[OpenLayers-Dev] Spending Sponsorship Money

[Schuyler Erle]

On Thu, 2008-10-23 at 07:08 -0400, John R. Frank wrote:

> A benefit of identifying goals for funds is that, if properly selected, 
> they enable the project to point to achievements enabled by sponsorship 
> dollars.  It's tough to raise money when past money was spent merely on 
> t-shirts;  it's much easier to raise money when past money "enabled the 
> project to achieve __strategic_goal___" (the implementation of which 
> happened to have involved t-shirts).

John, I agree completely with your analysis, and, while I acknowledge
the value of quantifiable goals, I wonder about their actual utility vis
a vis the project. The key overall objective in seeking sponsorship
seems to be to liberate developers' time to focus on crucial but
under-attended facets of the project, and I worry that targeting
extrinsic objectives with an emphasis on quantifying results may only
serve to divert rather than focus our energies.

I think the main selling point of OpenLayers sponsorship revolves around
trust in the project leadership; we have stewarded the project well
enough thus far; I think we can stand on that established reputation to
ask earnestly for financial support with the expectation that the money
will be well spent on the objectives that Christopher and others have
already outlined.

Good point, though: T-shirts? Cute, yes, but maybe not the best use of
our time or money. Code sprints, on the other hand? If we can come up
with a compelling agenda and use a code sprint to deliver on that
agenda, that's another thing entirely.

SDE