Re: [orca-list] Who is in control of Orca commits now?

[Philip Halley <ke4obt samobile net>]

Mozilla Sponsors GNOME Accessibility Efforts

DateLine: BOSTON, Mass â February 4, 2010 â

The GNOME Foundation is happy to announce a substantial donation from 
the Mozilla Corporation to benefit the GNOME Project's accessibility 
efforts. The donation will help continue the collaborative efforts 
between GNOME and Mozilla on Accessibility.

The Mozilla Corporation is granting the GNOME Foundation $10,000 for 
2010. The funds will be used in part to send GNOME developers to the 
25th Annual International CSUN Technology & Persons with Disabilities 
Conference. The CSUN Conference is one of the premier technology 
conferences for people with disabilities, and by holding a GNOME 
accessibility hackfest at the conference, GNOME can ensure a diverse 
group of GNOME developers are immersed in the accessibility space with 
direct hands-on interaction with end users.

The recent donation from Mozilla continues a long partnership between 
GNOME and Mozilla for accessibility. The GNOME Foundation received a 
$10,000 grant in 2008 that was used for the GNOME Accessibility 
Outreach Program, and resulted in major accessibility improvements.

"The direct impact of the Mozilla funding has allowed GNOME to add 
Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) support to the Orca screen 
reader and other accessibility enhancements in GNOME," said Willie 
Walker, lead of the GNOME Accessibility Team. "All these helped make 
GNOME/Firefox a compelling free alternative to commercial products for 
the visually impaired. As a result, we're seeing users around the world 
using GNOME as their every day solution."

The GNOME Project has worked hard to ensure that all users have the 
opportunity to enjoy a Free Software desktop. Just as GNOME has had 
great success making internationalization part of the core platform, 
accessibility is also taking its place as a core value of the platform. 
Sending GNOME developers to CSUN will help to ensure that developers 
working on all areas of GNOME are well-educated on accessibility issues 
and continue to build accessibility features and functions into GNOME 
rather than "bolted-on" features.

The GNOME Foundation and Mozilla are committed to open source, open 
standards, and open formats. Both organizations and their contributors 
contribute to numerous projects to ensure an open Web and open desktop 
platform for all users. Part of that effort is working hard to ensure 
users with physical disabilities are able to make use of a free desktop 
and Web browser.

"The GNOME Foundation's commitment to accessibility improves the 
desktop and Internet experience for millions of people, and Mozilla is 
proud to support this work," said Mitchell Baker, Chair of the Mozilla 
Foundation.



About GNOME and the GNOME Foundation
GNOME is a free-software project whose goal is to develop a complete, 
accessible and easy to use desktop for Linux and Unix-based operating 
systems. GNOME also includes a complete development environment to 
create new applications. It is released twice a year on a regular schedule.

The GNOME desktop is used by millions of people around the world. GNOME 
is a standard part of all leading GNU/Linux and Unix distributions, and 
is popular with both large existing corporate deployments and millions 
of small business and home users worldwide.

Composed of hundreds of volunteer developers and industry-leading 
companies, the GNOME Foundation is an organization committed to 
supporting the advancement of GNOME. The Foundation is a member 
directed, non-profit organization that provides financial, 
organizational and legal support to the GNOME project and helps 
determine its vision and roadmap.

More information about GNOME and the GNOME Foundation can be found at 
www.gnome.org and foundation.gnome.org.

Media Enquiries
GNOME Foundation Executive Director
Stormy Peters
Email: gnome-press-contact gnome org
Phone: +1-617-206-3947

Copyright  2005-2009 The GNOME Project.

xxxx

The above article was found online at:
http://www.gnome.org/press/releases/2010-02-mozilla-accessibility.html

If the Gnome foundation just received $10,000, I guess my big question 
is What happened to the money they were just handed, did Oracle get it instead?
My personal thought is to find out before I would start handing out 
more money, how about you?
Because if Oracle has there grubby hands in the till - then I'll be 
damned if I'll be sending money their way if they put the kibosh on 
Gnome and the Orca projects.




Just my personal thoughts,
Philip E. Halley
aka
Flip - KE4OBT
The Blind Ham.

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