few days ago Tal Galili posted a message about some controversies
concerning the future of R. Having read the discussions, especially those
following Ross Ihaka's post, I have come to the conclusion, that, as usual,
the problem is money. I doubt there would be discussions about dropping R in
its present form if the R-Foundation were properly funded and could hire
computer scientists, programmers and statisticians. If a commercial company
is able to provide big-database and multicore solutions, then so would a
properly founded R-Foundation.
In my opinion the main reason for the lack of funding is that the Foundation
does not want to accept it from users and waits for the likes of Google to
bring them a sack of money. I have already posted about this, but this seems
to be the time and place to repeat it: it is very difficult to donate
anything to the R-Foundation. First you have to find the appropriate link at
the r-project page, then you have to fill out a form and send or fax it to
the Foundation. I am not comfortable sending my details over snail-mail or
fax.
I would GLADLY donate 30-50$ each year just to see R develop, but there
needs to be a way for me to do it in a civilized manner. If the userbase of
R is over 2 million there will surely be 100,000 users who, like myself,
will happily fork out 40$ a year - would that help? you can do the
calculation yourselves. Set up a donation page in which I will be able to
pay by credit card or PayPal and you will start getting donations from
individual users. Advertise this at the startup message of the program: say
something like "support us at www.suppoRtR.com" and the money will start
coming. I am sure there would be enough to employ some foundation members
full-time, pay external CSs and even protect the system in court from those
who make money off of somebody else's work and do not give back to the
community (you know who I am talking about).
R and the Foundation have helped a lot of us to do our research and make
real money. Now give us a chance to help you!
Sure, I'd love to have $4M, but writing this to the R-help list isn't
going to bring it in. You should convince the executive of the R
Foundation. The co-Presidents are Ross Ihaka and Robert Gentleman.
Duncan Murdoch
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