[Members] External Openness and Donation Campaign

[jehan at zemarmot.net]

Hello all,

I have just raised this idea on the members list and as I was clicking 
"send", I thought it would be worth an email on its own (it started in 
the new website thread).

Basically I think, from what I saw around me, that people (I mean 
people at least a little technology-aware, though not necessarily 
especially technical-specialists) are interested about XMPP. They just 
don't know what happens, don't know who makes it (XSF who?), or when 
they know, not much information actually pass to them through our 
communication media. Indeed our communication is pretty obscure... when 
it even exists (I was reading the last posts on our news feed, trying 
to think as a guy who is not Internet-Standards-making knowledgeable. 
And really I think that this guy would understand nearly nothing of 
what happens here. Not that we should stop having technical or 
"internal" news but that we should also sometimes think a little 
"external").

Moreover I am sure (but it is only personal belief, not scientific 
truth) that many people would be happy to help the XSF if they were 
more aware of how we work, what we do, and also if we had a more open 
donation process.

I raised the issue of the current complicated donation procedure on 
the previous said thread, and it will be solved soon. Plus, clearly the 
XSF logistics has been improving a lot lately. This is the feeling I 
have.
- We have a new website, so much nicer.
- We definitely have better website maintenance, more organized.
- We have a brand new XMPP service (jabber.org) which I believe is 
also going into improvement (even though the start is always difficult, 
but which migration isn't?).
- We began better communication (even though still very imperfect, as 
I said), among other things with the roundup, but also with the new 
website which makes news in a better seen place, etc.
- The sponsor procedure seems to improve, as far as I understood from 
what have been told to me.
- We began to organize in working groups for the various "stuffs to be 
done" (sorry I am in none, but I also believe that even though groups 
are a good thing, individual and random spec reviews — as I do — are 
also useful. Hope you think so at least :p).

And so on. And we can do even better.

[a copy with improvement of the text I wrote on my previous email:]

We are maybe not Wikipedia, still many people follows (as far as
we let the information clear and through for the common visitors) what
happens around XMPP and I am sure individuals would donate if we 
advertised it
the right way.

So I propose this: what do you think about launching a donation
campaign (the first that the XSF would ever have had, as far as I 
know)
once the last details of the new website will be fully fixed? And also 
after the elections of the new board/council.

We could prepare a "press release" to advertise the new website, and 
using this renewal as an excuse for a donation campaign. Then we could 
try to spread this press release all over the technology (and related 
topics) websites (in different translations to touch communities all 
over the world as we have people from so many countries in the XSF to 
help translate. I could for my own help with French, and on a smaller 
scale
for the Japanese translations because I don't know if we have many 
Japanese speaking people. I could also easily find help for a Korean 
translation).

I think this would be worth to be done. We have nothing to lose and it
would be nice for future XSF events (even though I might not be
able to come, I will be happy if it does work!) if it has a nice 
success.

Currently we are funded nearly only on corporate sponsoring but 
corporate donations and individual donations can live together.

What does everybody think of this?
Bye.

Jehan

P.S.: of course, as I propose this, I will help in such a project if 
it is to be done. Especially that I might settle a little soon, so I 
can give more time to the XSF.