Chris,
I completely respect the work that you're doing and the way that you're
interacting in this community. However I, like others, feel that the problem
will not be solved simply by the current folks involved contributing more
money.
The problem I'm referring to is a perception of sustainability problem.
Having one central developer who controls everything about the project,
including the website, is not sustainable. So, how can we make Trisquel be
perceived to be sustainable, and therefore worth donating to?
One way is to be as transparent and accountable about the development process
as is possible.
As MagicFab writes above:
"There are no reports that I know of, or foundation, or organizational
structure to provide the expected transparency and communciate this to gather
more support, etc.."
If those currently controlling development (i.e. Rubén) want other people to
get involved and help to control development, then they *must* provide as
much information as is possible (i.e. the info MagicFab is asking for). Many
here feel that since Rubén doesn't appear to be providing the kind of
development information they need or the kind of organizational support
they'd like, that Rubén would prefer to maintain control of the project
himself with little to no outside help. They feel that he wants the community
to pay him to do the work, even though there may be some really great people
interested in donating their time and energy.
My point is, Chris, you seem to go back to the "lack of funding" as the main
problem or even the idea that "we need some one to lead." But, to me and
others, that's not the problem. It's the lack of transparency and
accountability in the current development process that's holding things up.
I believe that once the organizational side of things surrounding current
development practices is resolved, enabling the current development process
to fully utilize the long list of volunteers listed here, as oysterboy notes,
the financial side of things will start to improve.
At that time, it will make sense for people in my situation to consider
donating so that someone can manage the project. Until then, I'm hesitant to
give money because it's, as you say, only going into Rubén's pocket.
Oysterboy, do you have any links to other projects that share the kind of
information you think will be helpful for Trisquel to share? Does anyone
else? Maybe all we need to do is create a wiki page with this information and
ask Rubén to fill in the blanks? Or, along with creating a wiki page, we
need to come up with questions that we'd like Rubén to answer so that the
knowledge needed can be made public?
For example, let's say we want an accounting report of donations made over
the past 3 months and that we'd like this report made public every 3 months
thereafter. The names of those donating can be removed and kept confidential
if needed, but the financial amounts along with the total amount of money
available for Trisquel development could be made public.
Anyone else see where I'm going with this?
