January 2016 - Inkscape Board of Directors

Hackfest Venue
by Tavmjong Bah 26 Jan '16

26 Jan '16

Hi, As most of you already know, our original venue for the Leeds hackfest fell through. Alex is looking for another venue which will probably not be free. What would be a reasonable amount to allocate for a venue? I've already suggested to Alex that a few hundred pounds would seem reasonable to me for a three day hackfest. What do you all think? Tav

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Fwd: Upgrade to Project Summary Pages - Inkscape
by Josh Andler 16 Jan '16

16 Jan '16

I received this email and assume anyone else that's a project owner of Inkscape on SF received it too. I'm in the home stretch for SCALE with deadlines up to my eyeballs, so I can't really add this to my todo list to take care of in the next week. I'm not a fan of them initiating this, especially given our desire to move away from them completely at some point. Cheers, Josh ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Elizabeth Daniels <edaniels@...125...> Date: Fri, Jan 15, 2016 at 4:16 PM Subject: Upgrade to Project Summary Pages - Inkscape To: sfcommunity <communityteam@...126...> To help you enhance your project summary pages so visitors can quickly decide if your software fits their needs, we added a new feature to the page called the "Editor's Review <https://sourceforge.net/blog/announcing-new-editors-reviews>". Our Community Team, along with myself as the Senior Editor at SourceForge, manages this review. The Editor's Review includes a written review with the top features and images and/or a short video preview, depending on the project. For example, here’s a video we’ve come up with for your project: https://youtu.be/DbFrLE91CmU If we don’t hear from you in a week, we’ll go ahead and add this video review to your SourceForge project page. If you wish us to edit or improve it, please let us know and we'll pause it until edited. If you think that this video just doesn't fit your Project Summary Page let us know, and we'll remove it right away. We can also help you obtain up-to-date screenshots that promote the best qualities of your product (or you can them to your project summary page). As you know, nothing grabs a user’s attention like images when they’re trying to decide on a product. Let us know if you have any questions and thanks for being part of the SourceForge community! -- Elizabeth Daniels Senior Content Editor SourceForge.net <http://sourceforge.net> | 415.713.0229

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[REFERENDUM] Donation to Software Freedom Consortium for 2016
by Bryce Harrington 14 Jan '16

14 Jan '16

== Proposal == Should a $600 donation be made to the Software Freedom Consortium in thanks for their services provided? == Votes == Tavmjong Bah Ted Gould Jon A. Cruz Bryce Harrington Josh Andler Krzysztof Kosiński Martin Owens == Resolved == A $600 donation should be made to SFC. == Background == Hi, As you all know, SFC is launching a big fundraiser on Monday. As we heavily rely on SFC I think we should consider making a donation to show our support. They are currently 81 annual supporters short of their minimum goal. Perhaps we could donate the equivalent of 5 annual subscription (5 x $120 = $600)? Donations before the end of January will be matched. Tav * Note that many employers will match on donations to charities, so this is worth checking into as it'll double the impact of your donation. * Currently 10% of Inkscape's net income is provided to SFC, as is standard for all projects SFC manages. * Inkscape made a one-time donation to SFC as part of our Fiscal Services Agreement effort last year, in the amount of $1600 ($400 per year from 2009-2012), plus a retroactive payment of 10% for income received since 2012.

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Summary of some recent Inkscape committee votes
by Bryce Harrington 14 Jan '16

14 Jan '16

Hi, No action is required by SFC on the following, this is sent as FYI. == Budget 2016 == https://sourceforge.net/p/inkscape/mailman/message/34758004/ We have budgeted $22,850 for expenditures this year. We are estimating $12,600 income from donations this year. We also are establishing separate funding pools for Hackfests, SVG WG meetings, and funded projects, for targeted fundraising purposes. == GPLv2 Licensing Intent == https://sourceforge.net/p/inkscape/mailman/message/34764598/ A few GPLv3 licensed files in the Inkscape codebase engendered a question about what the project's intent should be for licensing. With this vote we've established that at least for now, the codebase should be licensed GPLv2 or newer. There seems to be some interest in migrating to GPLv3, but that will be a separate discussion. == Hackfest 2016 in Leeds, England == https://sourceforge.net/p/inkscape/mailman/message/34764581/ Following on our successful hackfest last year, a new one is being organized to be held in conjunction with the Libre Graphics Meeting in London. We're going to have the hackfest in nearby Leeds though, both due to London being expensive and because an Inkscape developer lives there and can handle logistics. == SVG Working Group Meeting in Sydney, 2016 == https://sourceforge.net/p/inkscape/mailman/message/34764554/ Tavmjong Bah is willing to represent Inkscape once again this year at the SVG Working Group meeting in Australia, and we've approved expenses. We've started dedicated fundraising for these meetings, which has garnered $286.54 so far, and we've also allocated an additional $2250 from Inkscape's general fund. The board has formally approved the amount of $2,536.54 for this trip. Bryce

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[REFERENDUM] GPLv2 Licensing Intent
by Bryce Harrington 14 Jan '16

14 Jan '16

A majority vote of the current board members is required for the following matter. Proposal: The Board officially states that the Inkscape Project's intention is for the main codebase to be licensed as GPL version 2 or later. [ ] a. Approve statement that Inkscape is GPLv2+ [ ] b. The board should state a different licensing policy: ____________________________________________________ [ ] c. The board should not state a license intent at this time Background: When Inkscape's code was originally written, it was important that it be covered by the GPL. At that time, GPLv3 had not been created, and so version distinctions didn't seem compelling enough to necessitate spelling it out definitively, and thus it generally wasn't. Indeed, it was not uncommon to leave out the boilerplate licensing statements from the code files simply for expediency; the assumption was that placing them in the repository was sufficient for "inheriting" the standard Inkscape licensing. Over time the project accumulated snippets of code adopted from other projects, some of which had different licensing policies. Generally these were compatible with the GPL license of the codebase, but not always. Inevitably all of this has led to some developer confusion over exactly what Inkscape's licensing policy is and what it should be. With the added complexity of GPL version 3 (and other permutations such as "GPL v2 only"), it is becoming clear that Inkscape needs to be more precise at tracking the licensing of the codebase, down at least to individual file boilerplates. An obvious first step is to have a firm decision by the project about what the licensing *should* be, so that all code that is descrepant from that can be addressed, and the codebase brought into compliance through regular development efforts. Note that this decision will be only for the core codebase itself. Plugins, dependency libraries, and other accessory codebases such as the website, will need to be generally compatible with GPLv2+ (assuming that's what we choose) to the degree that the GPL requires in order for them to link to, or be distributed with, Inkscape, or else Inkscape will be unable to continue using them; however, this board decision is not dictating what the exact license should be for those products, and any adjustments needed to them as a side-effect of this decision are left to their developers to sort out as makes the most sense for them. Inkscape Board <inkscape-board(a)lists.sourceforge.net>

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[REFERENDUM] Hackfest Sponsorship 2016
by Bryce Harrington 14 Jan '16

14 Jan '16

Your vote is needed on the planned Inkscape Hackfest for 2016: Proposals: 1. Hold the 2016 hackfest in Leeds on Apr 11-14 2016. (Refer to attached proposal document for details). [ ] a. Yes, hold hackfest in Leeds as proposed [ ] b. Approve holding a hackfest, but recommend making the following alterations: ____________________________________________________________ [ ] c. Do not approve holding a hackfest this year 2. Reimburse using a ranked system similar to last year, but with increased limits and relaxed contribution requirements, as detailed below. [ ] a. Use ranked reimbursement. Long term, high commit developers are sponsored up to a higher maximum than new developers. [ ] b. Use open ended. We'll fully cover all valid expenses incurred by the sponsorees. [ ] c. Other: ____________________________________________________________ [ ] d. Do not reimburse for Leeds hackfest 2016 expenses 3. If a sponsoree does not hit their maximum reimbursement amount for the hackfest itself, can they apply the remainder against LGM expenses? [ ] Yes. Consider LGM and Hackfest expenses lumped together for purposes of reimbursement. [ ] No. Airfare can be covered by either Hackfest or LGM sponsorship (or split between them), but hotel and food expenses for each event should be handled separately. 4. The Inkscape Board sponsors a dinner event, to be funded from the Inkscape general fund (instead of the hackfest fund), for Hackfest attendees and guests. [ ] Yes. Allocate $600 from Inkscape's general fund for a dinner. [ ] Yes, but handle funding the dinner in a different way: ________________________________________________________________ [ ] No, do not fund a sponsored dinner for the hackfest. Votes: Resolved: Background: After the success of the 2015 Hackfest, there is strong interest in sponsoring another one in 2016. Last year we co-located the event with LGM, which was convenient for Inkscape developers who wanted to attend LGM; we had a few LGM attendees stop by the hackfest which was nice but perhaps not as critical. This year's LGM is in London, and in order to achieve similar cross-over benefits this proposal suggests holding it nearby, but not necessarily (expensively) *in* London. Leeds is a short distance and we have an Inkscape developer in proximity who can organize it and handle logistics, so this seems like a sensible locale. Last year's fundraising brought in an amount well in excess of what we required, and indeed probably enough to cover most or all of the sponsorship for the 2016 hackfest. Due to this, we probably don't need to allocate money from the general fund for this event. Even so, it is intended that we conduct another fundraiser; this will help establish certainty for a 2017 hackfest, and/or might be usable for another smaller (perhaps US-located) hackfest in 2016. We established limits on the maximum sponsorship amounts last year, in order to ensure spreading the funds widely. However, since we underspent so significantly, and since attendance was below anticipated, this proposal suggests relaxing the requirements and increasing the limits: * Up to $2500 each for Inkscape developers who have contributed for 3+ years and > 150 commits * Up to $2000 each for Inkscape developers who have contributed for 2+ years and > 50 commits * Up to $1500 each for Inkscape developers who have contributed for 1+ year and > 25 commits * Up to $500 each for any Inkscape contributor listed in AUTHORS file with at least 10 commits by Jan 1, 2016 Alex Valavanis has volunteered as event coordinator for the hackfest event.

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[REFERENDUM] SVG WG Meeting ~ Sydney Feb 4-6, 2016
by Bryce Harrington 14 Jan '16

14 Jan '16

Proposal: Approve SVG Working Group Meeting Sydney 2016 attendance by Tavmjong Bah, up to $2,536.54 from the SVG WG funds pool. [ ] Yes. [ ] No. Votes: Resolution: Background: Tavmjong Bah is our official Inkscape representative to the W3C SVG Working Group Meetings, and his attendance has been instrumental in the past for ensuring the standard is developed with Inkscape's needs in mind. The next Face-to-Face meeting is in Sydney, Australia, Feb 4-6. We have budgeted $2,250 for this meeting, and allocated that amount from the general fund to a new "SVG WG funds pool". We have dedicated fundraising for these meetings that feeds into this pool, and eighteen donors have currently (as of Jan 10, 2016) contributed $286.54. Thus there is currently $2536.54 available, to cover airfare, hotel, and other associated travel expenses. Some years there are multiple SVG WG meetings scheduled. From their website I don't see any others listed. However if the fundraising continues to go well then we could afford to send Tav to those as well, at his discretion. (As an aside, I am enquiring with SFC if given our new setup, whether we need to continue holding a vote for each individual SVG WG meeting, or if there's some way we can approve the attendance as a routine ongoing expense. If we can, I'll post a vote for that. If we can't, then we'll need to continue to do individual votes for each meeting.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ For reference, here is the referendum background for the last meeting that was in Sydney: """ I (Tav) would like funding to attend the Sydney SVG working group meeting, to be held February 11-14, 2015. The first day will be a joint meeting with the CSS working group. At this meeting, the SVG working group plans on moving the SVG 2 specification to "Last Call". At this point the specification is essentially feature complete with no new features to be added and incomplete features removed. It is an important meeting to attend in person to make sure that features important to Inkscape such as mesh gradients, hatched fills, and auto-flowed text are not dropped. It also is a last chance to add new features adopted like text-on-a-shape or resolve problems such as getting proper closing of paths. The meeting also is an opportunity to lobby the browsers to implement SVG 2 features already supported by Inkscape such as the 'context-fill' and 'context-stroke' values for the 'fill' and 'stroke' properties which allows automatically matching marker fill color to path stroke color and the 'auto-reverse-start' value for the marker orientation which allows an arrow marker to be used both at the start and end of a path. Progress on SVG 2 can be followed at: https://svgwg.org/svg2-draft/ My presentations at the last SVG working group meeting can be found at: http://tavmjong.free.fr/SVG/tpac_2014.html and a meeting report at: http://tavmjong.free.fr/blog/?p=1154 Approximate cost for Sydney Transportation: Paris to Syndey: $1500 6 nights lodging/meals: $ 750 Tavmjong Bah """

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[REFERENDUM] Donation to OSUOSL for 2015
by Bryce Harrington 12 Jan '16

12 Jan '16

== Proposal == Should a $200 donation be made to OSUOSL in thanks for their services provided? == Votes == Tavmjong Bah Ted Gould Jon A. Cruz Bryce Harrington Josh Andler Krzysztof Kosiński Martin Owens == Background == Last year we made a $200 donation to OSUOSL in thanks for services provided[0], as we've done previously[1]. I'd like to propose we make another $200 donation this year. Shall we do it again? Bryce Note: Our budget notes we already approved a grant to OSUOSL, but that approval was last January so the expense carried against FY2014. Yet another quirk of having been misaligned with SFC's fiscal year... Going forward this won't be an issue.

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[REFERENDUM] Budget for 2016
by Bryce Harrington 12 Jan '16

12 Jan '16

A majority vote of the current board members is required for approving this budget. Proposal: 1. Adoption of the Rev1 budget in the attached spreadsheet for use as guidance in 2016 finances. 2. Align the 2016 budget to the Software Freedom Conservancy's fiscal year, which runs 3/1/2016 to 2/28/2017. We will stretch the 2015 budget to cover expenses through 2/29/2016. 3. Formalize the division of Inkscape's funds into distinct "pools", each carrying balances year to year, and registered in Paypal to allow donors to directly target the pool they wish to fund, as we did in 2015 for hackfest:2015 donations. We will still have a General Fund for general expenses and untargeted donations. 4. Generalize last year's Hackfest:2015 pool to cover future Hackfests. The money in this pool will be used exclusively for Hackfest sponsorship and related organizational costs. Assume an increase of 150% in the budgeted amounts over last year, to make provision for increased attendance. Since the hackfest-targeted fundraising has proven successful, no additional money is being allocated from the General Fund; we'll rely on the balance from last year and ongoing fundraising to cover these expenses. 5. Establish a new SVG Working Group funding pool. Seed this pool with $2250 from the General Fund, usable retroactively (i.e. the pool can be used to cover the Feb 3-6 meeting in Sydney, Australia.) 6. Allocate $250 each to the three existing funded project proposals, and to three new funded projects (to be determined in a subsequent board vote). Each funded project will have its own pool, in order to track per-project donations. 7. Other budgeted expenses follow the 2015 budget. An OSUOSL grant, Developer Education (details tbd), and sponsorship for LGM and SCALE are budgeted with the same amounts as 2015. The Contingency line item from 2015 is eliminated since we didn't have a use for it, and its $500 is lumped into Other Events. 8. Board chairman will document the budget on the Inkscape website, and follow up with subsequent votes on individual expenses as appropriate or as they come up. [ ] a. Yes, adopt budget as described in "Rev #1" (below) [ ] b. Revise budget with the following changes recommended: _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ [ ] c. Do not establish a budget for 2016 Background: At the end of 2015 we have a balance of $38,000, with $11,613.10 of that allocated to the Hackfest "pool", and $750 allocated to three funded project efforts. As detailed above, the 2016 budget is an evolution from 2015. The most notable change is the formalization of funding pools. This structural change to the budget is partly to facilitate the funded project system currently under development, but also helps establish the philosophy of empowering our donors in helping guide Inkscape's future through their contribution choices. The attached spreadsheet shows two tables. First is a listing of expenses including allocations of money from the General Fund to other pools (with expense amounts indicated in blue), and estimates for the expenses. The second table summarizes the expenses, expected donation income, and allocations between pools (with income amounts indicated in blue). Numbers in italic indicate the amounts are just guesses, and will be revised when actual amounts become known. The budget is more complex this year, I hope the spreadsheet helps make it comprehensible and apologize if it doesn't. (Advice for helping make it clearer would be appreciated.) Votes: Resolution:

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Proposal to for donation to SFC
by Tavmjong Bah 12 Jan '16

12 Jan '16

Hi, As you all know, SFC is launching a big fundraiser on Monday. As we heavily rely on SFC I think we should consider making a donation to show our support. They are currently 81 annual supporters short of their minimum goal. Perhaps we could donate the equivalent of 5 annual subscription (5 x $120 = $600)? Donations before the end of January will be matched. Tav

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