Request for funding, ideas, etc.

[Chris Phelps <chicane reninet com>]

Here is a document that is the product of approximatly 5 hours of
thought, and about an hour of though to paper translation. It is the
result of ideas that I have had through my own job search, as well as
that of other hackers that I have know and/or heard about. Please take
the time to read it, and respond with
comments/criticism/flames/whatever.

The document is included at the end of the email in plain text, as well
as an attached Abiword document. Please forward this to anyone whom you
feel would benefit from, or who could benefit this concept.

Thank you for your time,
Chris Phelps

[plain-text]

The GNOME Hacker Lab White Paper

Purpose
My wish is for GNOME to be the number one desktop environment in the
world. As of late, I have seen that a lot of the Free Software/Open
Source start-ups have been too aggressive in their deployment, and that
has eventually led to their downfall. As of right now, there are only 2
companies (Red Hat Labs and Ximian) that employ more than just a couple
of GTK+/GNOME developers, leaving many hackers to find jobs in other
areas, taking most of their time away from work on their various GNOME
projects.

Deployment
The GNOME Hacker Lab would be a small (5-7 member) programming
community, living and working together over the next 2 years, and
consisting of the following:
One GLIB/GTK+ hacker, two Nautilus hackers (probably previous employees
of Eazel, Maciej would be an excellent candidate here), one Evolution
hacker, two Gnome Office hackers, and one general hacker (possibly gIDE
or the like).
As stated, these programmers would both live and work together in a
single environment, allowing for the highest level of productivity and
cooperative learning for all the members. My initial plan is to have
this office/home setup in San Francisco, or some suburban area of
Silicon Valley, and recruit the other 6 members from all over the
country, based entirely on programming skill and output levels.

Cost
My general cost approximations are as follows:
2 years of $50,000/year for 7 employees: $700,000
2 years of rent on housing/corporate facilities: $100,000
$50,000 in relocation expenses
2 years of travel expenses: $150,000
Total cost: $1,000,000, or around $40,000 per month.

Conclusion
I feel that such a group is in the best interest of the GNOME community
as a whole, and especially all of the GNOME Foundation members. One
million dollars seems like a lot of money for only 7 developers over two
years, but I believe that the results produced will surpass the cost of
the project, as well as provide employment for some of the most talented
GNOME programmers who are currently out of work due to the closure of
Eazel. The idea behind this co-op is not to make money as a company, but
to provide funding for several hackers for the next couple of years
while the Free Software industry regains support from investers,  and
help the GNOME project achieve it?s goals, which is beneficial to all of
the GNOME Foundation members. I am asking either for funding from all
the GNOME Foundation members as a group, or for individual donations
from any interested parties. In addition, I am open to all suggestions
regarding this matter, or the deployment of this plan. I realize that
for many companies, this is a time for cutting costs, however, I believe
that if the companies that can afford the extra spending are willing to
do so, we can achieve many more of the goals for the GNOME 2.0 platform
and beyond.

Notes:
This proposal is being sent to the foundation mailing list hosted at
gnome.org, as it is the easiest way to get it into the hands of the
people that can directly influence the actualization of this idea.

For questions, comments, explanations, or more details, please contact
Chris Phelps: chicane reninet com


--

http://glimmer.sourceforge.net - My pet project
http://uberhackers.dhs.org - My personal website

./configure --prefix=/dev/mocha --enable-caffeine

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<section>
<p props="text-align:center"><c props="font-family:Courier New; font-size:14 pt; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none">The GNOME Hacker Lab White Paper</c></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p><c props="font-family:Courier New; font-weight:bold">Purpose</c></p>
<p><c props="font-family:Courier New; font-weight:normal">My wish is for GNOME to be the number one desktop environment in the world. As of late, I have seen that a lot of the Free Software/Open Source start-ups have been too aggressive in their deployment, and that has eventually led to their downfall. As of right now, there are only 2 companies (Red Hat Labs and Ximian) that employ more than just a couple of GTK+/GNOME developers, leaving many hackers to find jobs in other areas, taking most of their time away from work on their various GNOME projects.</c></p>
<p></p>
<p><c props="font-family:Courier New; font-weight:bold">Deployment</c></p>
<p><c props="font-family:Courier New; font-size:12 pt; font-weight:normal; text-decoration:none">The GNOME Hacker Lab would be a small (5-7 member) programming community, living and working together over the next 2 years, and consisting of the following:</c></p>
<p><c props="font-family:Courier New; font-size:12 pt; font-weight:normal; text-decoration:none">One GLIB/GTK+ hacker, two Nautilus hackers (probably previous employees of Eazel, Maciej would be an excellent candidate here), one Evolution hacker, two Gnome Office hackers, and one general hacker (possibly gIDE or the like).</c></p>
<p><c props="font-family:Courier New">As stated, these programmers would both live and work together in a single environment, allowing for the highest level of productivity and cooperative learning for all the members. My initial plan is to have this office/home setup in San Francisco, or some suburban area of Silicon Valley, and recruit the other 6 members from all over the country, based entirely on programming skill and output levels.</c></p>
<p></p>
<p><c props="font-family:Courier New; font-weight:bold">Cost</c></p>
<p><c props="font-family:Courier New; font-weight:normal">My general cost approximations are as follows:</c></p>
<p><c props="font-family:Courier New; font-weight:normal">2 years of $50,000/year for 7 employees: $700,000</c></p>
<p><c props="font-family:Courier New; font-weight:normal">2 years of rent on housing/corporate facilities: $100,000</c></p>
<p><c props="font-family:Courier New">$50,000 in relocation expenses</c></p>
<p><c props="font-family:Courier New; font-weight:normal">2 years of travel expenses: $150,000</c></p>
<p><c props="font-family:Courier New; font-weight:normal">Total cost: $1,000,000, or around $40,000 per month.</c></p>
<p></p>
<p><c props="font-family:Courier New; font-weight:bold">Conclusion</c></p>
<p><c props="font-family:Courier New; font-size:12 pt; font-weight:normal; text-decoration:none">I feel that such a group is in the best interest of the GNOME community as a whole, and especially all of the GNOME Foundation members. One million dollars seems like a lot of money for only 7 developers over two years, but I believe that the results produced will surpass the cost of the project, as well as provide employment for some of the most talented GNOME programmers who are currently out of work due to the closure of Eazel. The idea behind this co-op is not to make money as a company, but to provide funding for several hackers for the next couple of years while the Free Software industry regains support from investers,  and help the GNOME project achieve it&#x2019;s goals, which is beneficial to all of the GNOME Foundation members. I am asking either for funding from all the GNOME Foundation members as a group, or for individual donations from any interested parties. In addi!
tion, I am open to all suggestions regarding this matter, or the deployment of this plan. I realize that for many companies, this is a time for cutting costs, however, I believe that if the companies that can afford the extra spending are willing to do so, we can achieve many more of the goals for the GNOME 2.0 platform and beyond.</c></p>
<p></p>
<p><c props="font-family:Courier New; font-size:12 pt; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none">Notes:</c></p>
<p><c props="font-family:Courier New; font-size:12 pt; font-weight:normal; text-decoration:none">This proposal is being sent to the foundation mailing list hosted at gnome.org, as it is the easiest way to get it into the hands of the people that can directly influence the actualization of this idea.</c></p>
<p props="line-height:1.000000; margin-bottom:0.0000in; margin-left:0.0000in; margin-right:0.0000in; margin-top:0.0000in; text-align:left; text-indent:0.0000in"></p>
<p><c props="font-family:Courier New; font-size:12 pt; font-weight:normal; text-decoration:none">For questions, comments, explanations, or more details, please contact Chris Phelps: chicane reninet com</c></p>
<p></p>
</section>
</abiword>