[Debian-sponsors-discuss] What are we doing and what more can we do to reward companies and individuals that are supporting Debian?

[Stefano Zacchiroli]

On Sun, Jun 02, 2013 at 04:08:31AM -0400, Brian Gupta wrote:
> May I ask why we make a distinction between sponsors and "partners"?
> In my mind if a monetary value could be placed on the services and
> goods that a partner provides, then perhaps they could be recognized
> equally?

It depends.

On one hand, you're right that the distinction is confusing. I don't
think it would be easy to associate a monetary value to services and
other contributions, though. But it seems like that this is something we
will have to do anyhow, and at that point we can probably avoid the
distinction.

On the other hand, "partnerships" in the industry lingo are usually
commutative relationships, whereas "sponsorships" are not. When two
entities establish a partnership, they usually announce it conjunctly
and each of them list the other in their public list of partners. What
we (used to) have as partners was a bit of both sponsorships and
partnerships.

Bottom line: we should probably better separate the two aspects. If it's
a one way relationships, let's go for sponsorships, if it's proper
partnership, let's go for that. (It is also possible that proper
partnerships make no sense for Debian, as we aren't really in a position
to engage in giving back to a company anymore than what we give back to
the rest of the world at large.)

Cheers.
-- 
Stefano Zacchiroli  . . . . . . .  zack at upsilon.cc . . . . o . . . o . o
Maître de conférences . . . . . http://upsilon.cc/zack . . . o . . . o o
Former Debian Project Leader  . . @zack on identi.ca . . o o o . . . o .
« the first rule of tautology club is the first rule of tautology club »
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 828 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
URL: <http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/debian-sponsors-discuss/attachments/20130602/c1ba525c/attachment-0001.pgp>