People at FOSS4G

[Jo Walsh]

dear all, 

There are a couple of people who I wish I could find some kind of
financial support for to travel to FOSS4G and EuroOSCON who would be
reallu useful to have there and are doing good work for open source
geospatial and OSGeo. I don't know whether it would be appropriate for
the foundation to have a travel grant fund - it might be a bit
hard to get sponsorship for. I'm thinking something very limited for
people who really could benefit from the support. Or if this is a
mechanism we could establish and use soon enough in time for these
events. 

I see in the budget there is a slot for "Promotional travel"(18KUSD) and 
i think that is what this would constitute. One of the people i have in
mind is working a lot on FDO and would be a poster child at EuroOSCON 
for open source community interexchange with MapGuide. The other is
a whiz kid working on GeoRSS who had a paper accepted at FOSS4G but
is in the very rural midwest and it's a big expense. He could come and
make lots of interesting mashup stuff, sitting around on the booth there. 

We're in a position to support / release funds for this sort of thing? 
Or if this is a bit widespread or too soon, can anyone suggest how
these people *might* find travel support from other organisations?

cheers,


jo