Re: Money is a Time Bomb for GNOME

[jg pa dec com (Jim Gettys)]

As you all know, I've been vocal about not becoming overly dependent
on money: this is a danger, particularly on social grounds (you don't
want an "us vs. them" situation between staff and non-staff).  Life
is not black and white, however, and I don't believe that volunteer labor
for everything is likely to succeed.

And I also agree that getting companies involved and hacking is by far 
more a statement of involvement than any money: I think this will happen 
as the industry shifts onto Gnome over the next year or two.  I certainly
poke my company in this direction, though full success isn't yet at hand.

However, my experience in the IETF, which is also as much a volunteer
effort as Gnome, is that the central secretariat serves important functions,
including:
	1) organizing the 3X a year meetings
	2) ensuring that process is followed (and while Gnome process is currently
	very low, as Gnome succeeds it will have to serve some standards
	role (or find some other organization to deal with the formal 
	standardization).  The logistics of moving I/D's and RFC's through
	the pipe is non-trivial indeed, when you get goin.
	3) making sure that minutes of IAB/IESG meetings really get prepared
	and issued.  The political consequences of this not happening
	to people trusting any meetings where not everyone can attend
	are very severe.
	4) dealing with contractors on upgrading its website. (doesn't
	do any development itself). 

	Gnome is likely to have similar 	
	situations, particularly if it deals 
	with jointly funded projects (an example might be tech 
	writers/copy editors help for people writing Gnome documentation: 
	I found this incredibly helpful on the base X documentation, even 
	though my grasp of the 	english language is alot better than most 
	hackers).  If you wonder where to spend money raised, this is where 
	I'd spend it, myself.  There may be alternatives by hooking
	up with a publisher in a similar fashion to what we did with the
	X books.

	5) Someone to answer the phone to get people hooked up, when people
	outside (reporters) need to get in touch with IETF folks.

So I think some money is needed, both to for one person, and for at least 
the documentation contracting issue above, and probably some of the other 
discussed miscellany.  Gnome is going up against the "major leage" teams 
now, (e.g. Microsoft and Apple).  But for the want of a nail, and all that...

I would strongly oppose staff developers, however, or staff documentation
people: Gnome should arrange its life so that if for some reason industry
support evaporates, the consequences are not dire; letting full time employees
go is something that you NEVER want to be in a position to have to do
(which is where Bob Scheifler found himself some years ago). 

When my wife was still working (before kids) we arranged our finances 
so that we could live within one of our incomes: this meant that if for 
some reason the job wasn't fun anymore, either of us could walk away from 
our job immediately and not worry about meeting the next bills.  (and 
it meant that with kids, we still don't worry, as we now have the nest 
egg, so I still feel that I could do so).  This is incredibly liberating 
on our life.  

Gnome should be careful to stay in this position so it can "do the right 
thing" without monetary strings controlling what can or cannot be worked 
on.  These strings helped kill the X Consortium... But I don't think that 
$0 is the right answer either.  So I think the scale that has been talked 
about for this is about right.

If the bandwagon of companies that is forming gets too large, I don't
think a single one of them will complain if the board tells them that
they have given too much :-)>
			- Jim


 
--
Jim Gettys
Technology and Corporate Development
Compaq Computer Corporation
jg@pa.dec.com