Robert Osfield wrote:
Basically I'm crap at writing English. It takes me a great effort to
write even small bits of text and it is full or grammatical errors and
spelling mistakes. My brain was wired up badly for communication at an
early age, I have to live with the consequences, and so do all that ever
have to read what I write :-)
Actually, I'd like to commend you on one of the clearer and least error-prone missives
in quite some time! ;)
Paul has been in discussion with Don and I about the possibility of a
book, and there may even be some slightly indirect ways to help fund a
bit of its development. However, I'd like to see such work pay
properly, just as normal contracting work, this way one can concentrate
on it without needing to drop it for a couple of months to help pay the
bills.
Agreed.
I support Paul 100%. I suspect it might still require contributions from certain other
domain "experts" to flesh out the book -- typically one person cannot really be an expert
in everything.
Chris' suggestion of future readers punting up cash is one I have
thought about as a possibility before. Could it work? Personally I'd
rather see a book funded like this and published online under an open
license, with hard copies later bought for hard cash. Self publishing
might be enough to keep costs down that pennies put into the project
would mostly go to those working hard on the book.
I'd be good with this too. I don't care what form the output is in. Many organizations
might want to see a physical "thing" in return for their money though.
I also wondering if corporate sponsorship might work, with rather than a
$50-$100 here or there coming in from end users, having various
companies put in $1000+ would be able to make a project happens much
sooner. Sponsorship has to make sense, its effectively advertising, so
a page in the book on the sponsors could accompany personal lists of
sponsors. Book pages also translate into web pages.
I agree that this is worthwhile, but selling a $1000 contribution is a lot harder than
$50 to $100. I can drop $100 on book budget with impunity. $1000 requires lengthy
justification. Maybe a few companies might bite on sponsorship, but many more would be
happy to just chip in the minimum ante.
If we can pull together enough income for the book, the work could
extend to the code and the website. Ideally I'd like a whole coherent
website, book and software that all key into each other and make sense
individually, but become really compelling once you tie them all together.
I think this gets into a bigger question of future purpose. Are there benefactors who
want to generally improve the state of OSG as a whole, who would pony up for a yearly
general sponsorship amount? Doesn't matter how much it is, but they could be listed as a
sponsor on the website along with their dollar amount and some level of promotion
proportional to their contribution. In return, the OSG community (basically administered
by Robert & Don) will fulfill certain agenda items. A yearly agenda and required budget
could be proposed in advance. Like the "bounty", work on items would commence when funding
was appropriated for them. The agenda could prioritize funding for the items, or perhaps
contributors could specify which items they'd like to see funded with their contribution.
Essentially, we decide what we'd like to see done, and what it will take to get it
done, and start asking for people to vote with their pocketbooks. If someone wants to see
something done but doesn't have the cash, they can contribute sweat equity if they're
qualified and able.
There's nothing groundbreaking here. It's just a matter of making it explicit what
ought to get done, and trying to find a way to get those things done in a prompt window of
time. This is sort of what I was hoping to provoke by asking people to discuss what they'd
like to see done.
I am fully in support of this model. If someone comes up with a list that has things on
it that my company would like to see done, I can find dollars to facilitate this and/or
contribute effort to getting them done. If not enough other people are interested in the
same items, that means I have to go without, or dig deeper. It's a free and pretty
democratic market. And once the work is done, everyone benefits from it.
Robert.
--
Chris 'Xenon' Hanson aka Eric Hammil | http://www.3DNature.com/ eric at logrus
"I set the wheels in motion, turn up all the machines, activate the programs,
and run behind the scenes. I set the clouds in motion, turn up light and
sound,
activate the window, and watch the world go 'round." -Prime Mover, Rush.
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