[Qgis-psc] Follow-up: supporting community members impacted by Covid19

[Tim Sutton]

Hi all

Thanks for the various thoughts provided. I was just raising it in case someone could see an obvious way we can help. My thinking is basically that 20k in grants split between companies who probably already have lots of other contracts probably doesn’t make much difference in their lives, but that money (or other funds as Andreas suggests below) could make a real difference if there are people within our contributor community that are struggling. Anyway no worries if it is not practical….

Thanks

Regards

Tim

> On 7 May 2020, at 10:43, Andreas Neumann <a.neumann at carto.net> wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Like Nyall and Vincent I also think that the grant process is not well suited for such a proposal. For several reasons: we probably don't want to discuss in the open personal financial situations, but it would be necessary to do that in order for the voting members to decide. As stated, it would  be really hard to come up with proper rules, etc.
> 
> There is one thing that might work:
> 
> As you can see in the budget (https://www.qgis.org/en/_downloads/QGISBudget2020.pdf), there are certain tasks that we want to get done as a project, such as:
> 
> - improve our website (10k in the budget)
> - bug fixing
> - documentation
> 
> These are the three topics where I think QGIS.ORG could help out a skilled person who also has time due to fewer contracts within the COVID-19 crisis.
> 
> I still think that we should only do this with proven community members and people up to the task, in order to use  the QGIS.ORG funds efficiently. Otherwise, I think it would be a misuse of the funds that our sustaining members and donors gave us in the assumption we spend the funds wisely. Many countries, at least most European countries have a proven welfare system that helps people in the need.
> 
> So what I propose is: if one potential contributor would have skills and times and would like to work for QGIS.ORG in one of the above three areas, the person should get in contact with one of the PSC members privately. No need to disclose this in public. We can then see what we can do to both spend our funds wisely and potentially help an affected community member. That might work for 1-2 people, but probably not more.
> 
> In addition: QGIS is also a network of QGIS companies around the world. Affected QGIS contributors might want to ask other QGIS companies around the globe if one of them has open tasks and not enough human resources to deal with them. We mostly work digitally anyway in our community and it might be possible to temporarily work for a different QGIS/FOSSGIS company.
> 
> Greetings,
> 
> Andreas
> 
> Am 07.05.20 um 11:15 schrieb Vincent Picavet (ml):
>> Hello,
>> 
>> On 06/05/2020 16:40, Anita Graser wrote:
>>> Since our meeting yesterday ran over time, we decided to take this point
>>> to the mailing list:
>>> 
>>> The idea, raised by Tim, was if we as a community could help members who
>>> are impacted by the Covid crisis. Community members who are having a
>>> hard time getting paying work right now could be encouraged to apply for
>>> the grant programme. These applications could receive preferential
>>> treatment when it comes to voting which applications will be funded.
>>> 
>>> Obviously this idea is at an early stage and not every step is clear
>>> already. The call for grant proposals as published right now is open
>>> until May 24th:
>>> http://blog.qgis.org/2020/04/26/qgis-grants-5-call-for-grant-proposals-2020/
>>> 
>>> Looking forward to hearing what you think!
>> I was about to answer more or less like Nyall.
>> 
>> I can understand the good willing behind such idea, I really doubt that we can
>> make it happen in a fair and transparent manner.
>> 
>> There are more than 2.5 billion people confined in the world, and with a global
>> economic crisis to come, I think we can say that everyone is impacted.
>> Some more, some less, but to draw a line somewhere would lead to judge very
>> complex and sometimes very personal situations, with a large heterogeneity in
>> situation. As for the amount we are talking about, I guess it is not worth it to
>> make any difference without a lot of headaches.
>> 
>> Should we want to help people impacted by the crisis, then making a donation to
>> an organization specialized in helping covid-10 crisis would probably be a
>> better option.
>> Or provide opensource tools useful for modelling of geospatial phenomenon, like
>> virus propagation ;-)
>> 
>> Regards,
>> 
>> Vincent
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—










Tim Sutton

Co-founder: Kartoza
Ex Project chair: QGIS.org

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