I think that for us to properly vote, we need something more than the vague "work on our text tool". Do we get to decide what exactly is worked on? Do we get to determine when the work is "done" (good enough and not too buggy)? Is anyone on the hook for bug fixing after the fact? Things of that nature.

Cheers, Josh

On Thu, 2009-09-10 at 10:54 -0500, Ted Gould wrote:

Hello Board,

So Linux Fund who has volunteered some funds to help sponsor development on our text tool has not received the matching that they would need to pay for the full development cost. They would like to either fund it, or free up the funds by the end of their fiscal year, which is the end of this month.

The difference is $630. They would like the foundation to pay the difference.

I have very mixed feelings on this. While it seems like a very small amount to pay for a feature that is weak in Inkscape, I'm also concerned about the prescient that it sets as we certainly don't have the money to fund development regularly. Though, there are already "funded" developers working on Inkscape through GSoC even though there are major restrictions on the eligibility by having to be enrolled in school.

Lastly, there are some political implications. Linux Fund has volunteered to help us, turning this down probably would mean that they wouldn't make that offer again. I don't believe that to be a major downside, but also something that should be considered.

I'm proposing that we do a simple vote on it. How about votes due by Sunday evening? Depending on that I'll either write a nice e-mail to Linux Fund thanking them for their generosity or ask the Software Conservancy to send the money.

--Ted

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Ted Gould wrote:

So Linux Fund who has volunteered some funds to help sponsor development on our text tool has not received the matching that they would need to pay for the full development cost. They would like to either fund it, or free up the funds by the end of their fiscal year, which is the end of this month.

The difference is $630. They would like the foundation to pay the difference.

I'm not sure I understand this correctly. It sounds like, "We wanted to pay you but we don't have the money now. We'll talk to the project and see if they will pay you instead." Has the work on the feature been completed? What sort of contract was created between Linux Fund and the developer? How are we involved, if at all, in this contract? What percentage of the total is $630?

I do not believe the Inkscape project should supplement the funding for a third party development agreement unless that was in fact part of the initial agreement. This sets a very bad precedent. I would like to see the work done. And I would like to see the developer compensated if he or she has done work. But I do not believe the responsibility for the funds falls to us.

Are there other alternatives? Could we offer to promote a special campaign to gather funds via donations to support the work?

Aaron Spike