Re: OPW; Where does the 500$ for each GSoC goes?

[Emmanuele Bassi <ebassi gmail com>]

On 14 September 2014 16:34, Sébastien Wilmet <swilmet gnome org> wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 14, 2014 at 03:29:35PM +0200, Alberto Ruiz wrote:
> > I have a question, please explain me how outreach is mutually exclusive
> > with creating great software? The thing is that we can and we should do
> > both things, create great software and make an effort to do contribution
> > outreach. Because we are a community project, and community projects can't
> > exist without contributions. Software doesn't write itself.
>
> In the GNOME Annual Report 2013, the Finance section reads:
>
>         GNOME sponsored two [OPW] interns in 2013, one in the
>         5th round and one in the 6th round of the program.
>
> So that's at least $11,000 spent directly by the GNOME Foundation on
> outreach.

no, we actually spent 10 thousand US dollars on paying the interns to
actually do their job, and had an additional 1000 US dollars earmarked
for travel allowance of those two interns. *that*, in turn, was part
of a larger outreach effort to improve the chances of having more
volunteers contributing to GNOME.

> When a GNOME developer launches a fundraising campaign, like for Pititi
> or soon for Builder, the GNOME Foundation could help financially these
> projects.

we do: we handle the administrative side of those fund raisers, which
is not negligible. we increase visibility of those efforts, by having
the engagement team contribute to them.

> Or the GNOME Foundation could organize regularly call for bids
> so that an _experienced_ developer can be paid to work on something
> important for GNOME.

which we already do, for the accessibility team for instance. we
haven't had any other team propose this kinds of bids.

> In my opinion, this would have a bigger impact than
> sponsoring beginners (because yes, most GSoC or OPW interns _are_
> beginners in GNOME when they start the program).

they are not mutually exclusive, as you can see; we already do both
OPW and GSoC *and* what you listed as potential efforts.

I *strongly* suggest you contact the engagement team and you inform
yourself on the efforts made by the Foundation over the past 10 years.
talking to the people involved in this efforts, instead of taking at
face value uninformed drivel from people not even tangentially related
to the GNOME Foundation offers you a better chance at making informed
contributions to the Foundation itself.

ciao,
 Emmanuele.

-- 
http://www.bassi.io
[ ] ebassi [ gmail com]