I considered not sending this reply on list a few times. But decided that OSS is what it is because of public process. The "why" question is a little uncomfortable for me. We did recieve some utterly unnacceptable applications and I don't think it would be appropriate of us to disclose who or what they were. Tell me if I say the wrong things. :-)
Justin Wikinator wrote:
I must admit that I was extremely disappointed to not see my name on that list. Considering that I put a lot of effort into my proposal, I feel the need to know why it wasn't accepted. I wasn't able to view the comments/rating on the Google Acocunts; I've just e-mailed them concerning this. Could someone explain to me the reasons why my proposal was not selected ?
I understand why you might be crushed. (I am too.) But it isn't anything you did. I don't think an explaination will make you feel better, but I think you have earned one if you want one.
There are not any reasons why your proposal was not selected. I think that is the wrong question. You presented an excellent proposal. It was well liked and highly ranked. The decision of which application were not going to be selection was comparitivly easy and completed early on. Your proposal was selected for the final pool of great proposals. So the question is rather "why were other applications selected?" The proposals were ranked by vote according to how they would benefit inkscape user community. And thus applications that corresponded to multitudes of feature requests, bug reports, and irc chats recieved greater numbers of votes.
Yesterday I was explaining that "my dreams of getting paid to write Free Software was shattered" to some Open Souce activists from GOSLING (http://www.goslingcommunity.org). They encouraged me to attempt to get funding elsewhere, and I will be doing so. I would appreciate any suggestions the Inkscape developers community has on where I could get funding for my effects development interests. My first thought was to go to graphics design companies that use Inkscape (or not). I could generate images for them or improve the functionality of Inkscape for them. I don't know the Graphic Design industry well, so any tips on approacing them would be greatly appreciated. Considering my pursuit, I need to know who uses Inkscape already. It seems like it would do a lot for the promotioin of the Inkscape if there were to be a list of official endorsers of Inkscape. Does such a list exist ? If not, do you think this is a good idea ?
I've been musing about such possibilities for a while now. How can we get people with budgets to see investing in features for inkscape as a better investment than paying license fees. I certainly don't have it figured out. But you will have to find someone with a need and have the persistence and data to convince them.
With or without funding, I'm going to be further developing my stand-alone SVG generation libraries and possibly incorporate them into Inkscape. The former is easier for me than the latter, and considering this, I need to know: are my efforts on effects welcome/encouraged at Inkscape?
I welcome and encourage your efforts. I will even offer my assistance.
Aaron Spike