[OpenLayers-Dev] OSGeo Project Sponsorship

[Tim Schaub]

Hey-

So, we've decided we like the language of the sponsorship doc that 
expresses the goals of project sponsorship.

This whole process was motivated by the desire to participate in the 
OSGeo Project Sponsorship program.  I'm willing to jump in and do 
whatever the next steps are to make that happen - and I think a good 
number of others share this opinion.

John has suggested that we investigate all our options for the 
administrative and "banking" side of project sponsorship.

In the case of going with the OSGeo Project Sponsorship program, the 
OSGeo acts as our fiscal agent.  As a 501(c)(3) (US tax code) 
organization, they can accept tax deductible contributions toward OSGeo 
projects.  They take 25% of sponsorship funds for administering the program.

Since we don't currently have any alternative proposals on the table, I 
think this one sounds like a great deal.  There are plenty of benefits 
and drawbacks that could be outlined, but I personally think that is a 
pretty pointless (and tedious) exercise without a set of feasible 
alternatives to consider.

So, why don't we open up discussion for people who have feasible 
alternatives to present.  If we collect a few realistic ones, we can do 
a more detailed comparison of their merits.

Barring a solid alternative that has significant support from this 
community, I'd like to suggest that we vote on pursuing OSGeo Project 
Sponsorship by the end of next week.

And, I don't see any reason why this discussion should degrade into a 
cat fight.  Until we really have comparable alternatives, we don't 
really have much to discuss.

Thanks for any ideas.
Tim

-- 
Tim Schaub
OpenGeo - http://opengeo.org
Expert service straight from the developers.