Hi Jean,
....
A more immediate problem or question related to the (not yet
made) request to either remove the links or give the money to
TeamOOo: no decision has been made by the members of this list
about where the money will go. We've had some discussion on the
list, but the closest thing to a decision is "when we have some
money to decide about, then we'll decide". As it may be some time
before we have profits, I'm unhappy with the idea that we might
be asked to remove links based on speculation about what the
decision about the money may turn out to be.
Also, why does the "profits being used for the community" have to
mean only "profits go to TeamOOo to decide how to spend"?
TeamOOo is the only instance, that is present at global websites within
OOo and and has no special focus (not focused on a region or an a
sub-project).
There are other associations, that promote OOo, "sell" OOo materials,
accept donations and give (parts of) those donations back to the
community. I for myself am board member of such a association. And we
have severeal discussions (how to spend the money, how strongly should
we promote and collect oney how should this presented at OOo and other
sites).
At the moment we are listet for accepting donations at the german
donation page. There will be printed books, where we get some of the
profits - those will be listed at a "books for sales page". Parts of
those books will (hopefully) published under PDL.
So .. I'm aware of the need to do things in your own way and of some
problems that will araise with the community itself.
Although some people have suggested that one use for the future
profits is to donate to a charity, I personally don't like that
idea... I think the profits should be spent to benefit OOo. Of
course we will all have different ideas and priorities on how
best to do that, but IMO it's too restrictive to say that giving
it to TeamOOo is the only acceptable way. I'm not saying it's
unreasonable for CC to demand that, but I believe that other ways
should be equally acceptable.
It think, the discussion did start from the wrong end. It stated (here)
with removing OOo Authors books.
At the Council it started with thinking about adverticements and
promoting payed for materials at our website. If we'd accept
advertizements at any place, if the "partner" gives some of money back
to OOo, our website could easily be sold. Everybody who pays 10$ for a
banner is giving some of his profits to the community.
BTW, if I were as sneaky as Ian Laurenson seems to think I am, I
would propose that we agree to give the money to TeamOOo and then
later (when we actually have some money) change our minds! But I
much prefer to have this discussion open and honest. And if Andre
is right about changing the requirement to "some of the profits",
then perhaps we can find a compromise that everyone is happy with
(except maybe Ian).
*sigh* as you might have read above, I changed my mind after having some
thoughts. I see, that OOoAuthors is not the same as , let's say,
O'Reilly. But it is not easy to say, what is just
payed-for-advertizement and what is advertizement for donations to the
community. As said .. I'll have the same problem within some weeks.
To me, the way to go is, to have a List of payed-for boks and mark those
that are produced by the community and/or give some of the profits back
to the community.
I have no perfekt solution .. so thanks for discussing this in a
positive manner.
andré
