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<p>Hello all,</p>
On 25/02/17 20:33, Tymon Radzik wrote:<br>
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<div>Sugar Labs is by its statement <b>volunteer</b>-driven
project. We are volunteers. We work for the idea of the
free and open software and not for own financial profit.
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It is worth to reflect upon this point. Certainly the design and
engineering teams of Redhat and OLPC that built Sugar in the first
place weren't unpaid volunteers. I like to think that we're all
volunteers, in that, we are not motivated by money, and if we could
do more, we would.<br>
<br>
(Lack of) Investment in software infrastructure for education is a
large void that ultimately implies a hidden cost of integration,
field support, even the impossibility of deployment. Who is doing
this work required to take Sugar* (a component) and make it into end
user solutions?<br>
<br>
While it is probably human nature to distrust, I think Laura is
proposing to shift from just hiring strangers that walk away after 3
months with $5000, to sustaining long term active members with a
small stipend for a year, in the hope (and trust) that they will
increase their effort and involvement, as well as attract more
active contributors. Whether this will result in a better Sugar a
year from now, and whether it is sustainable, remains to be seen, as
well as the specific dynamics of such a program.<br>
<p>The following is an excerpt from <a
href="%22Roads%20and%20Bridges:%20The%20Unseen%20Labor%20Behind%20Our%20Digital%20Infrastructure%22%20%28license:%20CC-BY,%20author:%20Nadia%20Eghbal%29">"Roads
and Bridges: The Unseen Labor Behind Our Digital Infrastructure"
(license: CC-BY, author: Nadia Eghbal)</a></p>
<p>I recommend reading the whole book and we can think how it
applies to a project like Sugar Labs, that has no money making
product, but rather is a knowledge multiplying community, and how
society can nurture it.</p>
<blockquote><i><b>Open source’s complicated relationship with money</b><br>
(...) <br>
The Linux Foundation was created in 2007 to help protect and
maintain Linux and its associated projects. Torvalds does not
run the Linux Foundation himself, preferring instead to receive
a steady salary as a “Linux Fellow” and work on his projects as
an engineer. </i><br>
<p><i>
While open source software is admirably rooted in a culture of
volunteerism and collaboration relatively untouched by
extrinsic motives, the reality is that our economy and
society, from multimillion dollar companies to government
websites, depends on open source. </i><i><br>
</i></p>
<p><i>
Overall, this is probably a positive development for society.
It means that software is no longer strictly relegated to
private, proprietary development, as it ha d been for decades.
The fact that the United States government, or a social
network website with billions of users, incorporates
community-built software, paints an optimistic future for
democracy. </i><i><br>
</i></p>
<p><i>
In addition, many projects function well on a community basis
if they are on the extremes of size : that is, either small
projects that do not require significant maintenance (as in
the example of Arash Payan and Appirater), or very large
projects that have found significant corporate support (as in
the example of Linux). </i><i><br>
</i></p>
<p><i>
However, many projects are trapped somewhere in the middle:
large enough to require significant maintenance, but not quite
so large that corporations are clamoring to offer support.
These are the stories that go unnoticed and untold. From both
sides, these maintainers are told they are the problem: S mall
project maintainers think mid-sized maintainers should just
learn to cope, and large project maintainers think if the
project were “good enough,” institutional support would have
already come to them. </i><i><br>
</i></p>
<p><i>
There are also political concerns around financial support
that make it harder to find a reliable source of funding. A
single company may not want to sponsor development work that
also benefits their competitor, who paid nothing. A private
benefactor may want special privileges that threaten the
neutrality of a project. (For example, for security-related
projects, privileged disclosure of vulnerabilities — paying
for special knowledge about security vulnerabilities instead
of exposing those vulnerabilities to the public — is a
controversial request.) And governments may have political
reasons to sponsor the development of a particular project, or
ask for special favors such as “backdoors” (a secret way of
bypassing security authentication), even if that project is
used internationally.</i></p>
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I can't agree with the idea of monthly stipends (salaries)
being paid to some members. <br>
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Not only breaking something I considered to be a fundamental
principle, it is also dividing the community. Our funds
deserve to be spent in more orgnization-beneficial way. <br>
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Additionally, I don't want to accuse anyone personally, but
current situation in our discussion could meet the
definition of <i>conflict of interest</i> for some members
involved... <br>
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Best,<br>
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Tymon<br>
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<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr">sob., 25 lut 2017 o 23:46 użytkownik Chris
Leonard <<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:cjlhomeaddress@gmail.com">cjlhomeaddress@gmail.com</a>>
napisał:<br>
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<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">On Fri,
Feb 24, 2017 at 2:21 PM, Laura Vargas <<a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:laura@somosazucar.org"
class="gmail_msg" target="_blank">laura@somosazucar.org</a>>
wrote:<br class="gmail_msg">
><br class="gmail_msg">
><br class="gmail_msg">
> 2017-02-24 13:51 GMT-05:00 Caryl Bigenho <<a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:cbigenho@hotmail.com"
class="gmail_msg" target="_blank">cbigenho@hotmail.com</a>>:<br
class="gmail_msg">
>><br class="gmail_msg">
>> Hello Again....<br class="gmail_msg">
>><br class="gmail_msg">
>><br class="gmail_msg">
><br class="gmail_msg">
> Hola Caryl,<br class="gmail_msg">
>><br class="gmail_msg">
>> The "Badge" proposal is a totally inappropriate use
of SL funds and could<br class="gmail_msg">
>> result in litigation and the possible end of
SugarLabs.<br class="gmail_msg">
>><br class="gmail_msg">
>><br class="gmail_msg">
> Please do elaborate on this. We have already allocated
stipends for active<br class="gmail_msg">
> members in the past. As I recall Chris Leonard had an 8
month stipend of US$<br class="gmail_msg">
> 1,000.<br class="gmail_msg">
><br class="gmail_msg">
> What would be difference?<br class="gmail_msg">
><br class="gmail_msg">
<br class="gmail_msg">
To clarify, I had negotiated a contract with Sugar Labs /
SFC for a<br class="gmail_msg">
monthly stipend to support the Translation Manager
position. I did<br class="gmail_msg">
NOT submit a single invoice for that work (which I have been
doing)<br class="gmail_msg">
and allowed the contract to lapse. I have not received a
dime from<br class="gmail_msg">
Sugar Labs funds in in the 10 years I have been volunteering
and I<br class="gmail_msg">
have come to regret that I opened the door to the current
effort to<br class="gmail_msg">
drain those funds into members pockets.<br class="gmail_msg">
<br class="gmail_msg">
I believe the funds (the majority of which come from the
TripAdvisor<br class="gmail_msg">
grant obtained by Walter) should go to their intended
purpose,<br class="gmail_msg">
supporting TurtleArt promotion and internationalization and<br
class="gmail_msg">
localization efforts. I understand that for legal reasons
the funds<br class="gmail_msg">
are officially considered fungible and in a general pool,
but I<br class="gmail_msg">
believe we should honor the original intent of the donor.<br
class="gmail_msg">
<br class="gmail_msg">
cjl<br class="gmail_msg">
<br class="gmail_msg">
I now regret having opened the door to paid efforts<br
class="gmail_msg">
_______________________________________________<br
class="gmail_msg">
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)<br
class="gmail_msg">
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org" class="gmail_msg"
target="_blank">IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org</a><br
class="gmail_msg">
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep"
rel="noreferrer" class="gmail_msg" target="_blank">http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep</a></blockquote>
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<pre wrap="">_______________________________________________
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org">IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep">http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep</a></pre>
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