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Greetings, |
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First, I wish to state that I am a long time Gentoo user and over the |
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past several years I have been nothing but happy with Gentoo. It is |
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my opinion that Gentoo is the greatest of all GNU/Linux distributions, |
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and I want to extend my most hearty gratitude to the entire Gentoo |
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community, to the developers, to the users,to everyone involved, both |
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in the past and in the present, for all of the effort over the years. |
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It has been monumental. Many thanks. |
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I now own a small development company & we use Gentoo (Hardened-amd64) |
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on our development & production servers. What's more I happen to deal |
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largely in the non-profit, foundation, and grant world. It is with |
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regard to this particular aspect of my expertise that I wish to inform |
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the various governmental bodies of Gentoo that there is a vast ocean |
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of possibilities, and funding, available to non-profits & |
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foundations. This to perhaps inspire new thinking about the role of |
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Gentoo and the Gentoo community in the world at large. |
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I am of the opinion that Gentoo should not contract the SFC to manage |
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the Foundation for the following reasons. |
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- -With responsible governance there is no real need to be under the |
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umbrella of another larger organization. -The SFC may or may not have |
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the funding, capacity, or longevity to handle as large an organization |
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as Gentoo. |
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- -The SFC will surely take some Gentoo generated funding away from |
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Gentoo to cover administrative costs, etc, that, given responsible |
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governence, could be used for the greater benefit of Gentoo and the |
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Gentoo community. |
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|
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There are significant amounts of money available to NPOs, like Gentoo, |
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from Federal grant programs to the more mundane private charitable |
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donations. In general, these funding opportunities require program |
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development and partnerships with other organizations and institutions |
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such as community based non-profits and universities. The real beauty |
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of these opportunities is that it fosters a relationship between our |
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Gentoo community and the larger public, be it on a smaller local level |
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with other community-based non-profits or on a larger scale with multi |
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university research partnerships, etc. One of the many benefits of |
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this type of interaction is that funding can be allocated for many |
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different activities, for example, provisions for administrative |
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costs, new equipment, training programs, salaries, incentives for |
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developers, and a premium experience for users. Therefore, with this |
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kind of funding, Gentoo can help its own community members while also |
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assisting others. Which, in my opinion, is one of the strongest |
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characteristics of the Gentoo community, helping others. This is |
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demonstrated on IRC, in the forums, and in the email lists every day. |
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Why would we need to belong to a larger organization to do these |
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things? Why do we need an organization, like the SFC, to "manage" |
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Gentoo. Perhaps we ought simply solicit them for /pro bono/ legal |
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assistance in emergency situations. |
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I am of the opinion that Gentoo should welcome the return of Daniel |
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Robbins, but in a somewhat more limited sense than his recent offer. |
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Mr. Robbins is obviously an extremely intelligent and dedicated |
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individual that seems to really care about the health of Gentoo. In |
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addition, Mr. Robbins has a large amount of experience in the larger |
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world of business and software development. Thus it seems reasonable |
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to posit that he may indeed have some very good ideas regarding the |
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direction of Gentoo. I, for one, welcome a transparent roadmap that I |
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would have the opportunity to review and comment on. Prior to starting |
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a business I was rather happy to simply remain on the fringe of the |
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Gentoo community. My main interest was in using the meta-distro to |
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accomplish some very specific research related work as well as use on |
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my personal machines. However, now that I rely on Gentoo from a |
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business perspective I find myself much more interested in and |
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concerned about the general direction of Gentoo. Thus, a more |
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transparent governance would put my mind at ease and provide a means |
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for greater communication with Gentoo's developers. |
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What follows are some suggestions. |
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Consider the use of university internship programs for projects like |
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documentation (technical writing students) & The GMN (journalism |
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students). These programs are a requirement to graduate for many |
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university students. With that, many companies and other |
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organizations offer resume-building experience in their field in the |
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form of these unpaid interships. I'm sure many of you have had the |
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pleasure of an unpaid internship. The Gentoo Foundation can leverage |
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its status as a well known GNU/Linux distribution and a legitimate |
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global organization to attract the leading universities around the |
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world. What I mean to say is that people pay attention to Gentoo and |
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there exists a certain level of expectation of quality from the larger |
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tech world. To really floor the critics, solicit a few English |
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departments at some highly respected university to collaborate with a |
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team of developers and users to create and maintain documentation and |
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write a regular news letter. I know a few good writers and if you give |
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them the right information to start with then answer any questions |
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they have along the way you get really nice work. What writer |
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wouldn't like to have their name on really well written, and heavily |
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viewed pages? Talk about an attention grabber. |
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Further, consider using internship programs to assist with the |
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management and governance of the Gentoo Foundation itself. There are |
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many university programs that focus on non-profit and foundation |
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management. Create programs that give opportunities to these students |
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to participate in the day to day business of the Gentoo Foundation. |
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They can act in supporting roles for the trustees and counsel members |
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and other various committees. Hey, its worth university credit to the |
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student and its free to Gentoo. |
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Consider the implementation of a Gentoo Patron program, such that |
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companies and other organizations have an opportunity to support the |
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Foundation, be it financially or with volunteers. In return, offer |
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some Patron Profile Page to give the donors some visibility. Further, |
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as a small business owner I have to say, its sometimes very tough to |
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locally procure for employment a good developer, administrator, or |
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otherwise one that knows their way around Gentoo or GNU/Linux for that |
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matter. I imagine that other companies have similar issues. Thus some |
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way for companies and organization to be exposed to the larger Gentoo |
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community would be a significant return on any investment. |
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Consider a partnership with a larger organization, like Google, to |
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extend the users experience in novel ways. One example would be the |
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use of some social networking tools to aid the Gentoo community in |
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collaborations on code, documentation, etc. |
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In closing, I want to offer thanks for a job well done. It has taken |
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the dedication of many individuals to get Gentoo to where it is today. |
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This spirit is not gone. Thus, we look toward a bright future. If |
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anyone wishes to contact me for any reason please do so, I would be |
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pleased to answer any questions. If I can provide any futher |
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information or assistance, please don't hesitate to ask. |
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Best Regards, |
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Matthew Summers |
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- -- |
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Matthew W. Summers |
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Chief Executive Officer & Systems Engineer |
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Liquidus Tech, LLC |
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309 N. Jefferson Ave. Suite 378 |
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Springfield, MO 65806 |
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(417) 894-2607 |
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matthew.summers@××××××××××××.com |
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www.liquidustech.com |
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