Thank you for this summary. How to raise money for Open Source projects, or for agencies to sponsor projects in a meaningful way is a common question with very few people with evidence based answers, as you have here.
One other factor that I noticed was that in your initial call for collective funds, there was a specific goal:
"We have secured XXX funds, which will only be made available if it can be matched by other agencies".
I would strongly urge that you, or someone from the OpenLayers community tells the full story about your fund raising exercise. Start with a bit of history about Openlayers, and why it needed to move to version 3, then talk about how your approached agencies, and then what factors helped the agencies commit to the sponsorship. You may also want to cover other approaches which you tried or considered which didn't work and why.
If you are looking for an early review, I'd be happy to offer my services in that regard, as I think it is a great story wanting to be told.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Cédric MOULLET <cedric.moullet@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 11:19 AM
Subject: Fwd: {OL3: Funding} Re: [Board] Marketing/sponsors/...
To: board-owner@lists.osgeo.org
Since my mail was rejected, I send it to you
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Cédric MOULLET <cedric.moullet@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 8:17 PM
Subject: Re: {OL3: Funding} Re: [Board] Marketing/sponsors/...
To: "ol3-funding@googlegroups.com" <ol3-funding@googlegroups.com>
Cc: board@lists.osgeo.org, marketing <marketing@lists.osgeo.org>
Hi,
Regarding the OL3 funding effort, I sent a status email that you can
find here: http://osgeo-org.1560.n6.nabble.com/OpenLayers-3-Funding-effort-status-tt5024314.html
If needed, I can provide the name of the majority of the 119 funders
(OSGB, BRGM, Canton of Zürich and Neuchâtel, Orkney, Survey office
Brandenburg, Bayern and Danmark, swisstopo etc, etc...). We decided
not to diffuse the amount of the contributions, but only the global
amount.
Here are my observations made during this effort (it it can be of any help...):
1.In order to find an an important amount, it's key to collect money
by administrations and to use personal contacts in order to reach the
persons who decide. Private or company funders will help, but with
less important amounts. Having said that, it's also very important to
have these less important amounts, since they show the willingness of
the community to participate to the effort.
2. It's important to develop something new and to clearly state the
goal. I don't believe that it's possible to find (a lot of) money only
for maintenance, minor evolutions or bugfixing work. For minor
evolutions, the best is to make bilateral contracts on a case by case
basis.
3. The main issue that we encounter was legal. The problem is that the
jurisdiction of the countries don't take in account the way OpenSource
Communities are working. And, in addition, an OpenSource community is
not a legal entity, like the Project Steering Commitee is not a legal
entity. All the administrations need a clear, contractual partner.
It's not easy (from a legal perspective) to simply make a donation.
One way to solve that is to use "research contracts".
4. In the past 2 or 3 years, we invested a lot of time in working with
other administrations (mainly in Switzerland with cities and cantons)
in order to explain them the benefits of working together in
OpenSource communities. This preparation work is crucial and the
result is that a part of the OpenLayers 3 funds is coming from these
entities.
Hope this helps,
Best regards,
Cédric
On Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 7:23 PM, Seven (aka Arnulf) <seven@arnulf.us> wrote:
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
The "OL3 funding group" (for lack of a better name) did a really good
job of promoting OL3 development and sponsorship, maybe they can
include Japanese reps into their activities and share results. Added
in CC for further follow-ups.
There is really good support for OL3 from SwissTopo, OSGB and I
believe also IGN France (in the order of 350k+) but not sure how
official all of this is, so cannot really say much else. The best
place to learn more about the OL3 sponsorship activities so far is
that group with reps from terrestris, OpenGeo and camptocamp.
Cheers,
Arnulf
On 03.01.2013 17:25, Jo Cook wrote:
Dear All,
What about the Ordnance Survey in the UK? They use OpenLayers as
part of their "OpenSpace" mapping API
(http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/web-services/os-openspace/api/index.html)
so in theory are probably contributing to OL2 if not OL3. Arnulf might
have a better idea about this, in his new role with them.
Jo
On Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 4:21 PM, Yves Jacolin <yjacolin@free.fr
<mailto:yjacolin@free.fr>> wrote:
Hello Jeff,
Thanks sharing this, this is indeed important as we want to do the
same here in France: find support from official and governmental
organism.
I will try to find some examples in my side.
Y.
Le jeudi 3 janvier 2013 12:14:18 Jeff McKenna a écrit :
Hello Board and community,
I did debate which mailing list to send this to
(board/discuss/marketing), but let's start here.
I received a message from one of the OSGeo-Japan leaders
(Hayashi-san) pointing to an important recent blog entry from
another OSGeo-Japan leader (Mori-san, CEO of Orkney):
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/jg2tkh/e/b4e04c4da1f141c66f48b3bd5142c733
I will try my best to summarize:
- Orkney is a long-time contributor and sponsor for FOSS4G
projects - Mori-san is concerned that only his company is willing
to contribute to OpenLayers3 ("OL3") development in Japan, even
though many organizations will use OL3 - a large federal org
(Geospatial Information Authority, GSI, of
Japan)
uses OpenLayers2 , but is so far not committed to helping OL3
development
- Hayashi-san thinks sharing examples of other
organizations/governments
who support FOSS4G/OSGeo Projects will help OSGeo-JP attract
contributions from local orgs like GSI
Do we have such a page to point to? (yes this is a marketing
issue) e.g. case studies of organizations helping OSGeo Projects
grow
(note that this is needed on my own website, so I don't pretend
to be the marketing expert, but I do realize it is SUPER
important)
Thoughts?
-jeff
_______________________________________________ Board mailing
list Board@lists.osgeo.org <mailto:Board@lists.osgeo.org>
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
-- Yves Jacolin _______________________________________________
Board mailing list Board@lists.osgeo.org
<mailto:Board@lists.osgeo.org>
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
-- ***Jo Cook* Astun Technology Ltd, The Coach House, 17 West
Street, Epsom, Surrey, KT18 7RL, UK t:+44 750 095 8167 iShare -
Data integration and publishing platform
<http://www.isharemaps.com/>
*****************************************
Company registration no. 5410695. Registered in England and Wales.
Registered office: 120 Manor Green Road, Epsom, Surrey, KT19 8LN
VAT no. 864201149.
_______________________________________________ Board mailing list
Board@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
- --
Exploring Space, Time and Mind
http://arnulf.us
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--
--
Political blog: http://cedricmoullet.blogspot.com/
Welcome to my world: http://www.cedricmoullet.com/
My Linked In profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/cedricmoullet
Twitter: http://twitter.com/cedricmoullet
Home sweet home:
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--
Political blog: http://cedricmoullet.blogspot.com/
Welcome to my world: http://www.cedricmoullet.com/
My Linked In profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/cedricmoullet
Twitter: http://twitter.com/cedricmoullet
Home sweet home:
http://map.geo.admin.ch/?crosshair=bowl&zoom=11&X=185241.24219&Y=561288.90625&bgOpacity=0&selectedNode=node_ch.swisstopo.fixpunkte-lage1
On Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 8:17 PM, Cédric MOULLET <cedric.moullet@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,
Regarding the OL3 funding effort, I sent a status email that you can find here: http://osgeo-org.1560.n6.nabble.com/OpenLayers-3-Funding-effort-status-tt5024314.html
If needed, I can provide the name of the majority of the 119 funders (OSGB, BRGM, Canton of Zürich and Neuchâtel, Orkney, Survey office Brandenburg, Bayern and Danmark, swisstopo etc, etc...). We decided not to diffuse the amount of the contributions, but only the global amount.
Here are my observations made during this effort (it it can be of any help...):
1.In order to find an an important amount, it's key to collect money by administrations and to use personal contacts in order to reach the persons who decide. Private or company funders will help, but with less important amounts. Having said that, it's also very important to have these less important amounts, since they show the willingness of the community to participate to the effort.
2. It's important to develop something new and to clearly state the goal. I don't believe that it's possible to find (a lot of) money only for maintenance, minor evolutions or bugfixing work. For minor evolutions, the best is to make bilateral contracts on a case by case basis.
3. The main issue that we encounter was legal. The problem is that the jurisdiction of the countries don't take in account the way OpenSource Communities are working. And, in addition, an OpenSource community is not a legal entity, like the Project Steering Commitee is not a legal entity. All the administrations need a clear, contractual partner. It's not easy (from a legal perspective) to simply make a donation. One way to solve that is to use "research contracts".
4. In the past 2 or 3 years, we invested a lot of time in working with other administrations (mainly in Switzerland with cities and cantons) in order to explain them the benefits of working together in OpenSource communities. This preparation work is crucial and the result is that a part of the OpenLayers 3 funds is coming from these entities.
Hope this helps,
Best regards,
Cédric
On Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 7:23 PM, Seven (aka Arnulf) <seven@arnulf.us> wrote:
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
The "OL3 funding group" (for lack of a better name) did a really good
job of promoting OL3 development and sponsorship, maybe they can
include Japanese reps into their activities and share results. Added
in CC for further follow-ups.
There is really good support for OL3 from SwissTopo, OSGB and I
believe also IGN France (in the order of 350k+) but not sure how
official all of this is, so cannot really say much else. The best
place to learn more about the OL3 sponsorship activities so far is
that group with reps from terrestris, OpenGeo and camptocamp.
Cheers,
Arnulf
On 03.01.2013 17:25, Jo Cook wrote:
Dear All,
What about the Ordnance Survey in the UK? They use OpenLayers as
part of their "OpenSpace" mapping API
(http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/web-services/os-openspace/api/index.html)
so in theory are probably contributing to OL2 if not OL3. Arnulf might
have a better idea about this, in his new role with them.
Jo
On Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 4:21 PM, Yves Jacolin <yjacolin@free.fr
<mailto:yjacolin@free.fr>> wrote:
Hello Jeff,
Thanks sharing this, this is indeed important as we want to do the
same here in France: find support from official and governmental
organism.
I will try to find some examples in my side.
Y.
Le jeudi 3 janvier 2013 12:14:18 Jeff McKenna a écrit :
Hello Board and community,
I did debate which mailing list to send this to
(board/discuss/marketing), but let's start here.
I received a message from one of the OSGeo-Japan leaders
(Hayashi-san) pointing to an important recent blog entry from
another OSGeo-Japan leader (Mori-san, CEO of Orkney):
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/jg2tkh/e/b4e04c4da1f141c66f48b3bd5142c733
I will try my best to summarize:
- Orkney is a long-time contributor and sponsor for FOSS4G
projects - Mori-san is concerned that only his company is willing
to contribute to OpenLayers3 ("OL3") development in Japan, even
though many organizations will use OL3 - a large federal org
(Geospatial Information Authority, GSI, of
Japan)
uses OpenLayers2 , but is so far not committed to helping OL3
development
- Hayashi-san thinks sharing examples of other
organizations/governments
who support FOSS4G/OSGeo Projects will help OSGeo-JP attract
contributions from local orgs like GSI
Do we have such a page to point to? (yes this is a marketing
issue) e.g. case studies of organizations helping OSGeo Projects
grow
(note that this is needed on my own website, so I don't pretend
to be the marketing expert, but I do realize it is SUPER
important)
Thoughts?
-jeff
_______________________________________________ Board mailing
list Board@lists.osgeo.org <mailto:Board@lists.osgeo.org>
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
-- Yves Jacolin _______________________________________________
Board mailing list Board@lists.osgeo.org
<mailto:Board@lists.osgeo.org>
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
-- ***Jo Cook* Astun Technology Ltd, The Coach House, 17 West
Street, Epsom, Surrey, KT18 7RL, UK t:+44 750 095 8167 iShare -
Data integration and publishing platform
<http://www.isharemaps.com/>
*****************************************
Company registration no. 5410695. Registered in England and Wales.
Registered office: 120 Manor Green Road, Epsom, Surrey, KT19 8LN
VAT no. 864201149.
_______________________________________________ Board mailing list
Board@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
- --
Exploring Space, Time and Mind
http://arnulf.us
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://www.enigmail.net/
iEYEARECAAYFAlDlzIQACgkQXmFKW+BJ1b2ASQCeM/fHbRawf2pQ+uVAgUpeG+qE
+mAAn1KyzGTleGtVeQ/5dNvIT5VyqOYa
=Fli0
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
--
--
Political blog: http://cedricmoullet.blogspot.com/
Welcome to my world: http://www.cedricmoullet.com/
My Linked In profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/cedricmoullet
Twitter: http://twitter.com/cedricmoullet
Home sweet home: http://map.geo.admin.ch/?crosshair=bowl&zoom=11&X=185241.24219&Y=561288.90625&bgOpacity=0&selectedNode=node_ch.swisstopo.fixpunkte-lage1
--
Political blog: http://cedricmoullet.blogspot.com/
Welcome to my world: http://www.cedricmoullet.com/
My Linked In profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/cedricmoullet
Twitter: http://twitter.com/cedricmoullet
Home sweet home:
http://map.geo.admin.ch/?crosshair=bowl&zoom=11&X=185241.24219&Y=561288.90625&bgOpacity=0&selectedNode=node_ch.swisstopo.fixpunkte-lage1
--
---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
I set the clouds in motion - turn up | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam@pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush | Geospatial Software Developer
_______________________________________________
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