Anthony Towns wrote:
On Fri, Jul 13, 2007 at 07:44:41AM -0700, Joshua D. Drake wrote:
* A more physical presence of SPI and the associative projects at well
known events such as OSCON, LinuxWorld, and USENIX.
* Working in FOSS hubs (such as S.F., Seattle and Portland) to foster
workshops, talks and training opportunities not only for new FOSS
community members, but also businesses that can help in the market drive
of FOSS.
* Work with SPI members to sponsor individuals to give talks related to
FOSS at every possible legitimate opportunity.
So presumably that ends up meaning "to give talks promoting FOSS to the
broader public at every possible opportunity", or something. I'm not sure
that SPI has the funds to do that to any significant degree at present,
"at present" would be accurate.
but if SPI were visibly active in some way that's independent from its
member projects, I suspect it'd be easy to raise funds to support that
sort of stuff.
Yes.
* Work to have all associative projects work together to provide a more
influential presence to communities, governments and businesses.
So I guess my question is are you willing to make those sort of goals
independent of your election? They all sound pretty interesting and
sensible expansions of SPI's mission to me, to the point that I'd like
I don't see it as an expansion. I see it as continuing the efforts of
the purpose.
to see them happen even if you miss out on a board seat, and presuming
whoever's elected isn't actively opposed to those sorts of ideas, it seems
like something you could lead as a "promotions committee" or something.
If such as thing existed, yes. It is something I already do with PostgreSQL.
So ignoring the election part and endorsement as an official SPI activity,
what's it going to take to actually get this stuff going? Do we need
money or sponsors first, or do we need people to do these things, or a
strategy of what to try promoting first, or what?
Excellent question. There is a lot that needs to be done. Here is a
small bullet list:
* Money
* Sponsors
* Coordination with our projects to help sponsor (For example, a webinar
on using PostgreSQL and Debian in the enterpise), SPI could give the
webninar with the help of sponsorship from PostgreSQL + Debian.
* Organization and a plan.
The last one is key. Having a plan that "this team" (whoever that is) is
going to approach the following vendors/sponsors to raise money for this
(whatever this is) goal...
On Fri, Jul 13, 2007 at 11:32:16AM -0400, David Graham wrote:
We have to decide as an organisation if our purpose is to influence the
community or simply be the wall the community can lean against while it
does its work.
I believe that we should make every reasonable effort to assist our
associated projects in doing any advocacy they wish, within the bounds of
their budgets and our charter. I don't believe our role is to be an
independent lobby group, but our projects are free to be with our backing.
Our charter clearly states:
* To create, form and establish an organization to formulate and
provide software systems for use by the general public without charge;
* to teach and train individuals regarding the use and application
of such systems;
* to hold classes, seminars and workshops concerning the proper use
and application of computers and computer systems;
* to endeavor to monitor and improve the quality of currently
existing publicly available software;
* to support, encourage and promote the creation and development of
software available to the general public;
* to provide information and education regarding the proper use of
the Internet;
* to organize, hold and conduct meetings, discussions and forums on
contemporary issues concerning the use of computers and computer software;
* to foster, promote and increase access to software systems
available to the general public;
* to solicit, collect and otherwise raise money and to expend such
funds in furtherance of the goals and activities of the corporation;
* to aid, assist, cooperate, co-sponsor and otherwise engage in
concerted action with private, educational and governmental
organizations and associations on all issues and matters concerning the
use of computers and computer software
and generally
* to endeavor to promote, foster and advance interest in computers
and computer software by all available means and methods.
In essence, my platform is the charter. I just didn't want to cut and
paste ;)
Sincerely,
Joshua D. Drake
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