Hi,
I have been thinking about this on my way back from the meeting,
and while maybe I did not make a strong-enough argument, I must
say that I am fairly upset about the cavalier way in which we handle
major decisions pertaining to ILUG-D, and Freed.in. While this is
a rather long message, I do urge each of you to go through it, and
comment on it.
To give some background to folk who were not present, it was
generally agreed upon at the meeting that the current programme of
workshops at local colleges was a good thing, and one that should
be tied in to Freed.in. The issue was how to make this effort
sustainable, i.e., have a regular programme of workshops culminating
in Freed.in 2009.
My proposal in this respect was to have Sarai (the organisation
that I work with) kick some money into the workshop programme through
a FOSS project that it has taken on. One way that I thought of to do
that was to pay an honorarium to speakers, say Rs. 1K for normal
(1-hr) talks, and Rs. 2K for in-depth workshops. The cost would come
to Rs. 6-8K per workshop, and the host college would be expected to
pick up costs for travel, food, accommodation (if needed), and other
incidental expenses. Sarai could, in principle, pay for other expenses,
but (a) I strongly feel that the local college should pay for some
of the cost, and (b) it is much easier for Sarai to pay against actual
bills, rather than paying a lump-sum to ILUG-D. A complete proposal to
Sarai in this regard could include Sarai committing to put in
sponsorship money into Freed.in 2009 (roughly, my guess is that we
could chip in about Rs. 1 lakh)
To the best of what I remember (and, please correct me if I have
forgotten something), the opposition to this proposal ran along the
following points: (a) The amount of 6-8K/workshop was too little if
Sarai received equal billing along with Freed.in, (b) Even if Sarai
also promised 1 lakh to Freed.in 2009 sponsorship, we were not sure
of actually getting that money.
The counter-proposal was to (a) have Sarai pay ILUG-D a lump-sum
for each workshop, with 20K being agreed-upon as a reasonable sum,
and (b) forget Sarai, and ask the host college to ante-up on all
necessary funds, including the lump-sum payment to ILUG-D.
Let me now make the counter-arguments that I should have raised
at the meeting. For the moment, I will put on my Sarai hat, and
ask hard questions of you all:
(a) As per my original proposal, say 8-10 workshops, and 1 lakh for
Freed.in 2009, Sarai's contribution comes to at least about
Rs. 1.5 lakh. Maybe more, if the funds allow, and we can find
explicit charges to bill for the workshops. This is certainly
not something to sneer at. And, as for the issue of the money
being too low for the publicity that Sarai gets from juxtaposition
to Freed.in, I think that we are too full of ourselves at times.
On one hand we claim that the Freed.in brand is such a great
thing, and how we deserve huge sums of money, and on the other
hand we are not willing to expend the effort to really make that
true. In case people had not noticed, we have delivered on close
to zero of the promises from the Feb. 2008 conclave, and Intel is
most unlikely to sponsor us again.
(b) With regards to Sarai delivering on its promises, we would
have as valid a commitment as we had from Sun for example, a
written contract if so desired, and my word to back it up. I am
not sure if other people would agree, but Sarai is much, much
closer in terms of ideals to ILUG-D/Freed.in than either of Sun
or Intel.
(c) I could be wrong here, but from what I have seen, asking local
colleges to pay ILUG-D 10-20K/workshop just will not happen.
Even where they have funds, and the willingness to do that,
they would be faced with issues similar to the ones that
Sarai faces, in terms of making not-directly-accounted-for
payments to external agents. And, believe me, Sarai will be
easier to deal with in this regard. As opposed to horse-trading
with each institution separately, the Sarai money is there
once, and for all.
(d) Management issues: Sarai has made a commitment to the project
that funds us, and we will hold such workshops in any case.
If ILUG-D/Freed.in chooses not to participate we have *no*
option but to go ahead anyway, even though this will probably
mean a change of focus towards more localisation-related stuff,
fewer workshops, and probably more workshops outside Delhi.
Part of the reason that I wanted to involve ILUG-D/Freed.in is
that this would allow me time from Sarai's side to manage
the workshops, and if this does not happen, I am not sure how
much time I could devote to a separate programme of Freed.in
workshops, nor how I could build a rationale for this. Please
understand that I do not mean this as a threat, or as if
someone else from ILUG-D could not step in, and take over such
work, but as a realistic view of things. In the final analysis,
Sarai pays me a salary, and ILUG-D doesn't, so like it or not,
in my opinion, I am more answerable to them.
Looking forward to flamewars^W counter-arguments. Remember, we are
all kindness and light these days, thanks to the grace of
St. Gonsalves.
Regards,
Gora
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