[orca-list] On the nature of Orca donations

[Joanmarie Diggs <joanmarie diggs gmail com>]

Hey guys.

Storm and a couple of other people have been asking about how to make 
donations to Orca. And I have just been sending vague "stay tuned" 
emails. In light of some information I received today, let me update you 
on why I was being quiet before.

Ale and I have applied to make Orca a project under the Software Freedom 
Conservancy (http://sfconservancy.org/). Doing so has several advantages 
in my mind:

* Funds could be given to the SFC and go directly to supporting work on
  Orca. Right now, we don't have a great means for taking in such funds.
  And when the funds are significant enough in size (e.g. the Mozilla-
  funded performance enhancement work), we have to accept them through
  the GNOME Foundation. GNOME is handy in that they do not "take a
  chunk" of the donation themselves. But they do introduce a non-trivial
  amount of bureaucracy into the picture. For instance, we *still* are
  not seeing the performance work begin. It is my understanding that the
  contract is still in the hands of GNOME lawyers.

* We could begin seeking funds for Orca work that is external to GNOME.
  For instance, I'd like to see Orca provide access to other desktop
  environments. I don't think that's going to take too much effort in
  the case of LXDE and XFCE, though I'm not sure. Regardless, my point
  is that doing work to make Orca provide access to environments other
  than GNOME is not exactly something that GNOME is likely to seek funds
  for (and may not feel comfortable accepting). SFC could do that.

* Providing legal liability to Orca developers. To be honest, until
  recently I had no idea that I should be concerned about legal
  liability. Back when Orca was a Sun-funded project, we were under the
  Sun umbrella. Now that  Orca is an un-funded project, we're on our
  own. While I don't anticipate Orca being on the receiving end of any
  legal issues, if it is, my home and other possessions might be
  exposed to risk. :-(

In order for the SFC to accept Orca's application as a project, they 
require we have the support of the GNOME Foundation. So I requested such 
support, fully anticipating that GNOME would provide it. After all, it 
was not a problem when Orca was a Sun project, and GNOME has made no 
indication of additional support and/or increased involvement now that 
we're on our own. And we've been on our own for nearly a year now.

So I didn't foresee any push back from the Foundation regarding our 
desire to remain within GNOME, but under the umbrella of the SFC. I 
figured it would be seen as Orca's "Sun replacement" essentially, which 
is how I essentially view it.

Oops.

The Board has their concerns which might or might not get resolved. 
Beyond that, I've just found out today that the FSF might be an issue 
because they don't allow GNU projects to join SFC. Orca (the 
Sun-project, now on-its-own project) is officially a GNOME project, 
which might make it a GNU project, which ....

All I can say is "holy cow."

I kept thinking that soon I'd be able to say, "Good news! Orca is a 
member of the SFC. Here's the donation page Storm and others have asked 
for." So much for that.... :-(

This whole thing has become a big headache to be honest. Therefore, what 
I am planning to do is obtain legal liability protection by creating an 
LLC for myself and then getting back to the business of actually working 
on Orca.

People wishing to donate money to Orca can do so through the GNOME 
Foundation if they so choose.

Alternatively, and especially in the case of individuals with a strong 
desire to contribute funds as a way to say "thanks for all the work you 
do," I would encourage charitable giving to other organizations. Knowing 
that the time, energy, and work I put in to maintaining and developing 
Orca resulted in a worthy charity getting some much-needed funds would 
please me quite a bit. If you are interested in supporting causes that I 
personally especially care about and/or support, please consider:

* Braille Literacy
* Breast Cancer
* The Red Cross
* The Electronic Frontier Foundation
* National Public Radio
* Kiva

I'm sorry this is not the news people wanted to hear about a donations 
page. I really thought I'd have better news to offer you.... Please let 
me know if you have any questions.

Take care.
--joanie