1. I would like to get the Watir project non-profit status in the US. This would make donations from Americans tax-deductible, which is likely to help with fundraising. Also the simple fact that we are a non-profit will add legitimacy.
2. It would provide institutional support for Watir. Today, Watir is a pet project of a number of individuals. We would assign ownership of Watir assets (domain names, repositories, copyrights) to the Conservancy. Today, if one of us were to die or if there were a personal fallout between key contributors, the project could end up in limbo and have difficulty moving forward. Institutionalization would help the long-term security of the project. 3. It would make me feel better about accepting donations. Currently, donations show up in my personal bank account. Instead, we would have an account for the project, and we would have clear rules about how the funds would be spent and who needs to approve expenses. I am currently somewhat uncomfortable having my personal funds mixed up with the Watir project funds. 4. I am eager to try and get significantly increased funding for the project to support ongoing development work. I think this will be easier to solicit and negotiate with larger companies if we have a more formal institutional structure ourselves. We could achieve these goals by joining the conservancy, creating our own nonprofit, or perhaps by finding another umbrella group to sponsor us. Bret On Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 4:11 PM, Željko Filipin < zeljko.fili...@wa-research.ch> wrote: > On Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 8:25 PM, Bret Pettichord <b...@pettichord.com> > wrote: > > I would like to put together an application to join the Software Freedom > Conservancy. > > For those not monitoring Selenium groups/lists, Selenium recently joined > Software Freedom Conservancy: > > http://sfconservancy.org/news/2011/feb/02/selenium-joins/ > > I have read everything you have linked and followed a few links that looked > relevant, and I like the idea. > > To start the discussion, could you list a few reasons why you would like us > to join Software Freedom Conservancy? > > Željko > -- > watir.com - community manager > watir.com/book - author > viaqa.mobi conference on software testing - organizer > watirpodcast.com - host > > _______________________________________________ > Wtr-development mailing list > Wtr-development@rubyforge.org > http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/wtr-development > -- Bret Pettichord Director, Watir Project, www.watir.com Blog, www.testingwithvision.com Twitter, www.twitter.com/bpettichord
_______________________________________________ Wtr-development mailing list Wtr-development@rubyforge.org http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/wtr-development
