Re: [DRAFT FOR REVIEW] Government owned IT enterprise SERPRO selected Debian GNU/Linux for its servers and wish to collaborate

[Jon Evans <saeng2oo@googlemail.com>]

Hello Andre,
>
> > The only question I have is about the last sentence:
> >
> > SERPRO also, along with other companies, sponsored the Debian Day
> > Porto Alegre.
> >
> > Can you be more specific about their support I wonder? Were they the
> > biggest sponsor? How many other sponsors were there? Have they a track
> > record of sponsoring FOSS/Debian, or is this their first?
>
> I actually have *strong* worries about using "sponsored" word [2].
> As a government owned, serpro is subject to astoundingly **strict**
> rules about sponsoring with money only pre-qualified entities.
> So, it SUPPORTED / HELPED the event by lenting rooms, equipments, some
> support staff. No money.
> You could read the description of what was done at revision 15 [0].
> There were other 5 entities that supported the event by various means,
> listed at very end of [1], section "Apoio".
> No money was handed to the Debian local user group. Some of entities
> gave us some shirts, some food for the coffee-break, some printed
> posters, some hours of their PR pros, some hours of support staff.
> SERPRO lent the "lion share" resources among them to the event.
> Despite [2] listing such meaning too, fowarding money is the most used
> meaning of it.
In that case why not use support. Something like:
Debian Day Brasil 2008 was supported by SERPRO and a number of other 
companies.

English can be usefully and constructively vague sometimes, but you're 
right 'sponsor' has adopted a commercial meaning.

I wonder if SERPRO might be interested in doing a press release of their own?

> > When you list, using commas, put a comma before, and so that it
> > indicates that you have just given a list.
> >
> > In the shop I bought apples, bananas, and cabbage.
> >
> > It's not a strict rule by any means, it just indicates clearly that
> > you have given a list.
>
> Oh, it is just somewhat different from brazilian portuguese rules.
> Please, correct it by british english rules.
Will do!
I'll do a sixteenth correction of the wiki for you.

It's a funny thing but: 
[1] <http://wiki.debian.org/pt_BR/DebianDayBrasil2008RsPortoAlegre>
looks so nice and clean visually. 
If we can get the press release looking similar I think we'd be on to 
something.

All the best,
Jon

>
>
>
> [0]
> http://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Publicity/DebianTimesTeam/Drafts/SerproChoseDe
>bianAndCollaborate?action=recall&rev=15 [1]
> http://wiki.debian.org/pt_BR/DebianDayBrasil2008RsPortoAlegre
> [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sponsor_(commercial)