Hi Stef,


> Hi Tansel
>
> for me the main point was that having a cd where we have a complete Squeak
> distribution is needed. People should be able to pay a small amount of
meny
> and receive it ready to use: with image sources at the right place....
>
> After if you can make money with it, it would be perfect then later if a
> Foundation exists it could be its role to promote squeak with such a
media.

I agree that there is such a need and SqF is the right structure to do it if
they see it fit.

> I saw simply that if my wife would have to download squeak find the right
> version find the sources....she would never use it in her classroom.

That's true.

> Then if somebody would collect the goodies and put energy to have all the
vm
> and latest (stable) official distribution this is normal that he get some
> money for that. The fact that we could pay for a distribution would also
> bring a bit of money in the community even if this is via you for the
> moment.

What we can do is to include a virgin image and a simple installer system to
the Squeak News CD to have an option to install an up-to date Squeak to your
machine.
With Dave's "SqF 30 day" offer in the plates I would be reluctant to offer a
plain Squeak CD however, even though it is well within our capabilities. I
believe Dave's offer may be our last chance for a while to set up an SqF so
we should take this offer seriously.

> I think that if we want to make Squeak stabler, more modular, been able to
> introduce enh and bug fixes, we need a way to collect simple money from
the
> institutions that exists. For me I don't see a problem to pay a couple of
> distribution form our university just to have a clean cd.

Although selling CDs would obviously be an income for a SqF, with the
current number of Squeak users this income would be far too little to help
the foundation. We need to increase exposure to other non-Squeakers by
distributing free copies of Squeak CDs, Squeak demo CDs and material,
advertising, public relations, and all sorts of brand creation activities. A
SqF needs to support and work together with other Squeak organizations to
increase exposure to Squeak and Squeak related activities by using these
means. We are also very short of documentation, a structured set of
tutorials and example well documented applications for which a SqF needs to
spend a lot of money even when using volunteers. I don't think SqF can get
this sort of money just by selling CDs or other things. There needs to be
some initial capital and a steady source of income. There may be a
membership structure with a few paying levels of memberships and a volunteer
level of membership for people who can offer their services. There may also
be a donation mechanism.

> Stef
>
Cheers,

Tansel