Daniel Pocock <daniel@pocock.com.au> writes: > Michael Banck <mbanck@debian.org> wrote: > >>Hi, >> >>On Mon, Jan 14, 2013 at 08:49:21PM +0100, Daniel Pocock wrote: >>> b) in lieu of the above, Debian itself would guarantee to contribute >>EUR >>> 50,000 (or maybe more) to DebConf (currently it is cost-neutral for >>> Debian) - so the bidders won't feel that they have to start with >>nothing >>> each new DebConf year. >> >>What do you mean with "contribute"? Seed the bank account and get the >>money back later, or actually contributing to the conference that >>amount? > > Debconf would not return the money to Debian. Debian would fund it by > collecting the money from regular sponsors and also using surplus from > previous events to smooth the cashflows for future events. E.g. Any > surplus from .ch could potentially help a Debconf14 in a venue more > like Debconf12 I think what you're doing here is turning the collection of sponsorship into Somebody Else's Problem, thus ensuring that it won't get done. There are certainly problems caused by the change of teams year on year, but chasing sponsorship is not a rewarding task for most people in Debian -- people that are good at that sort of thing are elsewhere making a shedload of money in sales. That being the case one needs the extra incentive of the task being to raise money for _this_ debconf, in most cases for _my_ debconf, in _my_ region. Some sort of unfocused "give us some money, and we'll let it rot in the bank for a while before handing it over to whichever debconf needs it ... or maybe we'll spend it on a new RAID array ... anyway, you'll probably get your logo on something, and we'll be very grateful" seems a much weaker pitch to me. Also, telling people that they get 50k no matter what else they do seems like it's going to make them less hungry -- I doubt that the .ch team would have raised as much at this point if they'd been told that, especially if they were working to fill Debian's coffers on the promise that some of what they raise would then percolate down to fund DC13. Cheers, Phil. P.S. Well done for starting a discussion that's not actively corrosive to the morale of the DebConf team, but I question why this discussion is needed at this time (or, given my views on the merits of the idea, at all) -- |)| Philip Hands [+44 (0)20 8530 9560] http://www.hands.com/ |-| HANDS.COM Ltd. http://www.uk.debian.org/ |(| 10 Onslow Gardens, South Woodford, London E18 1NE ENGLAND
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