[openbeos] Re: "One Hour for Haiku" - Coordinating Voluntary Cash Donors
- From: Czeslaw Czapla <czapla@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2007 09:54:38 -0700
Hello, again.
I'm thankful for the generally warm reception that my proposal has
received.
Several of the responses have taken my simple proposal as a point of
departure, proceeding to elaborate more general ideas about
organizational development and the process of institutional maturation,
all of which is interesting and hopeful and potentially fruitful for the
future of the project. Clearly, Haiku has many dedicated and thoughtful
caretakers, most especially among the core contributors.
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.
Keeping it simple, what I am proposing is really just an addition to the
Haiku website.
Specifically: On the Donations page
(http://haiku-os.org/community/donating_to_haiku), add a new paragraph
between "Donating Electronically" and "Other Donations". Give it the
heading: "One Hour for Haiku - Making Regular Donations". Offer a brief
description under the heading and present a link to a registration form
(as well as a link to a Current Donors page). The registration link
navigates to a form which solicits this information from the new
registrant: Name; Nickname; Email Address; Country. Successful
submission of registration data leads to a "Thank You" page, which also
includes a link to the Donor Listing page.
On the backend, registration data is stored in a simple database table
with perhaps six columns (IdentityKey, Name, Nick, Email, Country,
Datestamp). The Donor Listing page would draw data from this table for
its list of current registrants. Code that sends out automated emails
monthly would draw recipient address data from this table. The email
body content for the next mailing could reside in a text file somewhere
on the server, accessible to whomever for revisions as desired. (Even an
unchanging "form letter" would suffice for the email body content,
certainly at the beginning.) Finally, some mechanism to permit
"unregistration" could be provided for persons who wish to opt out.
I suspect that this isn't exactly trivial in terms of coding, but
wouldn't it be worthwhile? Is anyone with web development skills
available and interested in pursuing such an implementation? Do the
official gatekeepers of the Haiku website agree that this would be a
beneficial addition to the site?
Publicizing One Hour for Haiku could come a little later. Stories at
OSNews, HaikuNews, BeGroovy, and similar venues would help get the word
out. I really do believe that there are many people who would be happy
to learn about a new way that they can make a significant contribution
to the future of Haiku -- even though (like myself) they cannot write
code (yet). And nearly everyone likes to *belong*, so the membership
angle holds considerable appeal in and of itself.
I suppose that I am arguing for focus at this point: Make a well-defined
addition to the Haiku website as described above, and then spread the
word. That's all. When a more stable revenue stream becomes established
as a result, then further organizational development (hiring, bounties,
etc.) becomes more feasible.
Best wishes,
Czeslaw
Czeslaw Czapla wrote:
Home » Community » Donating to Haiku...
Hello, Haiku friends.
I have a modest proposal regarding fundraising that I would like to
submit for general consideration and discussion in this forum. My wish
would be to see some (likely improved) variation on the proposal adopted
by the Haiku project in the end and implemented on the Haiku website. I
think that the potential material benefits to the project would be
sufficient to warrant the investment of initial effort for the
implementation.
Here is a bit of background to my proposal. Over the past couple years,
ever since Haiku Inc. obtained its tax classification status as a
not-for-profit corporation under US law, I have personally made a few
cash donations, but only a few, perhaps three or four. I might have made
many more donations than I did make if only I had *thought* of it more
often. Many of us are busy with our work, our studies, our loved ones,
raising children, etc., so that we fail to remember to support more
faithfully the public-good efforts that are close to our hearts, like
the Haiku project.
My proposal boils down to this: implement an automated email reminder
service for voluntary cash donors to Haiku Inc.
The program would be called "One Hour for Haiku". The idea is that any
person who wishes to volunteer to become a regular monthly cash donor to
Haiku Inc. could sign up (through a link on the donations page on the
website) as a member of One Hour for Haiku. By signing up with One Hour
for Haiku, a person would be making a (self-monitored) pledge to make a
free-will cash donation to Haiku Inc. once each month in the amount of
one hour's earnings from paid employment. This figure (one hour's
earnings) could be calculated from one's own actual income, or from an
assessment of prevailing wages in one's industry or community, or simply
from one's best guess at an affordable amount that could be donated
monthly by oneself on a sustainable basis. The idea is that a donor
would be pledging effectively to work one hour each month *for Haiku*,
hence the name of the program. (Another way for non-coders to "work for"
Haiku!)
(Etc., usw., ecc.)
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