[Qgis-psc] Grant application suggestions for next time

[Nyall Dawson]

Hi PSC,

Denis and I were discussing the current grant system and we came up
with a couple of suggestions which could be made for the next round of
applications. Given that the current round of grant voting is closing
today it's good timing to start these discussions early so that any
changes we want to make could be in place well before the next round.

Our suggestions are:

1. Create a new github repo for submission of the grant proposals -
much like the current QGIS Enhancement Proposal (QEP) repo (
https://github.com/qgis/QGIS-Enhancement-Proposals/issues ). If we
structured the applications this way then it allows people to ask
questions and provide public feedback on individual proposals --
something we currently lack the ability to do. It would also make it
quite easy for a proposal to be "reopened" for a future round of
grants (if it was not successful in a prior round), and all these
comments and discussion would be retained.

2. Require that code-related proposals be accompanied by a QEP filed
at least xx days in advance of the grant application. The current
setup could potentially result in a very awkward situation if a grant
application is voted in by the members and paid for by PSC, yet when
the feature/enhancement is submitted as a pull request for inclusion
in QGIS and the technical/UX details of the proposal first made
available, it may THEN be deemed an unsatisfactory approach/unwanted
change and prevented from being merged. Then we'd have a conflict
between the project paying for changes vs maintainers deeming these
changes unfit for merging. This situation would reflect very badly on
the project's organisation and communication, so I think we need some
safeguard in place to minimise the chance that it could happen.
Opening a QEP prior to a grant request would mean that interested
maintainers will already have had an opportunity to discuss and assess
the changes, before they are introduced to the wider voting community
as an option.

Thanks again for all you hard work making these grants possible...
it's exciting to see what will be funded as a result once again!

Nyall