Re: The future of my involvement with the Octave project

[Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso]

008/12/10 John Swensen <address@hidden>:
> I have spent an evening or two in the last month reading about 501(c)(3)
> nonprofit organizations and how they are formed.

Another option is to ask the FSF to do this for us, at least just at
first. I've spoken with them on IRC, a while ago, well, read this for
yourself:

     Oct 15 22:44:53 *  Now talking on #fsf
     Oct 15 22:44:53 *  Topic for #fsf is: The Free Software
     Foundation | Donate: http://donate.fsf.org | Shop: address@hidden
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     Oct 15 22:44:53 *  Topic for #fsf set by johnsu01 at Sat Oct  4
     14:27:01 2008
     Oct 15 22:45:14 <JordiGH>  Is there some sort of official FSF
     person here? I want to ask about donations.
     Oct 15 22:55:29 <johnsu01> sure
     Oct 15 22:57:20 <JordiGH>  Okay, Octave is now a high priority FSF project.
     Oct 15 22:57:31 <JordiGH>  Is it possible to channel through the
     FSF donations directly to Octave?
     Oct 15 22:57:56 <JordiGH>  The website seems to suggest that it's
     only possible to channel them to the high priority projects in
     general, not to Octave in particular.
     Oct 15 22:58:27 <johnsu01> right now that's the way that it's set
     up, yeah -- the fund is for all the high priority projects
     Oct 15 22:58:34 <JordiGH>  Hm.
     Oct 15 22:58:53 <johnsu01> if there is a high demand for directed
     donations to octave and the project is interested then we could
     possibly set that up
     Oct 15 22:59:18 <JordiGH>  We need something kinda clear for it
     for the chats I am hoping we can organise.
     Oct 15 22:59:19 <johnsu01> but we only do that for a couple of
     projects right now because it's a bit difficult
     Oct 15 23:00:12 <JordiGH>  Companies (we are looking at Matlab
     users, a lot of which happen to be high tech companies in the
     industry) need to be told specifically, "if you like this presentation
     of Octave we gave and you think it's worth your money, give money to
     Octave in this specific way."
     Oct 15 23:00:39 <JordiGH>  I see.
     Oct 15 23:01:11 <JordiGH>  Do you guys need money yourselves for
     legal fees or whatever work is required to handle the money?
     Oct 15 23:01:43 <JordiGH>  I mean, how much of the donation would
     go to the FSF and how much for Octave, if you were to do the extra
     work to make it go straight to Octave?
     Oct 15 23:02:39 <JordiGH>  bbl, going out to dinner
     Oct 15 23:03:04 <johnsu01> JordiGH: I'd have to check on the
     exact percentage that we're doing these days, some does go to
     administrative for sure
     Oct 15 23:50:07 <JordiGH>  johnsu01: What's your email?
     Oct 15 23:51:01 <mattl>    JordiGH: address@hidden
     Oct 15 23:51:15 <JordiGH>  Okay. I'll use that.
     Oct 15 23:52:09 <JordiGH>  Later guys.

I think this more or less means that we can first concentrate on
getting revenue for Octave, and once it becomes significant we can
think of changing the legal structure under which we receive it.

HTH,
- Jordi G. H.