At yesterday's COD session I asked Ezra if there was a system in place to accept money from individuals or organizations for the purpose of funding the development of COD. He was [as you would expect] very open to the notion. Currently no such system exists but the decision was made to take the conversation beyond the session.
My proposal:
We have ONE destination for the checks OR other forms of payments. These payments can be for any specific feature request, or issue queue post or for an unspecified reason.
I envision a gdo/cod wiki-post where each donor adds their name and amount to the list and what [if any] reason for it. Donors realize that the payment is not a magic bullet that will make their feature request or bug squashing request magically apear the next day or even week. We simply rely on the active developers to do their best to juggle other responsibilities BUT with consideration that COD work is now a funded operation; or at least is until the pool of funds dries up.
I really like this idea and I have already pledged the 1st $500 from the Indy Drupal Camp funds left over from 2010 camp. [THANK YOU to my fellow organizers!]
I am asking every camp to budget $500 for their COD distro just like if it was $500 for coffee or venue rental or something. And if you are putting on 2 [or more] paid events this year, I would even recommend $500 per event.
Mike Anello [of Orlando Camp fame] has also joined the pledge. [THANK YOU Mike!]
We now have $1,000 waiting for a home and I predict many more thousands once the word gets out.
We all need the most robust and functional COD we can have. It already ROCKS! But OMG what if we throw some $$$ at this & knock this baby out of the park?
I've already heard one expression of concern over this model and there is likely more concern to be found. I'm really hoping that this thread will quickly bring us into the adoption or rejection of this model.
If you are replying to this post please mention if you are wanting to make the COD500 Pledge. Two camps down and so many more to go! When [if] there's a place to put the $ we are doing so immediately.
Thank you,
- Doug Vann
- http://dougvann.com
Comments
Doug, Thanks for getting the
Doug,
Thanks for getting the ball rolling on this. One possible method of getting the money to the right place is based on a session and a BoF (great info here) at DrupalCon Chicago about this very topic (pooling community resources to build up infrastructure).
-mike
Suggestion
Thanks, Doug, for your interest in helping to fund improvements to COD.
My sense (and the view of GVS) is that this money is best spent funding local sprints for folks who worked on Camp sites so that they can help contribute any improvements they made back to COD. This way, the money goes directly to local communities and helps more people get involved with COD while also improving the platform.
If for whatever reason folks are unable to organize a sprint, then we suggest that folks contact one of the COD service providers listed on UseCod.com. While it might be convenient to have only one place to send money, COD is a community project, and we are happy to help work with anyone in the issue queue who is contributing back features that make sense for COD in general.
My reply
Oh man....
I typed a nice eloquent reply, way back when. I guess I got distracted and never hit SAVE.
Excellent idea Ezra, and THANK YOU for replying.
I'll talk with my fellow local group organizers and then contact one of the shops to see if we can get some tasks completed.
The sprint idea is an interesting and good one. The question would come down to WHO would organize them. That doesn't make the sprint solution any less viable, but it does require that someone or a group of someones take the initiative and upfront labor to make a sprint happen.
I can foresee sprints becoming an excellent market place for this; where an organizer starts the ball rolling, gathers talent, seeks sponsors, and commits the group to making advances in a specific project or projects. This is almost akin to camp organizing really.
For now, I'll follow, and recommend that others follow, your suggestion that we solicit the COD service providers to fund the development.
Thank you,
- DV
This came up again and I
This came up again and I wanted to share my prioritized list from best scenario to less-awesome-but-still-great.
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