Hi Waldemar,
Waldemar Kornewald wrote:
> Hi Jorge,
>
> On 5/11/07, Jorge G. Mare (a.k.a. Koki) <koki@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> > I guess that currently the work doesn't require a finance expert, so
>> > I'd appreciate your help. First of all, we should probably get the
>> > email notifications for donors setup. After that, I'd love to see a
>> > way to setup a PayPal subscription where you can send a
>> > monthly/quarterly donation (pre-defined or user-chosen amount). I can
>> > give you access to our website, so you can extend the donations page.
>>
>> You (and the other admins?) may be out of the loop, because this has
>> already been done. Check it out for yourself:
>>
>> http://haiku-os.org/community/donating_to_haiku
>
> Ah, from what I can see, Michael edited the page less than a day ago,
> so maybe that's why I missed it. :)
So much for good communication...
The community has been asking for this. Why is this not announced more
proactively?
>> So, while Michael is correct in that the margins per item are lower with
>> CafePress, I think he fails to realize that the potential for *overall
>> revenue* would be significantly higher, since Haiku Inc./Michael alone
>> could never possibly handle the variety of products that CafePress
>> enables you to offer. Haiku just doesn't have the resources to produce
>> as many goods individually and to handle orders and shipments manually.
>
> Yep, fully agreed, but we really can't handle that because we lack the
> manpower. We need volunteers who take care of the shop and designers
> who create the shirts and other items.
A CafePress shop, once setup, pretty much takes care of itself, and it
gives you the advantage of being able to manage everything in a single
place online.
With regards to the designs, you could start using the existing Haiku
artwork for the time being. If somebody comes up with a better design,
then use it. But if you are going to wait until somebody comes to knock
on your door with something better, you may have to prepare yourself for
a long wait. :)
What you will need is the involvement of Michael, as he will have to
setup the shop account with Haiku Inc.'s bank account info. That may be
a bigger obstacle to surmount.
>> > If anyone has more suggestions please join our efforts!
>>
>> So, it's not like people do not have ideas or do not make suggestions,
>> but it's rather a problem of receptiveness (or lack thereof) on the part
>> of Haiku Inc.. You come up with all sorts of great ideas, and for one
>> reason or another, they all fall into deaf ears. If not, ask Karl vom
>> Dorff about his Haiku Bounty initiative.
>
> I can't even remember why this failed. I think there were legal issues
> which we wanted to address and at that time our website didn't allow
> for managing a bounties page. Maybe there were also other problems...
I would not call raising about $2,000 in a relatively short period of
time and w/o any support from the project a failure.
Karl did very good given the circumstances, and Haiku did not capitalize
on his eagerness to move his effort to the next stage. He even had to
complain, several months later, for Haiku to acknowledge publicly his
work and the contributions of the donators; what's more, he was
chastised on this list for doing so.
What failed was Karl's genuine attempt to bring his bounty effort under
the project's umbrella, and that was not his fault, but rather due to a
lack of a timely response from Haiku.
>> To find the right people, Haiku Inc. also needs to articulate what it
>> needs beyond the just "we need experts in <FILL IN THE BLANK>!" on an
>> email message which will go out of sight in no time. You need to give
>> more details on what specific skill sets are needed and what the
>> requirements/goals are for each role are, and you need to do it more
>> prominently, openly and persistently. The Haiku website sounds like the
>> logical place for this.
>
> Yes, we indeed need to do that. Maybe OSNews and other news sites
> could grab that news and help us spread the word. I'll put it on my
> TODO (currently working on the distro guidelines).
You have a website with about 1.5k registered users who obviously have
some sort of interest in Haiku, so you are more likely to find the right
person there than on OSNews.com or any other news site. :)
Cheers,
Koki
