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Perl Community To Buy Damian Conway?
jbc writes: "As discussed over at use Perl, the Perl community is attempting to raise US$55K in donations to support Perl überhacker Damian Conway for a year so he can devote himself to worthwhile pursuits related to Perl development. Thanks to a large donation from an as-yet-unnamed corporate donor, they're apparently already more than halfway there." Update: 10/15 11:31 PM by H : To actually give, go to the YAPC site.
The price is definately a good one for the community. But then for him it should be great, I mean being able to dedicate you efforts and energies to what you really want to do, without worrying about making a buck doing something else to pay the bills. Sorta like a Professorial hiatus from University to research in his field. Usually the results are quite worth the money from the university, and the "work" produced on hiatus is more focused. I hope this comes to pass, and would be interested to see how it works out....stay tuned ?
Much the same way there are "telethons" to raise money for justifiable causes (Jerry Lewis-muscular dystrophy), there needs to be fundraisers for worhtwhile causes (eff.org)/open source projects.
For the same reasons public radio/TV raises money (how many listen to NPR??), open source projects need to raise funds. The applications are not neccesarily "commercially glamorous", but they are used and appreciated (let alone needed!) by a large number of people. And they don't have the commercial "entanglements" that for-profit entities are going to have.
The paralells that can be drawn from this are striking.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
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That's an astonishingly generous offer, Elaine. Thank-you.
I thought perhaps I should take the opportunity to explain the nature of -- and reason for -- the rush.
YAS has not been able to accept donations for this project until its tax status was confirmed. But my department at Monash University has now gone into the planning phase for next year, and needs to know within the next week or two whether they'll have my teaching/admin services for 2001 (which they most decidedly won't if the Perl community wants me).
So my department needs a clear indication of what I'm doing next year, which means YAS needs a clear indication of whether the community thinks "buying me out" is a worthwhile thing, and something they would actually fund (I'm not nearly egoistical enough to simply assume that the weird stuff I do is worth real money :-)
That's what's required by next week: pledges of support. Actual cash could come (a little) later.
Meanwhile, I've already been overwhelmed by the support that people have privately expressed for this. Whether or not the project comes together, I am deeply honoured and grateful that so many people seem to believe I would be worth "buying".
YAS has more info, see the story on use Perl.
This has the demerit that it doesn't buy you a tax deduction, but it may have the corresponding merit of allowing the gift to remain a gift, and NOT be taxable in the recipient's hands.
The point here is that there is little net difference between:
See Free Software (Gift) Exchange Registry - FSEX for a likely-more-coherent presentation.
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
This is arguably better than having the FSF and others manage funds, from several perspectives:
Multiply this 100,000 ways to have 100,000 agents acting in favor of their interests and you should get some interesting outcomes.
Thus, while you might want to see some of your money go to (oh, say) KDE, a FSF fund is likely to "bias" in favor of GNOME.
In contrast, if you send $5 to KDE yourself, or perhaps to a specific KDE developer, nobody else gets to gainsay you on that.
Other issues like "licensing biases" also get resolved by this.
If you decide to send some developer $5, you may get no tax deduction, but that may be offset if the developer doesn't need to declare it as income for tax purposes because it's a gift...
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
And since Harry Browne can't win, vote Bush!
That's what people were saying about the Republican party circa 1850; "they can't win, vote Whig!".
Heard from any Whig party members lately?
The Republican party won the 1860 Presidential election because people stopped falling for that and started leaving the Whigs for the Republicans.
Sort of like the influx of Libertarians defecting from the Republicans in recent years, or the similar defection (on a smaller scale) of Democrats to the Reform party.
And, of course, a few Democrats joining the Libertarians, and Republicans joining the Reform party.
Bottom line; it only takes a couple of elections to turn things around, *IF* people stop falling for this "two party system" bullshit and start voting their conscience.
Your vote won't determine the outcome of this election, but a massive groundswell of third-party voting this time could result in a change in the 2008 elections, and that's a very important thing to remember before you go condone and endorse a party who doesn't represent your beliefs in any meaningful way.
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Interesting. This is the way music used to be developed. Some aristocrat would put you on the payroll, and you'd produce your operas or whatever. If this caught on, I wonder if it might result in some software 'masterpieces'?
You BUY things, you HIRE people (at least these days you don't buy people)
I'm not a big perl weenie, but it takes alot for people to try to buy you out of your employer.
It doesn't take as much as you'd think. Sure he's making less money. But he'll start his new job with a lego desk and several AT-AT fighters.
I think the idea behind this is great, especially since he is willing to take much less than market value and will be doing work that benefits all users of Perl.
I'm curious, though, how his work will be determined. The information at the link is fairly light, but it seems as if he will have free reign, making this is a beautiful thing. On the other hand, if the "sponsors" are simply paying to have their own agenda pushed, this doesn't feel so pure any more.
Shouldn't Larry Wall be the one to work on Perl full time? (He works for a book publisher) What about Tom Christiansen? There are lots of people in the same situation as Damian Conway. There are many Perl geniouses, who would all like to code full time, who would all like to travel abroad for conferences, training, and speaking engagements. Surely everyone has a best friend who would give his left testacle to work on Perl full time. This is beginning to sound like the Mercury 7: Who will be the first one to write software full time?
I truly believe that if Damian Conway can be given a year to work on Perl 6 things and Perl in general, the community will be far better off. Now, please excuse me while I fork over my $50. :-)
Babar
-- Michael Chermside
Thad
Thad
Since Perl development is a bit "questionable", I'm guessing $55K usd will buy a ton of LSD and cocaine. I can't wait to see if the poor guy even lives after ingesting so many drugs, but what features he adds.
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faeryman
The fact that he gets to do what he loves to do most (probably) and getting paid for that and getting to be famous (sort-of) is part of this price I guess. Money isn't that important anyway if your work is your hobby.
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People only work to make money to spend this in their free time doing what they like to do most. Or that should be the case off course
Perhaps not so much a fundraiser design - but wouldn't an instance of the Street Performer Protocol do well here? Rather than a book, or artistic fait accompli, someone like this guy can put a year of their time on the line and say "When I am paid $55k, I will deliver one year of dedicated services". Let people paypal that sum closer and closer. It's the fundraiser/telethon/charity paradigm of the 21st century!
Cheers,
Johnath
Btw, is use Perl using the slashdot code directly or is it a damn good copy?
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Care about electronic freedom? Consider donating to the EFF!
I've been to a couple of his talks and $55k USD is easily worth it to get this guy writing perl full time.
:Pe rligata, Quantum::Superpositions, Class:: Mul timethods and Coy.
Who else is going to write Lingua::Romana:
This guy write the funniest, most intriguing perl modules around. And he gives really funny presentations. If you ever get a chance to see him give a lecture in person be sure not to miss it.
EOF
I think it's a good idea. I hope people will talk to their legislators and have them support the National Science Foundation and other groups designed to do this kind of thing two. Certainly solves alot of problems with intellectual property to give smart people a stipend to produce work for the public domain. It is ironic however that the model of selecting a few stellar performers for patronage is in tension with the notion that "open source" often purports to rely on, a community of contributors. Do we need people selected and paid to be source maintainers and build engineers as well?
-- This is not legal advice or solicitation. See an attorney for legal advice. My views, not anyone else's..
Taken from the Perl.com website...
Dr. Damian Conway is a Senior Lecturer in Computer Science and Software Engineering at Monash University (Melbourne, Australia), where he teaches object-oriented software engineering. He is an effective teacher, an accomplished writer, and the author of several popular Perl modules. He is also a semi-regular contributor to the Perl Journal. In 1998 he was the winner of the Larry Wall Award for Practical Utility for two modules (Getopt::Declare and Lingua::EN::Inflect) and in 1999 he won his second "Larry" for his Coy.pm haiku-generation module. He has just published "Object-Oriented Perl" (Manning, 1999).
We must respect evil, and we must make evil respect us.
You BUY politicians, and politicians are people like you and me who share in humanity's common hopes and dreams. At least until they fuck it over royally through legislation or executive edict.
-- Anne Marie
If you check the perl6 mail list logs, you can see that both are quite active, and at least in Tom's case, his entire business rests upon the continued success of perl.
How much would it take to get Slashdot to buy Natalie Portman for a year? Surely the buying power of frustrated geeks everywhere would be enough to woo her from the set of Episode 2 to spend a year hanging out behind a terminal, submitting articles and moderating comments.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. -- Gandhi
As I watched the lecture unfold, and I understood just what a clever and puissant hack this was, I had the urge to get up and do the Wayne's World "I'm not worthy!" chant. There's nothing like the presence of greatness to make you feel like a rank amateur.
Later, he did his Quantum::Superposition talk, which was impressive whether you look at it as physics, programming, or stand-up comedy.
Now think about this: he came up with all these neat hacks literally in his spare time, between teaching C to freshmen and writing material for publication in "real" CompSci literature.
$55,000 for a year of Damian's full attention? Worth every penny IMHO (especially since that year coincides with gestation and early maturation of Perl 6).
Damian Conway was my lecturer for Object Oriented Programming last year here at Monash University in Melbourne (Australia).
HE WAS THE BEST LECTURER I HAVE EVER HAD.
His lectures are ALWAYS full, purely because he makes whatever he's teaching so interesting! There were always people up the front of the lecture hall participating in some sort of demonstration (like his "pick-up line" game, which taught encapsulation incredibly well).
I remember one lecture, someone walked in about 20 minutes late. He had green 3/4 length pants on, no shoes, one of those puffy jackets and red hair. As he was walking up the back to sit down, Damian stopped what he was saying, pointed to the guy, and said, "oh my god, it's a leprechaun!" (all in good fun, everyone - including the guy - couldn't stop laughing).
The concept of patron is ancient. There was a time (awhile ago) when artists and scientists were supported by rich patrons so that they could focus on their creative work.
The modern world would be much different if it were not for the discoveries and art of these men. (if someone could reply to this message with some names of these artists and scientists, it would be much appreciated. I cannot remember any at the moment...)
I have felt for a long time that free software development could benefit from this model.
How many great developers are out there who have to work 8 hours a day, before coming home exhausted to fit in 2 or 3 hours of coding between dinner and bedtime?
So here's the next point. Altough the wave of get rich quick startups that characterized the laste 90's is in decline, there are now 1000's of financially sufficent millionaire developers.
If you are one of there people, run down to your investment counselor and find out how you could donate a couple of grand a year to Open Source development. There's probably some loophole that would make it tax exempt or a deduction. Get together with some of your millionaire friends and pick a project to sponsor. It doesn't have to be perl, but a project that you feel could benefit your interests and hopfully the interests of the community by having a full time developer(s). Go to sourceforge and find one that looks cool. Perl, linux kernel development, freenet, maybe a game engine. It's your money, but you could use it to help us all.
Sig:
Barbeque is a noun. Not a verb.
When you pledge money to public television or a thousand other "charities", you get a small gift in return, like an umbrella or a video. Does the perl community plan to continue in this tradition? I.e., for $100 I get Damien's half-eaten french toast; for $1,000 I get to play conceal&carry with ESR, and for $10,000 I get to have Larry Wall lecture me on the scriptures (especially the parts about uncovering people's nakedness)?
-- Anne Marie
I could live *quite* happily on roughtly $1000/week... oh, wait, the tax man will take a good portion of that away... hmm...
And could you support a family on that? Honestly now... at least in california, perl developers are making anywhere from $60k - $100k. I think that Mr. Conway would be at the top of the pay scale here. For him to take $55k/yr would be a donation to the community, even more so than his work so far.
If you want to contribute to the Damian fund, you can pay online with a credit card at:
http://registration.yapc.org/