David, I like the pledge idea. Codeweavers set up something similar where users can pledge money for a "favorite" windows application. The Codeweavers developers can then prioritize development to get new applications functioning based on the pledges for it. When they get it working, they collect the pledges for it.
The only problem is that people can be fickle and financial situations of people change over time so there is no certainty that all pledges will be collected. It Codeweavers case, for any pledge less than $500, they take your word for it. Over $500, they make you put money in escrow at www.escrow.com. Even with the collection uncertainty, the pledge idea is a good one and is probably better than direct contributions. I don't suppose Sun would share customer e-mail addresses in academia? It would be nice to contact users at universities to try and drum up pledges. -Matt --- David Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > There is still a remaining positive point, or some > light at the end of a long > tunnel, and that is that Sun developers have agreed > that bibliographic > 'improvements' should be in OOo version 3. No date > is yet set for version 3 > but I would guess that it is more than a 12 months > away. As far as I can tell > The Sun developers are still flat out bug fixing > version 2, and they have not > started a new round of enhancement planning. > > I have put in two submissions to give talks at the > OOo conference in Lyon, > France in Sept 2006 where I hope to promote the > Bibliographic Project. I am > depended upon getting a subsidy for the > Australia-France airfare. We should > hear if this is accepted or not in the next few > weeks. > > Regarding private funding, I have been somewhat > reluctant in the past, the > principle reason reason was that we probably needed > several thousand > dollars, and I was worried that if people sent in > less that the amount > needed, I would be left holding not enough money and > people pissed off > because nothing was happening. > > Perhaps we could set up scheme where people can make > pledges for funding. And > the pledges would only be collected when we have a > enough pledged for the > task ? If the pledged amount was not delivered by a > certain time it could be > refunded, or kept, depending on the donor's wishes. > Anyway I am will to > discuss ways and means. > > > regards > > > David > > > > > > > > On Thursday 15 June 2006 3:04 am, Matthew Yates > wrote: > > Wow, this series of e-mails is depressing. I am a > > professor at the University of Rochester and use > > Openoffice daily, so along with Matt Price and > Bruce > > D'Arcus, there are at least a few people > interested in > > using Openoffice in academia. I've been following > > this issue for some time (I'm the one who > suggested > > the failed attempt to get funding from the NSF > CCLI > > program). Bibliographic support is the ONLY > reason I > > do not use Openoffice exclusively and have my > students > > use it exclusively as well. I otherwise love it. > But > > right now I use Endnote on Linux using Codeweavers > > Crossover office to add/remove citations to papers > I > > write. I must then us MS Word to do the final > > formatting of the bibiography before submitting > for > > publication. > > > > I was really hopeful a year or so ago that better > > bibliographic support would be built in by now. I > am > > disturbed that people seem to be giving up now, > but I > > am not sure what can be done to help. If Sun > > developers will not be able to work on this, could > > they provide a reasonable estimate of coding man > hours > > needed based on the specs (and perhaps a cost > > estimate)? Could the community (me included) try > to > > raise funding that could be ear-marked for this > > project? If enough money could be set aside, then > > perhaps the development could move forward. As > with > > many people, I have little free time for this, but > it > > is an important issue for me and I would like to > help > > somehow. > > > > -Matt > > > > __________________________________________________ > > Do You Yahoo!? > > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam > protection around > > http://mail.yahoo.com > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > > To unsubscribe, e-mail: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > For additional commands, e-mail: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > -- > ------------------- > David N. Wilson > Co-Project Lead for the Bibliographic > OpenOffice Project > http://bibliographic.openoffice.org > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
