It's been a few years since we had the last big update on the Git project's activities at Software Freedom Conservancy. So, we're long overdue for an update. This email will serve as a report on the project's activities at Conservancy for the year 2022. The previous report (from 2018, whose format I'll try to stick to here) can be found at: https://lore.kernel.org/git/20180306231609.GA1632@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/ # Background Git is a member project of the Software Freedom Conservancy. The Git project joined Conservancy in 2010 so Conservancy could help us manage our money and other assets, and provide legal representation for trademark matters. Conservancy doesn't hold any copyright on any of the project's code. Similarly, being a member project at Conservancy does not grant Conservancy any influence in the project's development. The technical direction that Git takes is up to us. Interested readers can take a look at a more full picture of what Conservancy does for the Git project at: https://sfconservancy.org/projects/services/ A "Project Leadership Committee" (PLC) represents the Git project at Conservancy. The PLC currently consists of Junio C Hamano, Christian Couder, Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason, and myself. # Financials The most recent data that I have a copy of is from the end of March, 2022. So the numbers below aren't totally up-to-date, but they should be good enough to get a rough picture from. We have ~70k USD in our account, up ~40k from where we were at in 2018. Here are some top-level ledger numbers gathered since 2018-03-07 (the date of the last report). Note that this is all double-entry, so negative numbers are good. $-45,962.81 Income:Git $-43,590.05 Donations $-2,332.22 Royalties $-40.54 Currency Conversion $5,512.23 Expenses:Git $134.97 Bad Debt $514.43 Banking Fees $3,852.63 Conferences:Travel $113.22 Per Diem $12.88 Currency Conversion $825.00 Filing Fees $59.10 Hosting -------------------- $-40,450.58 Most of our money comes from donations. About 5% of it comes from royalties, most of which are from Amazon affiliate links on git-scm.com. Our royalty program with Packt Publishing (who publish Git-related books) ended in 2019, which accounts for the "Bad Debt" expenses. We give 10% of all incoming money to Conservancy's general fund (these numbers are after that 10%). We spent some money in 2019 and 2020 on sponsoring travel for to the Contributor Summit and Git Merge ($3,852.63, to be exact), but spent $0 in 2021, since no Git Merge was held. This year we sponsored one GSoC student's travel to Git Merge, and I expect to continue this trend in the future. # Trademark We hold a trademark on the term "Git" in the space of software and version control. The report from 2017 has a good overview of the details there: https://public-inbox.org/git/20170202024501.57hrw4657tsqerqq@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/ In response to some discussions we had with folks at Conservancy, Christian brought a discussion to the list about rethinking the way we treat our trademark in the future, particularly with respect to enforcement. See his recent email to the list for more details there: https://lore.kernel.org/git/CAP8UFD3WQ64FuXarugF+CJ_-5sFNBCnqPE0AEBK-Ka78ituKTg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx/ # Travel Budget Allocation Like I mentioned above, we sponsored travel for one GSoC student to attend Git Merge and the Contributor's Summit this year. The process has been somewhat ad-hoc, at least in the past, but the PLC formalized this process a little bit more rigidly in 2018. The report from that year has a good overview of the details. Similarly, that whole procedure is (still) open for comments and suggestions. Our main focus is to make it possible for new contributors (particularly ones who have participated in programs like GSoC and Outreachy) to attend Git Merge (and, specifically, the Contributor's Summit) where it wouldn't otherwise be possible. # Conclusion That's all for this year. I'm hoping to make this a somewhat more regular thing, or at least do it once a year (probably around the time of the Contributor's Summit, when most of the folks who will be interested in the details here will all be in the same room). I'm happy to answer any questions on the list, and I'll propose a session on it at the Contributor's Summit tomorrow, in case folks want to discuss this further in person. Thanks, Taylor
