Re: Commitfest problems - Mailing list pgsql-hackers
| From | Amit Kapila |
|---|---|
| Subject | Re: Commitfest problems |
| Date | |
| Msg-id | CAA4eK1KhR_F+8yY+rS4JcdLTwA+k9uPDp6Kp2gDV=dcj0JpStA@mail.gmail.com Whole thread Raw |
| In response to | Re: Commitfest problems (Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com>) |
| List | pgsql-hackers |
On Sat, Dec 13, 2014 at 1:13 AM, Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com> wrote:
>
> On 12/12/2014 11:35 AM, Alvaro Herrera wrote:
> > Uh, really? Last I looked at the numbers from SPI treasurer reports,
> > they are not impressive enough to hire a full-time engineer, let alone a
> > senior one.
> >
> > The Linux Foundation has managed to pay for Linus Torvalds somehow, so
> > it does sound possible. We have a number of companies making money all
> > over the globe, at least.
>
> You're looking at this wrong. We have that amount of money in the
> account based on zero fundraising whatsoever, which we don't do because
> we don't spend the money. We get roughly $20,000 per year just by
> putting up a "donate" link, and not even promoting it.
>
> So, what this would take is:
>
> 1) a candidate who is currently a known major committer
>
> 2) clear goals for what this person would spend their time doing
>
> 3) buy-in from the Core Team, the committers, and the general hackers
> community (including buy-in to the idea of favorable publicity for
> funding supporters)
>
> 4) an organizing committee with the time to deal with managing
> foundation funds
>
> If we had those four things, the fundraising part would be easy. I
> speak as someone who used to raise $600,000 per year for a non-profit in
> individual gifts alone.
>
> However, *I'm* not clear on what problems this non-profit employed
> person would be solving for the community.
>
> On 12/12/2014 11:35 AM, Alvaro Herrera wrote:
> > Uh, really? Last I looked at the numbers from SPI treasurer reports,
> > they are not impressive enough to hire a full-time engineer, let alone a
> > senior one.
> >
> > The Linux Foundation has managed to pay for Linus Torvalds somehow, so
> > it does sound possible. We have a number of companies making money all
> > over the globe, at least.
>
> You're looking at this wrong. We have that amount of money in the
> account based on zero fundraising whatsoever, which we don't do because
> we don't spend the money. We get roughly $20,000 per year just by
> putting up a "donate" link, and not even promoting it.
>
> So, what this would take is:
>
> 1) a candidate who is currently a known major committer
>
> 2) clear goals for what this person would spend their time doing
>
> 3) buy-in from the Core Team, the committers, and the general hackers
> community (including buy-in to the idea of favorable publicity for
> funding supporters)
>
> 4) an organizing committee with the time to deal with managing
> foundation funds
>
> If we had those four things, the fundraising part would be easy. I
> speak as someone who used to raise $600,000 per year for a non-profit in
> individual gifts alone.
>
> However, *I'm* not clear on what problems this non-profit employed
> person would be solving for the community.
I am not sure if employing the person for full-time can be beneficial
in the short to medium term and how easy or difficult it would be
to convince a senior guy for this kind of job at this point when there
is no such fund available or appropriate mechanism to collect the same
in place, however if the community would come up with a scheme such
that they can pay ~$7,000 per commit fest (which means ~$30000 to
~$35,000 per year) to manage and run that commit fest, then we might
get some volunteers or ask some people (who can do the justice to this
work) for this work.
For managing the commit fest that particular person don't have to give-up
his current job, rather he has to get some buy-in from his employer that
for that period of time he has to be more involved in community work
without compromising much on his day-to-day work. Now I think
such a person should not only be doing the pure management of CF,
but doing the review of some of the important patches, something like
previously done by Heikki or Robert or some other senior members.
I am not really sure will such a money be lucrative enough for some
senior person or if we can raise such a money, but surely from where
I am sitting I could visualize it as a win-win situation where community
doesn't have to pay too high money and the person chosen don't have
to compromise too much on his usual work and I think this could get
the major benefit we are looking at this stage. I understand for long
term we might need something better than what I am proposing, but
for short to medium term such a scheme might prove to be a good deal
for every one.
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