Dan writes "First, and most importantly, the grants have been a huge success. Damian was funded for eighteen months, Larry for six, and Dan* for six. We raised over $200K total in the two grant years, in tough economic times, with a large portion of that coming from individuals. That's damned impressive. That we haven't raised sufficient funds to cover all three grants for the full year is unfortunate, but not a failure."
"Secondly, be aware that this is not official. Official word has to come from the YAS board members (Kevin Lenzo, Kurt De Maagd, and Nat Torkington). This is from the perspective of a grantee, though that does have more access than you might get from the outside.** Unfortunately, like it or not, the grant fund is close to empty. That means steps have to be taken, since we all like to eat and have families to support, and planning for the future helps with that.
Current Plans
There's some cash in the pipeline. The current plan is to dedicate the first $20K of that cash to hiring a professional grant writer, with any excess (up to the pending grant amount) going to fund Larry. This is a reasonable and good thing. Perl 6 and Parrot development does dovetail nicely with what a number of government agencies and companies want, but getting that money is both time consuming and a bit dicey. A professional grant writer knows what to do and where to go, as well as the hoops to jump through. It's money well-spent, which should ensure the long-term viability of both the development grants and The Perl Foundation.
Grantee status
Damian is done as a grantee. He's had an 18 month run and, by his own choice as well as circumstances, has gone solo. As Kevin put it at the YAPC::NA 2002 town meeting, 'He's reached escape velocity.' This is a cool thing. Circumstances willing, Damian is more than happy to continue on as much as he can with Perl 6 development.
Dan's grant is up at the end of July (having started at the beginning of February rather than January) and, barring a massive influx of funds quickly, that will be that. Like Damian, Dan is also willing to do as much as possible with Parrot development, again circumstances willing.
Larry's grant is up at the end of June, but he's willing and able to let things go for a bit before other measures must be taken. There should be sufficient funds, if some promised things are followed through on, to let him go on for a while past that, and fundraising will hopefully get him to the end of this year's grant.
How can you help?
Donations to the Perl Foundation are always welcome. This is A Good Thing.
Damian and Dan both do training classes, and Dan does consulting work.*** If your company is unwilling to do a general donation to the foundation, hire one of them to train, speak at, or do work for your company. This is often an easier sell than a plain donation. (Though unless sufficient consulting/training comes through in the next few weeks, Dan will get a full-time job and likely pass on the Parrot Design Hat.)
Future Plans
YAS's**** plans for next year have yet to be made, though announcements should come within the next few months. Things are looking up, more or less, economically, so that should be a help. (The framework and hard-won experience from the past two cycles of fundraising will help guide things.)
*You'll pardon me for talking in the third person here.
**It's possible that this will all turn up wrong, but it's
best information at the moment
***Yes, this is somewhat self-serving but, being really
blunt, training and consulting work both pay sufficiently well that we
can eat, provide for our families, and still work on perl. Full-time
jobs don't have that level of flexibility, nor do they provide
sufficient free time.
****Note for the grammar weenies: yes, the apostrophe is
appropriate there. YAS is an acronym."
(Though unless sufficient consulting/training comes through in the next few weeks, Dan will get a full-time job and likely pass on the Parrot Design Hat.)
I can't see that Dan passing on the design hat is a good thing. I fear parrot could lose consistency of design if someone else has to pick things up with some major things (eg the extension API) still not fleshed out. Particularly as anyone taking over hasn't got access to all the undocumented bits in Dan's head.
In the worst case scenario ($60,000 isn't dontated to YAS in the next 30 days, and Dan doesn't get enough consulting/training), I'd hope that some sort of hat-loan arrangement occurs instead, where Dan stays on as chief architect, overseeing the design and ensuring it retains the consistency it currently has, but design of sections is delegated out.
Ultimately, it's Dan's decision, and whatever he chooses to do next, I'd like to thank him for the hard work he's already put in.
Re:Why pass on the design hat?
Elian on 2002-07-05T18:22:56
I'm trying to scribble down notes on everything pending, so there's at least some sort of framework to go from. (One of the reasons for the opcode docs :) Hopefully it'll be sufficient if it becomes necessary.
Re:Why pass on the design hat?
nicholas on 2002-07-05T23:18:51
Hopefully it won't come to this. This week's NTK has "please donate to perl" as its top story. I've no idea how much extra this publicity will actually raise, but NTK has quite a lot of readers, so it's no bad thing. We shall see.Re:Why pass on the design hat?
Elian on 2002-07-06T03:19:34
Heh. I'd never run across NTK before. Not sure it'll help, but... :) (Almost like seeing The Onion running public service announcements)
Re:So, did the slashdot effect
MeerCat on 2002-07-09T19:28:11
OK, so I'm sad enough to answer my own post, a quick process of the donations page to sort by date shows (story posted on slashdot on the 6th):
2002-07-02 : 4
2002-07-03 : 2
2002-07-04 : 7
2002-07-05 : 4
2002-07-06 : 4
2002-07-07 : 1
2002-07-08 : 61
2002-07-09 : 25
So allowing for normal levels, I'd guess 70 or so slashdot-inspired donations so far ... more people donated than trolled the story ... got to be a healthy sign...
Re:So, did the slashdot effect
pudge on 2002-07-10T13:00:30
FWIW, I was stupid and linked the Slashdot story to a dynamic page instead of a static one. Oopsie. It still handled it OK, but when I changed the Slashdot link to a static page, things improved.Re:So, did the slashdot effect
Wayne on 2003-05-20T08:40:04
Right you are
