Charles Crawford <CCrawford at ACB.org> writes: > Thanks Randy but I hear money is not as much the issue as it getting > the right enfgineers. This is not quite true, if we have more money then we could hire and develop coders that would understand our needs and wants. However your original idea Charlie is great in that we do need an organization that could take donations from folks or corporations and funnel it into gpl'd software development specifically for the blind linux community. My experience has always been though that there are way more projects which need to be done than there is available cash. That sets up the situation where projects are competing against other projects in the same field, so which ones get the relatively slim funds. I gave up on putting together proposals many years ago because I realized I had to spend all my time writing proposals (good ones) to compete against other handicapped organizations for the same pot of money. If I got the grant then I had to spend a lot of administrative time or money keeping the funding agencies happy and up-to-date. I was getting very little actual work done so I gave up on the idea eventually because I want to produce packages not paper work. We have spent quite a bit of time discussing your idea on the reflector and as I write this Geoff and Frank are arguing about the best way to do this sort of thing. So you need an organization to drum up funds, you need a way to either treat each project well or special projects you are determined to support. I have many times over the years talked about setting up a funding group to lobbie for funds. The basic problem there is I am severely overed worked just trying to keep our current projects moving in a forward direction. Sometimes, many times, it seems like I am making no headway at all. I just do not have the time to develop a good organization which would assure collectted funds got to worthwhile projects that make significant on going progress. If you can do it, great. I don't have the time and wish I did. I can manage projects and people well but don't have time to do more. Kirk -- Kirk Reiser The Computer Braille Facility e-mail: kirk at braille.uwo.ca University of Western Ontario phone: (519) 661-3061
