--- Ray Henry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hi guys. > > These posts bring to mind two long running thoughts, one directly > related to EMC and one not quite so related. > > There was a heated discussion at that long ago FEST meeting in > Ann Arbor > when we created the EMC board. It was related to it's (us) > becoming a > legal entity. It was my opinion, still is, that we need such an > entity > so that we can accept and use contributions to the central > benefit of > the project -- contributions of code, cash, or whatever. I don't > have a > clue exactly how we would set up and prioritize cash or equipment > worthy > projects but many other open source projects have jumped that > hurdle and > are legal entities that accept and distribute cash. >
Doesn't sound like a bad idea to me. I think non-profit would be better, otherwise ya pay a lot in taxes. Plus being un-sueable has its benefits. I can think of some things the money could be used for: -Defray travel costs for developers who must travel long distances to get to the fest. -Ensure all developers have at least a small machine and some tooling (It's much easier to program and debug when you have actual hardware and have hands-on knowledge of how it's used) -Buy relatively high-dollar items to aid developers (fourth axis, renishaw probe, DSO, etc) > > Second thought is connected to the idea of web mediated > manufacturing. > Yep someone would need to take the lead at least on a per product > basis. > That person would probably never make the kind of wages that a > product > coordinator (vice president) might make in a traditional > business. > Probably the leader of that first product would not make much at > all on > it. There is a lot of manufacturing ability among us. We've got > folk > who can handle everything from electronic and computational > circuits to > metal working to assembly, distribution, accounting, and product > liability. I like this one! However, as others have mentioned, there are the problems of payment and shipping. Shipping things like chunks of steel can be expensive - this could eat up profits. Or if it's fragile - a precision part made of soft metal, a circuit board, etc - and someone at your favorite shipper drop-kicks it into a wall because it's marked fragile. (Yes, I know someone who says they saw co-workers do this at an airport!) It would certainly be helpful for people who are getting started and need something made - say motor mounts - that maybe isn't easy to machine manually. Or they need circuit boards. or.... This sounds like the way RepRap fabbers are expected to spread: Get the parts for your own, then once the machine is complete, make several copies of those parts and ship them to other people so they can build their own. Exponential growth, if everyone with a RepRap does it. Mark ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Still grepping through log files to find problems? Stop. Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser. Download your FREE copy of Splunk now >> http://get.splunk.com/ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
