On Mon, 1 May 2006, Thierry Andriamirado wrote:
> > You, the users, can start a Lazarus/FPC foundation if you feel that the
> > development
> > and support of Lazarus/FPC can be advanced by it.
>
> I think that a foundation can really be a good thing... if it has a good
> start, I mean if:
> * core developers and users understand, before the starting point, what
> this foundation HAVE TO do and what it CAN or CAN NOT do
IMHO:
The restriction on the foundation is that it cannot order the devels.
All decisions regarding sources remain with the devels: they "own"
the sources...
> * we understand that such a foundation can't be a COMMUNITY
> substitution. It 'only' is a tool to help and promote the projects, fpc
> and lazarus, the coders, and the 'users'. Is it?
It is.
> * we take care of the composition of the board's members.
Obviously. We're not going to invite Java devels ;-)
> > The Foundation can do mainly 3 things:
> > 1. Support users.
> > 2. Sponsor hardware.
> > 3. Put bids on rent-a-coder (and similar) for developing new things or
> > fixing bugs.
> > The resulting code can be inserted in the main tree if devels agree, or
> > distributed
> > as separate patches (which I doubt would be necessary).
>
> Other ideas:
> 4. What about some promotion/advocacy stuffs? For example, Fatir
> Demirdag talked about pascal "considered as old, incapable and dead
> language". I think FPC and Lazarus are important projects. Not only for
> fun or business related stuffs. But people simply DON'T KNOW IT!!
I saw this as part of support. But you are right.
>
> 5. For countries like Madagascar, Open Source Softwares have to be
> important and can really help peoples to learn and use Technology. The
> creation of a foundation can be the opportunity to push for the use of
> FPC and Lazarus in these countries. (Can maybe be merged with 4.?)
>
> > After all, it is YOU, the users that will benefit from it. The developers
> > will have
> > little or no practical benefit from the foundation. Maybe some tasks will
> > be lifted
>
> IMHO, a foundation has to be started IF it can benefit:
> * the project
> * the core developers
> * the users
>
> Failing to do so can end on frustrations and/or too divergent
> objectives.
>
> > from their hands, but there will be just as much new tasks. For instance
> > for a
> > foundation, you are required to do double bookkeeping (at least here in
> > Belgium).
> > I'm sure none of the devels wants to do that. It's a practical burden.
> >
> > The FPC developers do what they do because they like developing FPC,
> > and are not interested in the administrative and organisational
> > burdens that come with managing a foundation (such as bookkeeping).
>
> Ok, but we have to keep them into the decision process, into the
> foundation. So some of them can be part of the board, allways informed
> and participating in each decisions, but without administrative tasks.
That is why I offered to be a 'liaison'.
>
> > If you start a foundation, I'll be glad to be a 'member of the board' or
> > whatever
> > it's called, and act as a liaison between the foundation and the developers.
>
> IMHO, we have to know how many members does the board need, and to
> decide, in xx percent basis, how many core developers with defined role
> have to be involved. It's obvious that Michael has to be member of the
> board, but I think that only 1 developer surrounded by 10 'users' can be
> source of problems.
You hugely underestimate my stubbornness ;-)
It's proverbial in my family ;-)
No seriously, I don't think this is a problem. We don't want to burden the
devels. In my eyes, my only function would be to keep devels informed, and
communicate their views to the foundation. Decisions regarding source code
should be taken by the devels separately.
Keep in mind that IMHO the sources will be the exclusive domain of the devels:
since they do the work, and they want to keep it 'fun', it's their say
what can be done and what not. This seems to me a "conditio sine qua non"
for the devels.
> > The ball is in your camp...
>
> I think that at least, say 4 weeks, have to be taken before the starting
> point.
I think 4 weeks is little :)
>
> Also, it may be helpfull to dedicate a little part of the website to get
> the community involved: what about polls? with some predefined
> questions.
Feel free to set it up somewhere. I'll copy it to the FPC website,
or add a link to it from the main FPC page. I'm sure someone can do the
same for the Lazarus website.
Like we said, the ball is in your camp.
Michael.
_________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe: mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with
"unsubscribe" as the Subject
archives at http://www.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailarchives
