[PD] no licensing, no money?

CK chris at lo-res.org
Tue May 17 01:54:19 CEST 2005


hi max,

I read:
> I'm curious to hear your point of view to this: the university asked me 
> to review the list of software they want to order for the department. 

nice at least they _ask_ 

> the university? I guess you all agree that the money should rather be 
> spent in PD development. but since there is no license to aquire the 
> university can't ask companys to give bids on this deal. how can open 
> source projects handle this? any suggestions?

well we are facing a similar problem here but (our it center at least
recently donated some money to more traditional projects (I don't ex-
actly remember what it was but along the lines of postfix, spamasassin
etc...)

For example, I invited tom schouten for a lecture to give something back
(while of course leeching some of his energy on the way ;), the travel
was paid by a small festival run by some friends.

a few options you might consider:

* donations/paypal   --  relatively hard to convince the buerocrats but
                         it can work and I suspect when it has been done
                         once already it gets easier next time.

* inviting devrs     --  usually rather small amounts that can be spent
                         on guest lectures but a unique opportunity for
                         students and staff to relate faces to email 
                         adresses and to talk about future plans.

* commissioning      --  again tough with the buerocrats but a good way
                         to give stuff back to the community (if you can
                         explain why the result should be gpl/bsd style
                         licensed so the uni can't make any - rather 
                         virtual anyway - profits from it)

* docs/faqs/examples --  actually you commit a lot to the community if 
                         your students work on such things and release
                         the results to the general public.

* conferences        --  setting up a mini festival / conference is also
                         a nice way to show your support (see also the 2nd
                         point) and might help to gain some publicity out-
                         side of your department - should make it easier
                         at some point to convince the buerocrats ;)

just my 0.02EUR

regards,

x

-- 
chris at lo-res.org	Postmodernism is german romanticism with better
http://pilot.fm/	special effects. (Jeff Keuss / via ctheory.com)




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