<johnny@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> I STILL do not understand why anyone would care what CentOS does
>> with money donated by people who used the product and wanted to
>> donate.
>>
I used to think this way too, until I got burned.
Most people are reasonable and know you are providing an excellent
service for free. But there are getting to be more and more of the
conspiracy theorists out there who wonder what your real motivation is.
It seems these people can't conceive of anyone doing something for
nothing. Perhaps nowadays rightfully so after seeing the number of cases
of theft and fraud in both high and low profile cases.
In my case I arranged an upgrade of communications equipment and
services for a volunteer agency I was a member of. It was a swap deal,
where the new equipment would be purchased at wholesale price if the old
(and about to be useless) equipment was traded in to the distributor. It
wasn't a high value transaction, less than $10,000US, but for years
afterward I was accused of making big piles of money on the deal by
certain people. I can guarantee you that the only money made by anyone
in the deal was the manufacturer and maybe the distributor made some
money by selling the old equipment as parts to someone.
Personally I have a problem with agencies that solicit donations, then
expend a considerable amount of money on "administrative costs" or other
expenses that don't really achieve the organization's primary mission.
One well known agency that comes to mind is the Red Cross. Granted, they
are a large and complex organization, but there is something just not
right about them paying their top executives what is reputed to be
hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in salary.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that CentOS does this, but it is in
the Project's best interests to make public some info, perhaps even some
sort of budget so you know what the expected costs are. Maybe even a
sort of "wish" list where money can be earmarked for certain objectives;
i.e. "if we were able to raise X amount of money to buy Y, we would be
able to accomplish Z". Who knows, large donors have been known to either
fill in a hole in a fund raiser or make other creative donation programs
like a matching program "For every $1 donated we will provide a match of
$1". Already the project gets donations of equipment, and if a
mechanism was in place to allow documentation of donations, I know many
people and companies who would rather give more money to a worthy cause
than the government if they can offset the donation in their taxes.
Ideally, this funding management task should be given to a person (or
persons) who are not active in the trenches of development, but who is
aware of the needs and have the time to manage the funding as a primary
task so as not to take away valuable time from the developers. If this
task is given to one person, there should be a backup, who can fill in
in the event the primary person is unavailable, and to provide a timely
checks-and-balances system. I think that there also should be a
contingency fund that could be filled to a certain point, then any
overflow can be used for additional purchases as needed. General status
of the project's finances should be available to donors on the internet,
and detailed finances should be available (at minimum) to all the key
contributors to the project at any time. I think this would bring MORE
money into the project, since donors could see at a glance the overall
financial status, and may even lead to more widespread adoption of
CentOS if the project is shown to be financially stable.
I'm not sure if this already takes place, but I do feel that the heavy
contributors to the project should get certain "perks", like having
their internet connectivity paid for by the project or other similar
concessions if funding allows. But also the primary needs of the project
have to be fulfilled first, like making sure there is adequate equipment
available to test and build releases. The perks might be used as a tool
to attract other qualified developers, who would have a clear path to
achieve and maintain the status of "project slave" or whatever title
might be given to someone who has proven they have the necessary
knowledge and capabilities.
There will be those who say that anyone who get these "perks" are not
"doing it for free". But if the time and knowledge invested to make the
project work isn't there there is no project, and the value of the perks
is far outweighed by the results of the work. The people who whine about
this are the same ones that complain about everything in their lives,
but few actually do anything to make their lives better.
With the reach of CentOS, the project should continue to be successful,
and grow more so over time. CentOS isn't dead, it's just having growing
pains.
Thanks again to everyones who works so hard to make it happen.
-Ben
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