The success of Grants

Ron Teitelbaum Ron at USMedRec.com
Tue Aug 29 17:10:48 UTC 2006


I think we should try to figure out what is going to upset people, and will
funding projects alienate people in this community and keep them from
participating.

I believe that Ton has hit on something that I think will help.  It would
seem to me that what will upset people more then anything else is spending
donated money and not receiving back proper value for that money.  If we do
receive back proper value for the investment then everyone benefits since we
all use the software. 

There could be other problems like a sense of favoritism, jealousy or
unfairness.  For example someone could think they could do a better job then
the person selected for a grant or they are working harder then the person
getting paid without receiving anything for their contribution so payment in
general is not fair.

I believe that by raising the bar, by insisting on a professional management
type atmosphere, that has real structure and accountability, most people
would feel more comfortable about this type of grant.

The three major things that should happen are.  We should agree on what task
or event we want, and what the value of that task or event is to the
community.  Then we should partner with someone that is willing to
administer the project, either a business or educational institution that
may or may not have a financial stake in the project and may or may not
receive some benefit themselves.  At that point we need to have highly
qualified community members screen applicants so that we can all be assured
that the candidate can provide the value we are looking for.  The process
should be open and transparent with frequent updates as to status.

I think we could all benefit from more movement and development.  For me
it's a good idea.

Ron Teitelbaum 


> From: Joshua Gargus
> Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2006 11:38 AM
> 
> I wonder how the "crowding out" effect differs between working
> on one's pet project, and doing something that is not really fun,
> but is necessary.  For example, I'm not intrinsically motivated to
> write tools to support harvesting, so there would probably be
> no negative effect from receiving an extrinsic reward.
> 
> Josh
> 
> 





More information about the Squeak-dev mailing list