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Libre Endowment Fund: Sustainable Development of Free Software

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Re: Libre Endowment Fund: Sustainable Development of Free Software

#41

Post by follower »

cycomanic wrote: post #30
fanpx wrote: post #2

"Members are required to have an PhD in Mathematics or Computer Science related disciplines as well as being authors of FLOSS/Free Software." First of all, it is "a PhD", secondly, this looks like the typical scientific ecosystem power grab that we have seen multiple times in the US. In the Python scientific space, people doing actual work are exploited ruthlessly.

Reading the website this is for committee members only (it has nothing to do with if a project is eligible). This seems to largely be a requirement for tax reasons. As a side note, I find it unfortunate that often when things like this get posted, e.g. a foundation who supports free-software in this case, the first posts are not "this is a great thing", but instead someone goes through the website until they find som…

It depends on one's perspective, I guess.

An alternative perspective is that the original commenter is doing the authors a favour by highlighting that their writing is currently easily misinterpreted and would benefit from revision.

Re: Libre Endowment Fund: Sustainable Development of Free Software

#43

Post by goodpoint »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #34
cycomanic wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Andromeda project was about creating a local alternative to the largely US-dominated cloud space. Given that, the argument that it is counterproductive to push a project which is dominated by US and non-european companies (look at the foundation members) and where most development expertise is outside of Europe, does have some merit no?

Open Source can be hosted anywhere, as many people who have written software later hosted as a cloud service by Amazon have discovered. I don't think there's any merit to rejecting an Open Source project on the basis of where its primary developers are located.

> I don't think there's any merit to rejecting an Open Source project on the basis of where its primary developers are located.

Yet, there is plenty of reason to fund or reject projects based on who benefits from it. Which depends on who decides priorities and goals.

Using EU taxpayer money to fund projects that benefit mostly non-EU industrial groups that are competing against EU companies is self defeating.

Software does not exist in a vacuum. It's not some purely theoretical exercise. Like with any other technology, there can be very real economical, social or political ramifications.

Re: Libre Endowment Fund: Sustainable Development of Free Software

#44

Post by rybonus »

fermigier wrote: post #36
chrisseaton wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are, specially in the field of computing science, examples of exceptionally gifted and influential researchers without PhDs If you know this, and know that people without one can still produce original research that expands the boundaries of knowledge (even giving your own examples) then why do you require one?

As stated elsewhere, this helps establish the credibility of the selection process in the eyes of the French fiscal administration, which, ultimately, is the biggest funder of the FDL (through various tax incentives). Moreover, as it is a voluntary function, no one is harmed financially by this constraint.

NumFOCUS has a huge overhead for directors and staff ($605,615.79 in 2020). This is not looked upon kindly by OSS authors who are doing the work and get much less (or nothing!).

If this foundation does not have such an overhead and will never create cozy director posts, cozy diversity officer posts etc., then this is a huge credibility boost and I'd mention it on the website (with the explicit promise!).

But then the foundation has to stick with it and not stealthily sneak in CoCs and people after a while.

Re: Libre Endowment Fund: Sustainable Development of Free Software

#45

Post by JoshTriplett »

goodpoint wrote: post #43
JoshTriplett wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Open Source can be hosted anywhere, as many people who have written software later hosted as a cloud service by Amazon have discovered. I don't think there's any merit to rejecting an Open Source project on the basis of where its primary developers are located.

> I don't think there's any merit to rejecting an Open Source project on the basis of where its primary developers are located. Yet, there is plenty of reason to fund or reject projects based on who benefits from it. Which depends on who decides priorities and goals. Using EU taxpayer money to fund projects that benefit mostly non-EU industrial groups that are competing against EU companies is self defeating. Softwar…

You have to pick some stack to work on. If your requirements are genuinely different, by all means pick software that fits your requirements more than those of others. But if you have the same set of requirements, then you might as well work on the best available piece of software for those requirements, because if you spend time building something else instead then you'll either have something lower quality or you'll build something better that your competitors can switch to to get the same benefits.
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