[Incubator] Project Sponsorship

[Frank Warmerdam]

Folks,

I've mentioned this before, but I think it might be a good to re-raise the
issue.  The Fundraising Committee of OSGeo (and the board) have adopted a
"Project Sponsorship" program described at:

   http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Project_Sponsorship

This is basically a mechanism where organizations can sponsor projects, with
the money administered by OSGeo on behalf of the project.  The project PSCs
decide on how they want to spend the money.  Under the program the projects
have a number of responsibilities if they want to participate, and the project
PSCs need to specifically decide to participate (by an adopted motion).

The GDAL project is participating (the only project so far), and we have
four sponsors so far.  I am hoping to shortly turn this into a contract for
a paid GDAL maintainer (for six months).  At that point it is my intention to
do a press release highlighting this accomplishment, and I would like to be
able to point to other projects also ready to accept sponsorship.

Some things to note:
  o It's opt-in, the psc needs to decide and there is work to be done.
  o Effectively it will be up to the projects to "sell" sponsorships to
    organizations (mostly user organizations I would imagine).  Don't expect
    the foundation to do too much in this regard, though we will definately
    indicate the option to those who approach us.  The foundation also has a
    "foundation sponsorship" program which the foundation fundraising committee
    most actively promotes.
  o Consider whether you want money management to be a responsibility of your
    PSC, and whether you feel you can use the money responsibly without
    causing lots of social problems.
  o Some projects might just not have many likely sponsors, in which case
    participation in the program is probably not worthwhile.  Consider whether
    you could actually collect a meaningful amount of sponsorship before
    getting involved.
  o One quarter of project sponsorship is kept by OSGeo for general
    foundation use.

One example:

The GDAL sponsorship page is at:
   http://www.gdal.org/sponsorship/sponsorship.html

In the case of GDAL, we offer some benefits to sponsors beyond having their
logos listed.  Notably "priority" bug handling by a hired maintainer, and
the chance to provide feedback to the project via a "sponsor survey".

Each project needs to consider what they are willing to offer.  Any
reduction in project independence can be dangerous, but yet some sponsors
are looking for some sort of influence to ensure the project continues to
be useful to them.  In the GDAL case we offer a sort of implicit "soft
influence".  We don't promise to follow the suggestions in the survey,
but obviously if we want sponsors to sign up for another year it would be
wise to show them there priorities are getting some attention.

So, I'd encourage project representatives to take this option back to
their project PSCs and communities for consideration.  Please feel free
to get in contact with me and/or Tyler if you have any questions.

Best regards,
-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGeo, http://osgeo.org