GRASS development funding (was: [GRASS5] m.in.e00 status, project)

[Bernhard Reiter]

On Wed, Jun 20, 2001 at 07:23:32PM -0700, Eric G. Miller wrote:

> Small Inquiry:  If there was a non-profit foundation supporting GRASS
> developers (i.e. professional programmers), do you think local
> governments would be interested in funding development tasks?  

Maybe. 
Actually the German Grass User Group (GAV) 
www.grass-verein.de (pages in German) is a non-profit which
can receive donations. It would be possible to even contract developers
if we get donations which are high enough. As a German citizen or
company it is easy to donate money tax-deducible to us.

> Being that GIS is somewhat of a niche market, 
> it's fairly difficult to attract many Free Software developers.  

The GIS market is bigger than you think IMO.
Actually we have attracted quite a few Free Software developers
and the number is rising which is also due to the publicity 
of the FreeGIS project.

> So, I've pondered the idea that a
> foundation might make an appropriate conduit whereby public and private
> entities could make "donations" or even enter into contracts for
> specific work.  

If you want to contract somebody, there are companies and developers
available for work on Free Software. Intevation GmbH happens to be one.

> When completed, such things would be released as free
> software, so the GIS community as a whole could benefit and possibly
> even avoid some of the ESRI tax ;).  

We want to convince clients to actually do this.
ImageLinks is partly funded by US government to work on Ossim, btw.
And Intevation was also contracted several times to do Free GIS
software. www.mapit.de/index.en.html is one small example.

> As it is now, even if someone wants
> to make a donation for development work, there is no mechanism.  Just a
> thought...

There are some mechanisms already in place.
Have you read: http://www.geog.uni-hannover.de/grass/commercial.html

Regards,
	Bernhard

-- 
Professional Service around Free Software                (intevation.net)  
The FreeGIS Project                                         (freegis.org)
Association for a Free Informational Infrastructure            (ffii.org)
FSF Europe                                            	  (fsfeurope.org)
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