Re: Commitfest problems

On 12/12/14 20:43, Josh Berkus wrote:
> On 12/12/2014 11:35 AM, Alvaro Herrera wrote:
>> Uh, really? Last I looked at the numbers from SPI treasurer reports,
>> they are not impressive enough to hire a full-time engineer, let alone a
>> senior one.
>>
>> The Linux Foundation has managed to pay for Linus Torvalds somehow, so
>> it does sound possible. We have a number of companies making money all
>> over the globe, at least.

I think Álvaro (Herrera) got to the real point when he suggested to
fund a developer. Or three, as was also suggested. But to really nail it
down, I'd say not only for CFM. I think, overall, the PostgreSQL
community would really need to seriously consider raising funds and pay
with that full time development for some senior developers.

That would also allow to have development more oriented into what
the community really wants, rather than what other companies or
individuals work for (which is absolutely great, of course).

> You're looking at this wrong. We have that amount of money in the
> account based on zero fundraising whatsoever, which we don't do because
> we don't spend the money. We get roughly $20,000 per year just by
> putting up a "donate" link, and not even promoting it.
>
> So, what this would take is:
>
> 1) a candidate who is currently a known major committer

I think it would be even better to sell this approach as a
long-term strategy, not tied to any particular candidate. Sure, some
known major committer is for sure a good selling point; but a well
communicated strategy for a long-term foundation-like fund raising to
improve PostgreSQL in certain ways is the way to go.
>
> 2) clear goals for what this person would spend their time doing
+1. That may be the Core Team based on feedback/input from all the
list, or something like that
>
> 3) buy-in from the Core Team, the committers, and the general hackers
> community (including buy-in to the idea of favorable publicity for
> funding supporters)
+1
>
> 4) an organizing committee with the time to deal with managing
> foundation funds
+10000. Absolutely necessary, otherwise funding will not work
>
> If we had those four things, the fundraising part would be easy. I
> speak as someone who used to raise $600,000 per year for a non-profit in
> individual gifts alone.

I know it sounds difficult, and surely it is, but I believe the
PostgreSQL community should be able to raise, globally, some millions
per year to stably, and permanently, fund this community-guided
development and have our best developers devoted 100% to PostgreSQL.

Regards,

Álvaro

--
Álvaro Hernández Tortosa

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