On Mon, Apr 7, 2008 at 2:31 PM, tim Rowledge <tim at rowledge.org> wrote:

> 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.


Are planning a mission to the moon?  There are many things that could be
accomplished with a lot less.

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....
>
> 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.


More like enormous...funding can take many forms and be accomplished in many
ways.


> 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'.


To date, that has certainly been the most successful approach to funding
squeak.


> Bottom line - unless you can find major funding the only resources
> available are those freely offered by *you*.


Which of course equates to major funding.

- Stephen
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