On Nov 25, 2007 2:14 PM, C Y <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> Third, even if the NSF funded SAGE, how would those funds benefit the > >> various subprojects like Axiom? Open source is mostly volunteer work > >> done in "spare time". While it is amusing to daydream of being paid to > >> develop open source computational mathematics on a full time basis, it > >> seems unlikely that this could lead to more than just small > >> grants. The expertise and continuity needed to do research work > >> requires longer term funding. > > > > Great questions and comments. There aren't easy answers. > > One possibility is selling "support"... which could bring in > > money to support people who are out of country. > > One possibility I've wondered about for a while would be getting a > number of colleges to simultaneously agree to pool small amounts of > money into an effort to support a couple of developers working on these > programs - i.e. spreading the cost over many institutions rather than > just having one or two carry all of the cost. Start up a small > nonprofit or some such to serve as the organization in question. Surely > if grant money can sometimes pay for commercial software it could go to > pay for such an arrangement, particularly if the software was all > guaranteed to be open. > > Is this something someone could set up with any hope of success?
I think something like this could be successful. Actually, Magma has been a very successful example of almost exactly this during the last 10 years. They are a nonprofit, they get a pool of small amounts of money from a few hundred (?) sites, and as a result hire about 5-10 fulltime people per year to work on Magma. The only difference is that Magma is not open. But it is a useful successful real-life example, which should not be ignored: http://magma.maths.usyd.edu.au/magma/ William -- William --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URLs: http://sage.scipy.org/sage/ and http://modular.math.washington.edu/sage/ -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
