From: Tom Cloyd Date: 2008-03-10T11:39:34+09:00 Subject: Re: [ANN] Offering to work directly for the Ruby community! FWIT, I've seen python sites which list programmers wanting to do specific things, and will, if people wish to fund them. I believe people with specific projects also show up there. It's been a while, so I can't tell you more than this. I HAVE see the idea working, though. The trick seems to be that someone says "I can do this cool thing, but not for free", and the "thing" sells itself to a community of interest. Enough people buy in, and it's launched. Good luck. t. Gregory Brown wrote: > Hi folks, > > I've been prone to having crazy ideas before, but this one is my > latest. After posting a long, whimsical post on the O'Reilly blog > about this, my friends have persuaded me to try this for real. > > If you haven't read that post yet, it's here: > > http://www.oreillynet.com/ruby/blog/2008/03/id_love_to_quit_my_job_sort_of.html > > === Quick Project Summary === > > ***Through the donations of community members, I would like to put my > commercial and personal software projects on the back burner for a > prolonged period of time (3-6 months), and focus on working on open > source projects that are of high importance to the majority of > Rubyists.*** > > If you've already seen discussion of this idea elsewhere, and are just > wondering where to donate, head to: > > http://pledgie.com/campaigns/571 > > Otherwise, if you still need convincing, read on: > > === Why does the open source Ruby community need some grassroots, > non-commercial love? === > > The Ruby community suffers from an embarrassment of riches when it > comes to open source software. It seems that countless hackers and the > companies they work for are eagerly contributing new software, and > working on shaking bugs out of old software. This on its own is a > great reason to believe that Ruby will continue to be a serious > contender for many different programming tasks, both in the commercial > and hobbyist sectors. > > Still, there are complications. With the explosion of interest in Ruby > and software written in it, the community is feeling growing pains at > all levels, especially in our infrastructure that supports application > development in Ruby. Though it's relatively easy to find paid Rails > work that allows you to contribute a plugin to the community now and > again, it's pretty hard to find a company that'd fund fixing the > various bugs that have been reported with RubyForge, our central > software repository. Though many Rubyists will seek 1.9 compliance in > their greenfield projects, it's unlikely that we'll see large numbers > of existing Ruby projects get fixed up in a short period of time > without some external push. These are the kinds of things that casual > hacking as well as commercial work don't really answer, and this > proposal aims to offer a solution to them. > > Put simply, I'd like to put my commercial work as well as my personal > software projects on the back burner for several months, so that I can > work on problems that are common among most Rubyists. My goal is to > raise the funds necessary to do this from the community itself, and > there are a number of reasons why I'd be a good candidate for this > sort of thing. > > Ideally, I'd like to spend 3 to 6 months as an employee of J. Random > Rubyist, working on projects that matter to me, but also matter to the > many hard working, busy, and wonderful Ruby developers I've met over > the last several years. > > == Why Me? == > > I can name a ton of Rubyists I'd say would be technically proficient > and community centric enough to take on this kind of effort. However, > I've been fortunate enough to have several unique experiences that > make me confident that I could do some great work on something like > this: > > * I have successfully participated as a Ruby Central Codefest Grant > recipient in 2005 as well as a Google Summer of Code student in 2006 > (Ruport). > > * I have been very active in the community, so my work and > contributions can easily be reviewed by anyone who wishes to do so. > I've spoken at a number of Ruby users groups and conferences, > including RubyConf 2006 in Denver, CO. > > * I have a deep passion for working on open source software, and place > this interest ahead of making boatloads of money. Though I expect to > do some minimal commercial work during the duration of this project, I > have no problem making this project my primary focus for a while. > > * My living expenses are relatively low, and I do not have a full-time > job, a family to take care of, or any other major commitments that > would take me away from dedicating time to a project like this. For > the record, I have endless admiration and respect for the hackers out > there who are 'doing it all', though I don't envy the complications > that must arise from that. > > * I am very comfortable with candid, transparent discussions in > public. This will be necessity for a project like this to succeed. > > Because of these reasons, I think I'm the right person for this job. I > hope you do too. > > === Logistics === > > If you're looking for the shiny stuff, such as the ideas for things I > want to work on, skip to the section below here, but here a few > important logistic details: > > 1) I need to make at least $500/wk to cover my living expenses. > > 2) I need to figure out whether I'll be working on this project, and > for how long, by April 1st. This will let me figure out how to > re-arrange my commercial work so as to not conflict with this project. > This means that I need to raise money rather quickly, just over 3 > weeks remain from the time of this posting. > > 3) $500/wk is less than what I'd like to live on, and less than what I > make. So I'll accept donations up to $20000 for a 6 month period, > even though $500/wk would put it at $13000. If I make less than that > in donations by April 1st, and at least clear the cost of working two > weeks, I have no problem working fewer weeks at $500/wk. This means > that earlier donations will be 'sustaining the project', and later > donations will be 'supporting my comfort'. > Though I would be quite happy to even be able to dedicate two weeks to > this project, reaching the $20000 maximum would be phenomenal, as it'd > make this hardly a sacrifice for me. > > 4) Until April 1st, this is pretty much a process open to change and > community suggestions. Please join this mailing list and ask > questions / make suggestions, whether or not you choose to donate. > http://groups.google.com/group/rubymendicant > > > === Project Ideas === > > Here are some of the ideas I've cooked up, and I'm open for more > suggestions: > > = Ruby 1.9 Field Medic. > > Start with Ruport and tumble through dependencies, working on > compatibility issues. From there, work on helping with 1.9 support > where needed in projects like: ActiveRecord, mechanize, redcloth, > Camping, Merb, hpricot, highline, and maybe others. I've not checked > the 1.9 status of these projects, but I'm sure could come up with many > more if time permitted. > > = A Six Month Nightmare with RubyForge. > > Tons of bug reports! > Tons of feature requests! > > No one likes PHP. But RubyForge is driving me insane. I would be > willing to fix it given the time and funding. > Uncovering Hidden Gems > > I could request suggestions for various useful but under-documented or > less well known Ruby libraries, either third party or stdlib, and > write a large series of tutorials and quick references. The idea here > is that it would hopefully result in a large amount of documentation > being written, which would spark contributions to these many 'hidden > gems' in Ruby. > > = First class PDF support in Ruby. > > I'm currently maintaining PDF::Writer along with Mike Milner. The > library implements most of the PDF spec, and is incredibly useful. > However, it's not very usable. It is slow, has API issues, and > countless bugs. The current plan is to maintain the library making > minor improvements when we can. A large time block would allow for > something better: A fast, thin, pretty rewrite. This would go a long > way to helping Ruby be a first choice for reporting software > development. > > = From Lone Hacker to Community Leader. > > I could work with newer or shy developers to help them get acquainted > with free software practices in general. I'd help people learn how to > package gems, set up mailing lists, do sane release > > ** Please send me more ideas! ** > > === Summary / How To Help === > > If you've read through this long email and still want *more* detail, > my 'official' proposal is a bit longer and has some additional info: > > http://rubymendicant.wikidot.com/proposal > > If you've managed to get this far, you're probably at least partially > interested in this project, and the most straightforward way you could > help is of course, make a donation: > > http://pledgie.com/campaigns/571 > > I'm suggesting that $50 is a good number to shoot for, because if I > end up doing proportional voting for projects, that's probably the > amounts I'll split them up into. Of course, I welcome anything folks > wish to offer, so feel free to offer $5 or $500 if you wish. > > There are other ways you can help. This project will depend entirely > on word of mouth and the support of the community. If you know my > work, or just think I'm a good guy, please tell your friends. Blog > posts linking to the proposal and donation page would be great. > > Finally, if you're skeptical but have constructive criticism you can > offer, or have ideas on how you think this should work, or are just > generally curious, please join this mailing list and get involved: > > http://groups.google.com/group/rubymendicant > > Thank you for those who've read all the way to the end of this *long* > email. I hope this project succeeds, and I look forward to working > directly for J. Random Rubyist starting in mid April! > > -greg > > >