Re: forwarded proposal to finance some hurd work

[olafBuddenhagen]

Hi,

On Tue, May 10, 2011 at 09:07:31PM +0200, Tanguy LE CARROUR wrote:

> what exactly is a "community and outreach manager"?!

Basically, someone who takes care of all the non-development tasks that
need to be done, but usually are not adequately handled through
volunteer work alone: making sure goals are defined and worked on,
decisions are made an followed through, and releases happen; mediating
disputes; welcoming and encouraging new contributers; making sure
patches and questions don't fall through the cracks; taking care that
the web site and documentation are in good order; submitting news
stories; organising and/or giving interviews; organising conferences;
organising participation in programs such as GSoC; and so on and on.

> Anyway, the money is still there... we just have to find something to
> do with it!

Unfortunately, I can't think of any way to spend small sums (in the
order of a few hundred or thousand dollars) in a way that would actually
advance the Hurd :-(

At some point I considered spending such money on organising
conferences. However, conferences only require money if we rent a venue
on our own, and/or remimburse travel costs for attendees. However, this
requires someone to actually take care of these things -- so without a
community manager, it just won't happen.

The cheapest thing I can think of that would actually have an impact on
the Hurd's progress -- namely hiring someone part-time for Hurd-related
work -- would require something in the order of $15,000 a year I'd say.

Call me a pessimist: but I just don't see this kind of money coming in
through individual donations :-(

-antrik-