Jim Henderson - 1:08 10.02.16 wrote:
On Tue, 09 Feb 2016 23:19:49 +0100, Richard Brown wrote:
Yes, and SUSE stopped doing it because it's not a sustainable business model
openSUSE doesn't need money to survive
We need contributions
Lets focus on that, don't talk, don't pay, just DO
Making, collecting, and administering money that we don't need right now is just going to be a distraction that isn't going to solve any problems for anyone.
I don't know that I entirely agree, Richard. If someone wants to step up and manage that collection of money, doesn't that fit into the "just do it" approach that we want the project membership to use?
Well, depends. For sure, anybody is free to create clubs, collect money and use them up on whatever they want. But making it official openSUSE foundation and pretending that sending money to it helps openSUSE is something kinda different as openSUSE doesn't need the money and so far in this discussion I haven't seen what this money could be used for that is not possible with SUSE money (except people feeling good that they spent some money on "openSUSE").
Technical contributions are certainly important, but there are many ways to support the project that don't involve technical contribution. Visibility for the project is important to getting people involved and interested in supporting it with technical contributions.
So, for example, if an openSUSE fan club wanted to pull something like this together, collect funds itself, and then use those funds to make T- shirts to sell through an online store - getting the openSUSE name out there in front of people, that is something that helps the project.
Something like http://shop.opensuse.org/ or http://openshop.spreadshirt.com/
I live 15 minutes from Microsoft's main campus in Redmond (for the next 20 days, anyways, before I move to the other side of Puget Sound). The building I live in has Microsoft employees in it, and one of their main sales offices is walking distance.
I get looks when I wear my SUSE jacket - and not because Microsoft employees/fans hate Linux. Many seem to be thinking "I didn't know SUSE was still around" (and one person actually said that to me).
Microsoft is still around? :-)
If I had thought to, I might've made myself an openSUSE t-shirt with a QR code and link on it to promote the cause here. If a group like the one being proposed did something like that, and the link/QR code went to a site that talked about the project and how to contribute to it, that certainly would help recruit talent to participate.
Cool idea! There is plenty of services online where you can just submit your design and get a T-Shirt. There are even some that will allow to upload your design and let other people buy it. Nice idea for a nice project, but I still fail to see a need for legal entity collecting money and some relation between money being collected somewhere and somebody designing a cool T-shirt and people buying it online.
Walking around the Collaboration Summit last year, I didn't notice a lot of openSUSE-specific swag being shown off by the attendees. There was some for Ubuntu, Fedora, and other distros, though.
Seems like that's something we could be doing better with.
I know there's money in the SUSE budget to do this - I am one of the team who handles local reimbursement. I've received zero requests for this over the year or so that I've been on the team that handles it. I could have done more to promote the use of the fund, I suppose - but maybe having something users can contribute to for the purposes of promoting the openSUSE project isn't a bad thing - allowing the local reimbursement fund to be used for more organized events like conferences (which, as I recall, was the original intent). As long as those who contribute understand that being a paid "fan" is different than being a "project member" - that the currency for project membership is contributions and not a financial donation - I don't see the harm in letting someone give it a shot and seeing how it goes.
If jdd has that itch and wants to scratch it, I think that's just as valid as if he wanted to create a x86 Leap distribution or wanted to provide translations to Manx Gaelic.
Just my thoughts. :)
Jim -- Jim Henderson Please keep on-topic replies on the list so everyone benefits
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