<div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Apr 7, 2008 at 2:31 PM, tim Rowledge <<a href="mailto:tim@rowledge.org">tim@rowledge.org</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
A key problem with funding is the sheer amount one would need to achieve very much; if we postulate a dozen people (say 10 that do development work, a manager/leader and an admin) you would have to budget around $1.2M a year; increasing steadily as the USD sinks into the mire.</blockquote>
<div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>Are planning a mission to the moon? There are many things that could be accomplished with a lot less.</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
Volunteer work can achieve amazing things in some cases but it rarely has much success in handling the 'boring bits'. Look how few people have offered at any time to work on the unglamorous building of releases, harvesting of bug reports and potential fixes, writing of comments, etc etc etc. Come to that, look how few people do any of that even when paid to....<br>
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So far as I can see the only way that major work has been done in/for Squeak is when someone is funding a sizeable project and it includes a subsystem that can be spun out for general use. Interval, Apple, Disney, exobox, HP, IBM, and of course the slightly different sort of funding from some academic cases. Oh and a few of us (Anthony, Bryce, Craig, me, maybe others?) that have de-facto funded projects simply by not earning any money for an extended period whilst we do something for Squeak. Three years of my near-full-time attention adds up to a pretty big donation.</blockquote>
<div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>More like enormous...funding can take many forms and be accomplished in many ways.</div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
I think - as with so many things - Alan was right about funding. He successfully managed to get three major corporations to provide loosely tied funding and now has a sizeable chunk from the NSF. We do need to remember though that his aim is to develop a sensible education system, not a 'better Squeak'.</blockquote>
<div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>To date, that has certainly been the most successful approach to funding squeak.</div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
Bottom line - unless you can find major funding the only resources available are those freely offered by *you*.</blockquote><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>Which of course equates to major funding.</div>
<div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>- Stephen</div></div>