Hi Koki,Correct me if I'm wrong, Haiku Inc = Micheal Phipps. I am guessing only he has access to figures such as how much donations has been received and also what it has been spent on. I did see that there are financial statements for 2004 and 2005. This information could potentially be presented in a more easily digestible format. Would it be possible to have access to such information on a more regular basis? If that is possible then maybe the next step is to set goals/budget like you mentioned. Regards, Simon > Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2007 13:50:02 -0700> From: koki@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: > openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: [openbeos] Re: "One Hour for Haiku" - > Coordinating Voluntary Cash Donors> > Hi Czeslaw,> > Czeslaw Czapla wrote:> > > But it would be a mistake to pose these various elaborations as > > > *prerequisites* to implementation of a simple membership donation > > program > like One Hour for Haiku. I must argue that it would be more > > useful to > think -- contrariwise -- of the membership donation program > > as part of a > *foundation* that could ultimately permit greater > > organizational > capabilities and maturity through improved financial > > wherewithal.> > > There is already have a *foundation* and it's called Haiku Inc. I am > just > pointing out that this is the one entity that should have been > driving this > kind of effort.> > > Keeping it simple, what I am proposing is really just an > addition to > > the Haiku website. > > You can surely keep it simple as you > propose. However, if you want to > make a *meaningful* difference in terms of > funding (and then more), then > you need to do something more involved.> > > People are willing to donate, but they do want see their contributions > > translate into tangible results (or at least results that they can > relate > to). You should start with having some sort of yearly > *operational budget* > (so to call it), with a breakdown of the different > areas that require > funding (admin, legal, advocacy, development, etc.), > specific goals for the > year (ie., move website/Trac to dedicated server, > trademark Haiku logo(s), > hold WC07 in Europe, exhibit at XXX Expo and > YYY Conference, sponsor > development workshop, hire X number of for X > months, etc. etc.), and target > numbers for each area that people can > donate against. A donation drive can > be announced, and scale showing how > much has been raised so far against the > total target could be shown in > the website front page. Finally, for > transparency purposes, you need > some sort of periodic financial reporting > showing where the money has > actually been spent.> > As a desirable side > effect, the above exercise would also help project > some sort of direction > of where Haiku is headed as a project (not the > OS), making it more > compelling by inspiring the sort of confidence that > makes people more > comfortable with entertaining the idea of making a > monetary donation that > they consider worthy.> > All of the above can only be done with the > *proactive* involvement of > Haiku Inc. and the endorsement of the core devs > (admins). I realize this > is quite involved, but then, so is the work of the > many contributors to > Haiku, and you don't see developers/etc. complaining > because they spend > their time on Haiku. I am not a dev and I certainly > don't speak for > them. But when I contribute to the project, I know that I > would expect > this sort of reciprocity from the entity that I am giving the > copyright > of my work to.> > Cheers,> > Koki> > _________________________________________________________________ Try Live.com - your fast, personalized homepage with all the things you care about in one place. http://www.live.com/getstarted