Hi Jim I was going through your (long :) ) list of points, responding to each one, when I realized that all my responses point to the same conclusion.
I think you need to hire someone to do the software related tech work if you want to use EMC2 in your business. You could of course contract someone to provide tech support, with whatever response / resolution times make you comfortable. You could instead choose to pay for software licenses, maintenance, and support contracts from well-known vendors. The money part is a relatively simple calculation. The confidence part is a bit more nebulous. I think there's some confusion between having a central entity that manages money and having individuals accept money for working on EMC2. I don't think anyone has any issues with individuals doing work on EMC2 and getting paid for it. Several of us have done this in the past, including me. There is no reason why you can't hire any programmer off the street to make your GUI happen, or to do anything else you want to have done. Now let's look at an "EMC corporate entity". I'll assume that there are several people like you out there - people who would donate because they like the software, hire people to do maintenance and feature additions, tech support, etc. If there aren't any donors, there's no need for an entity to manage donations :) If we create a non-profit, there are massive IRS reporting requirements. The entity would most likely need to hire an accountant. (I believe there are quarterly reports, similar to 941 tax filings for corporations, in addition to forms and records showing where every penny goes, and justifying that there really is no profit to be taxed) There needs to be someone who will decide how "non-earmarked" donations get distributed. Which feature requests get acted upon, and in what order. We're talking about a project manager. A project manager with no programmer-employees (most likely), and only volunteers to get things done, kind of like it is now. Even with a non-profit, we're into a political arena. Who decides what will be done, by whom, and at what price? Who decides who that "decider" will be? Should the board, or a different group elected by mailing list members get to decide? Should it only be people who have donated? Pro-rated based on donation size? There is significant work that has already gone into EMC2 - should some of the money allocated to one feature be given to the people who made the foundation on which the new code rests? A for-profit company could be started by someone. It wouldn't be the community though. It would be someone who decides they want to sell support and customization services for EMC2. That company/person would have no specific rights to use the names and domains that are currently in use. They would have the rights that we all have - to modify the code at will, with the stipulation that their customers have full rights to use, modify, and distribute the source code. I think there are a host of political issues with someone just starting up a company, especially if they claim to represent "the EMC2 project" or "the EMC2 community". When all is said and done, I don't see any reason why you can't have everything you want for tech support and feature additions. The only thing that will be missing (which wasn't explicitly mentioned) would be getting support assurances from a company with a proven track record, and that your customers will recognize and be comfortable with. I'd also like to say that I don't think any of your points are unreasonable. The only thing that would be unreasonable would be to expect that people who do this in their spare time should change their priorities based on what you want. The easiest way to fix that problem is to pay someone, so they're no longer working on it in their spare time ;) Incidentally, you mentioned in a previous email that you had made an offer to donate money, which wasn't well received. While I don't doubt that's true (we have politely declined donations several times), I also don't see where you made the offer. From time to time, I see comments like this, and I wonder which EMC-related communication medium I'm not subscribed to. (I've seen it mostly in complaints like "I asked this on the forum, and nobody answered me for 37 whole minutes!", which was confusing to me when we had no forum) Thanks for the comments. - Steve [snipped your comments - this is long enough without them ;) ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stay on top of everything new and different, both inside and around Java (TM) technology - register by April 22, and save $200 on the JavaOne (SM) conference, June 2-5, 2009, San Francisco. 300 plus technical and hands-on sessions. Register today. Use priority code J9JMT32. http://p.sf.net/sfu/p _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
