Eric has been right at the centre of TiddlyWiki since almost the
beginning, and his willingness to share his expertise is now one of
the hallmarks of our community. I've been privileged to spend many
happy evenings chewing the fat with him in Sunnyvale. I'll pick up
some of the other topics from this thread separately, but the main
thing is to address Eric's central crisis. I'll explain what I've
tried to do in the past, and what I plan to do now.
When I joined BT I tried to address Eric's needs by persuading BT to
support UnaMesa, which they have generously continued to do after my
departure (albeit the amount has been reduced in recent years in line
with BT's internal cost cutting programme). We failed, though, to
bring any other supporters on board, making it hard to give Eric the
level of income he deserves.
The thing that might not be clear from the outside is that at the time
of the Osmosoft acquisition BT weren't really terribly interested in
TiddlyWiki itself; they wanted to bring me on board to help them
understand open source and to learn how to use it sensibly. TiddlyWiki
was part of my qualifications, but not really of specific interest.
That's changed now; Osmosoft is all about TiddlySpace, TiddlyWeb and
TiddlyWiki. If the projects using them really take hold in BT then
perhaps we'll be able to persuade BT to offer more support to the
community.
Now I've chosen to leave BT because I crave the independence of being
able to work with a much wider range of clients. I don't expect a
great deal of my consultancy work to be directly about TiddlyWiki, but
it will absolutely be *because of* TiddlyWiki. So, one of my first
goals is to give some love and polish to TiddlyWiki, to make it be a
decent calling card. I love coding, and haven't done nearly enough for
a long time.
Now, Eric's work makes TiddlyWiki better and brighter, and so it makes
sense for me to try to support him directly out of my consultancy
income. I'll commit to a regular monthly donation, that will hopefully
rise as I get my teeth into my new working life.
Best wishes
Jeremy
On Mon, Nov 7, 2011 at 10:43 PM, Eric Shulman <elsdes...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear TiddlyFriends,
>
> Most of you know me as the author of TiddlyTools.com ("Small Tools for
> Big Ideas"), where I publish and actively maintain hundreds of
> original TiddlyWiki addons (plugins, scripts, themes, etc.) that I
> have written. You also know me as the moderator and a "key
> contributor" to the TiddlyWiki GoogleGroups, where I often post
> detailed instructions, explanations and solutions in response to
> questions posed by people who are using TiddlyWiki in many different
> aspects of their daily lives. Some of you may also know that,
> professionally, I earn my living as an independent consultant,
> specializing in User Experience Design and Information Architecture,
> providing software design and development services to companies and
> individuals in Silicon Valley and the surrounding San Francisco Bay
> Area, as well as remotely over the net.
>
> What most of you don't know is that, since 2006, I have been providing
> ongoing TiddlyWiki consulting services to the UnaMesa Association --
> the non-profit organization that holds the copyright on the TiddlyWiki
> source. In addition to earning a modest but steady income (enough to
> cover my basic living expenses) from working directly on UnaMesa-
> sponsored TiddlyWiki projects, the primary effect of their financial
> support has been to help promote the overall health and growth of the
> worldwide TiddlyWiki community by allowing me to focus most of my time
> and effort on creating and publishing new addons and providing
> technical assistance to the TiddlyWiki community without the constant
> distraction of seeking out new clients/projects.
>
> Unfortunately, since the beginning of 2011, UnaMesa has been facing a
> fiscal shortfall that has significantly reduced their financial
> support for my TiddlyWiki activities. Although there may still be
> some funds budgeted for specific UnaMesa-sponsored projects, funds for
> general TiddlyWiki "community support services" have been completely
> exhausted and are no longer available. Regardless, despite this loss
> of funding, the *need* for these community support services has not
> changed. In fact, as TiddlyWiki continues to grow and evolve, it is
> being applied to an ever-increasing variety of sophisticated real-
> world applications for which technical help and assistance are almost
> certain to be even more vital.
>
> From a personal perspective, the problem is simple: in order to
> continue providing full-time support to the worldwide TiddlyWiki
> community, I must quickly find a way to replace the loss of revenue
> from UnaMesa, ideally without the distraction of finding and working
> on *non*-TiddlyWiki consulting projects. Of course, TiddlyTools.com
> is an open-source effort, so there are no licensing fees for the
> addons I have published, and my online assistance has also been
> offered free of charge. However, there *is* a "tip jar" form on
> TiddlyTools.com (see http://www.TiddlyTools.com/#Donations) that
> allows you to easily make voluntary contributions (via PayPal) as a
> way of showing your appreciation and support for my continued efforts.
>
> You should consider making one (or more) donations to the tip jar if
> you:
> * use TiddlyTools plugins, scripts, etc. on a regular basis
> * have been helped by my online answers, even if you didn't ask the
> question!
> * request specific help for your document (and I provide a useful
> response)
> * request enhancements to plugins to add new features for specific use-
> cases
> * or, just generally appreciate and want to support my TiddlyWiki work
>
> You should also note that, in addition to rewarding specific efforts,
> your donations will help give me time for ongoing general maintenance
> of the main TiddlyTools.com document in response to updates in the
> TWCore, as well as time to develop and publish new addons and
> TiddlyTools QuickStart(tm) documents (pre-configured, task-optimized
> mini-applications). The amount and frequency of your donations are
> entirely up to you, and should be based on how much benefit you feel
> you actually receive as a result of my work. Ask yourself how much
> time/effort you've saved, and how much that is truly worth in real
> dollars... and then donate an amount that you feel comfortable with.
>
> Even with generous community contributions, I don't realistically
> expect that my *entire* monthly budget will always be covered by
> voluntary donations from the TiddlyWiki community (though it would be
> very nice -- and would bring me great JOY!). So, in addition the
> TiddlyTools.com "tip jar", you can also directly **HIRE ME** to
> provide professional-quality consulting services for your TiddlyWiki
> documents, including analysis and evaluation of the overall document
> design, diagnosis and debugging to help locate and fix complex
> document errors, general solutions for common problems, and custom
> development of new plugins (or enhancements to existing plugins) to
> support your specific needs.
>
> My professional services are available on an as-needed basis, or as
> ongoing consulting as part of a planned, scheduled project effort.
> For tasks under 1 hour, you should make a suitable donation to my tip
> jar. For short-term projects or complex diagnostic/debugging
> requests, I offer reasonable hourly, daily, and weekly rates. For
> larger, long-term projects, a fixed-cost monthly retainer can also be
> arranged.
>
> It is my hope that, through a combination of consistent and generous
> tip jar donations combined with earnings from private TiddlyWiki
> consulting projects, the TiddlyWiki community itself can provide the
> funds so I can continue to do the work I love without distractions:
> providing full-time technical support and advice to the worldwide
> TiddlyWiki community.
>
> So, my friends, it is now up to you... as the holiday season
> approaches, please consider giving thanks by making a gift to the
> TiddlyTools "tip jar". Whether its just a 'stocking stuffer', or
> Santa's entire workshop, your financial support will truly be "the
> gift that keeps on giving".
>
> Be Well, Be Happy.
>
> much thanks,
> -e
>
> Eric Shulman
> TiddlyTools / ELS Design Studios
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "TiddlyWiki" group.
> To post to this group, send email to tiddlywiki@googlegroups.com.
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> tiddlywiki+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
> For more options, visit this group at
> http://groups.google.com/group/tiddlywiki?hl=en.
>
>
--
Jeremy Ruston
mailto:jer...@osmosoft.com
http://www.tiddlywiki.com
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"TiddlyWiki" group.
To post to this group, send email to tiddlywiki@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
tiddlywiki+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/tiddlywiki?hl=en.
