Hi All,
Yes, travel support is an issue. TOS is a loose collection of individuals and has no monetary base. Therefore, I do not believe that TOS itself can fund anything. Much of the travel by members of TOS has been funded either by the person's company/institution or from grants. In academia, many academics have a fixed travel budget for the year provided by their department or school. If present, this amount is usually enough to mostly cover one domestic conference. (Yes, some folks get a bit more.) In most cases, this budget can only be used to support travel by the faculty member. Another source of funding is grants. If the work being presented at a conference has been funded from a grant, the grant will typically pay for one person and sometimes two people to attend and present the work. In this case, grants will typically fund anyone who has contributed significantly to the work and funding is not limited to the faculty member with the grant. On rare occasion, the conference itself will support attendance. However in my experience, this support is given only if the person is making a major contribution to a conference such as a day-long workshop or is a keynote speaker. I hope this clarifies the issue, Heidi From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jeff Osier-Mixon Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2010 12:02 PM To: tos Subject: [TOS] Public request for funds Hi all, I was asked to forward this to the list at large because we believe there are TOS folks out there like me who require financial support for TOS-related undertakings, but may be afraid to bring it up. In our western culture, it is often considered bad taste to discuss things like money openly. We should change that so that we can all participate as much as possible. Who am I: I am a community manager, technical writer, and "developer advocate" for Linux in particular and open source in general. I have been involved with open source since my first job with Cygnus Support in 1992, making coffee, answering phones, and writing technical documentation. I have worked mostly in the embedded sector and exclusively in open source since 1999. More information on me is available on my website at <http://jefro.net/> http://jefro.net and on my blog "Jeff's Open Source Resource" at <http://jefro.wordpress.com/> http://jefro.wordpress.com. My role in TOS: I am a believer in teaching open source, and particularly in getting young people indoctrinated into the concepts of sharing for mutual benefit, developing social skills and working well with others, and getting outside of one's comfort box, all of which are deeply supported by open source doctrines. I have been lurking for a while but recently got involved with the upcoming TOS mini-summit at LinuxCon, along with Sebastian Dziallas, Karlie Robinson, and Mel Chua. So far, we have had a few discussions on format, attendance, and organization, and I have edited the wiki page that Sebastian set up. I have also reached out to a few contacts for speaking opportunities and started a page on the LinuxCon wiki for a social event after the mini-summit. I would be helping with and, hopefully, speaking at the TOS mini-summit with or without funds. My intention is to help in any way I can, including setting up and taking down signs and helping with registration, coordinating with the Linux Foundation, sourcing materials, promotion, recording, giving keynotes or presentations, running an unconference, tracking down speakers---anything that is needed. My situation: I speak at several conferences each year, and I have two talks confirmed at LinuxCon aside from the mini-summit. My company usually pays travel expenses for my conference attendance. However, we were just acquired by a different company a few months ago. Financial issues are still shaking out, and my travel budget has disappeared completely. I would not expect a TOS organization to pay my entire travel agenda to LinuxCon, but would be very pleased if I could get the plane fare (~$500) and possibly one hotel night (~$180) covered. If there is a formal process to request funds, I'd be glad to follow it. Thanks, Jeff Osier-Mixon <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] <mailto: <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]>
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