Hi Tav,
Good questions... responses herein:
== How can Inkscape's assets be used to grow the Inkscape community? == Inkscape has limited financial resources, but benefits from a sizeable and enthusiastic user base. I'd like to see that community grow and become a self-sustaining entity, where we break down the barriers between developers and users. To this end, I think we should encourage users to give something back to the project... bug triaging, translations, tutorials, extension development and so on. The Hackfest was a great opportunity to bring developers together, and we could strategically invest in supporting and promoting small user-forum events in major cities (in a similar way to the Wikipedia community events) to strengthen the user community. This should be roughly cost-neutral, with Inkscape funds providing advance funding for venue booking etc., which could be either partially or fully recovered through attendee contributions. Other possible options could be funding professional video production for user tutorials, artwork showcasing etc., which would encourage community growth, with funds potentially being recovered through user donations and video streaming revenue.
== Are there specific projects that you think the board should pursue? How would you contribute to them? == I agree with Martin about the potential of crowdfunded development. However, I have a slight concern that this could lead to a proliferation of new features without the necessary quality assurance and maintenance planning. I'd like to ensure that these less glamorous but important project contributions are also encouraged but I'm not convinced that a direct crowdfunding request for something like code documentation or security cleanup would be successful. As such, we also need to encourage contributions to general funds, which could then be used on such projects, if necessary. I liked the idea, raised at the Hackfest, of raising general funding through merchandise sales, video streaming, artwork sales and so on. I would be happy to contribute to the planning of this activity and decisions on any required start-up funding.
Best wishes,
Alex
On 20 August 2015 at 21:07, Martin Owens <doctormo@...400...> wrote:
Thanks Tav,
The board's primary role has been to handle Inkscape's assets. How can Inkscape's assets be used to grow the Inkscape community?
Inkscape's most powerful asset is it's authority over it's brand. If a space where the community gathers is blessed as official and linked well like I stated in my previous question, then it has more power to improve Inkscape's whole community. A good candidate is the inkscape forum.
Are there specific projects that you think the board should pursue? How would you contribute to them?
A good example of what I mean would be Kickstarter or Patreon; Inkscape should involve itself more directly with creating and managing funding campaigns. These would both grow community and create a new kind of space where users can contribute (one not yet fully utilized). These kinds of spaces must be managed by the inkscape board more directly as only inkscape itself can lend the authenticity to users seeking to contribute in this way.
Best Regards, Martin Owens
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