Status on NPO Accounting project: Conservancy seeks a contractor to begin work

[Marc Paré]

Le 2013-08-26 15:14, Josh Berkus a écrit :
>> We've been talking internally at Conservancy for about a month for how
>> to make the best use of the funds we've raised so far to get started.
>> Conservancy has decided that we'd like to hire a contractor for six
>> months to get the project going.  This isn't an ideal way to get a Free
>> Software project started, but given the funds we have available now,
>> this seems the best way to proceed.
> On the contrary, I think it's an excellent way to start out.  The
> hardest part about new software is getting it over the first hump of
> "barely adequate usability" so that it attracts additional contributors
> because they're working on it.
>
> Also, a project which shows some progress may attract additional donations.
>
> Finally, if it turns out that one or more existing OSS accounting
> packages can be adapted to fiscal sponsor accounting, I might suggest
> that 5 months full-time is completely adequate to this adaptation.
>
> Now, to find that developer ...
>

Le 2013-08-26 15:14, Josh Berkus a écrit :
>> We've been talking internally at Conservancy for about a month for how
>> to make the best use of the funds we've raised so far to get started.
>> Conservancy has decided that we'd like to hire a contractor for six
>> months to get the project going.  This isn't an ideal way to get a Free
>> Software project started, but given the funds we have available now,
>> this seems the best way to proceed.
> On the contrary, I think it's an excellent way to start out.  The
> hardest part about new software is getting it over the first hump of
> "barely adequate usability" so that it attracts additional contributors
> because they're working on it.
>
> Also, a project which shows some progress may attract additional donations.
>
> Finally, if it turns out that one or more existing OSS accounting
> packages can be adapted to fiscal sponsor accounting, I might suggest
> that 5 months full-time is completely adequate to this adaptation.
>
> Now, to find that developer ...
>
I have also been trying to push the idea here in Canada with some of our 
local funders who have ties to national funding agencies. I think you 
should do a little more with suggesting that the software will also be 
tailored to different country specs. This may also encourage other 
non-US groups to help with the funding. It needs to be more 
"international in scope" than just US. I am keeping one particular 
interested funder group appraised of the developments on this particular 
item -- I was hoping they would organize some kind of Canadian support 
for the project.

BTW ... although it is a little "out-of-date", you may also want to look 
at the Quasar Accounting package code for when it was open sourced, the 
devs took it back out of open source after having it out there for a 
couple of years. The newest edition of the "closed sourced" Quasar is 
quite good and more advanced than its open source brother, but, I would 
not be surprised if the Quasar devs would "donate" source code to the 
the project if they were approached. The Quasar UI is close to the MYOB 
UI and easy to migrate to. Maybe the Quasar devs would be interested to 
"cooperate" with the project if they were approached, they may see some 
opportunity to build on support for the product.

Have a look here: http://www.linuxcanada.com/quasar.shtml

Cheers,

Marc

-- 
Marc Paré
NBBP Director
Treasurer/Marketing
Marc.Pare at notabenebaroque.ca
http://www.NotaBeneBaroque.ca
Please Support Nota Bene Baroque

Donate Now Through CanadaHelps.org! 
<http://www.canadahelps.org/CharityProfilePage.aspx?CharityID=d79686>

-- 
Marc Paré
Marc at MarcPare.com
http://www.parEntreprise.com
parEntreprise.com Supports OpenDocument Formats (ODF)
parEntreprise.com Supports http://www.LibreOffice.org

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sfconservancy.org/pipermail/npo-accounting/attachments/20130826/fb764dfb/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: donateNow2b1.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 6495 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.sfconservancy.org/pipermail/npo-accounting/attachments/20130826/fb764dfb/attachment-0001.gif>