[Foundation-l] Bounties and expenses

[Daniel Mayer]

--- Erik Moeller <erik_moeller at gmx.de> wrote:
> ....
> Face-to-face meetings are much more productive than IRC simply because  
> real human interaction has a much higher bandwidth than letters in a  
> window on a computer screen. That was obvious at the WOS in Berlin, as I  
> know that some people are still reeling from the whole experience. ;-)  
> Getting Angela to mingle with the French Wikimedia community will benefit  
> the whole project.

I totally agree with this. Especially at this point it is very important to
create ties among various Wikimedians. Yes this is in part socializing, but
that is *vitally* important when forming (or keeping together) any
organization. It is absurd and dangerous to just discount that as a "perk." 

Also, I forgot the exact percentage, but more than half of all human
communication is from body language and verbal patterns/tone so we cannot only
depend on web-based communication. A mix is needed (esp for the trustees).
Paying travel expenses for quarterly meetings seems to be most reasonable. Each
quarterly meeting could be hosted by a different Wikimedia chapter from a
different part of the world - thus forming a strong tie between the foundation
and its chapters. Meetings in-between quarterly ones can be conducted via less
expensive means. 

> ....
> I do believe that funds which were not explicitly designated for the  
> purpose of funding foundation organizational activity should not be  
> permanently used for said purpose. So what we should do is clarify on the  
> donations page how much of the money is going to be used for which  
> purpose.

What we need is a budget that spells this out. A link could then be provided
for those interested in how the foundation plans to spend their donation money.


> But we will soon get a check over 10,000 euros from the Prix Ars  
> Electronica award, and that money can be designated by the trustees for  
> various purposes, and a certain amount of it (say 2000 euros) should  
> certainly be designated for organization expenses. Temporarily withdrawing  
> the necessary funds from a non-designated pool until we get the check is  
> not a serious issue.

Exactly - those funds can be used for travel, special projects, and software
bounties. 

> ...
> I do not yet have a final answer to this question. For the experiment  
> phase, I think appointing one developer and one technically-minded non- 
> developer who have to reach consensus would be a simple solution. I would  
> like to nominate Tim Starling and Daniel Mayer for these two roles. If Tim  
> doesn't want to do it, I would suggest Jens Frank, who has already said  
> that he wants to leave bounty tasks to others, so he would have a certain  
> level of objectivity.

Nod. I'll accept if asked by the board to do this. But, IMO, this should be
part of an official Wikimedia committee so a trustee will have to be a member
as well. Angela seems to be the obvious choice.  

> ...
> Regarding Erik Zachte's remark that $100 is not a lot of money, that is of  
> course correct. However, the purpose of this system is not so much to give  
> participating developers a salary, but to provide a little extra incentive  
> for completing tasks which we all agree need to be done, but which have  
> been largely ignored for months. We can always raise the bounties if it  
> turns out that they are ineffective. $15/hour seems like a reasonable  
> starting value. I know Java programmers who work for less than that.

The amount of money is not as important as the recognition that the winner
accomplished the task - IMO. The award is more than just some cash. But the
cash is still a tangible thing and thus adds a great deal of 'realness' to the
award (however "nominal" 100 bucks may be - in India that is two weeks wages
for a tech support rep while in the U.S. it is a days wages for the same work).
A page tracking who brought in what bounties would be a good way to encourage
use of the system. 

-- Daniel Mayer (aka mav)


		
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