Commercial support

[Dimitrie O. Paun]

On Tue, May 03, 2005 at 11:33:36AM +0200, David Gümbel wrote:
> So I'd suggest listing anyone who can prove he has contributed to Wine in 
> whatever way - making a donation, having contributed code, whatever - , and 
> let the customers decide whom to select for their particular problem.

Yes, I think being inclusive is better.

However, I also think that we need to pick the rules carefully so we don't
set up a bad precedent when half the world will be using Wine :). So here
is what I propose:
  1. The list should be capped to n entries (n=50, 100?)
  2. It should be kept up to date, and refreshed at least yearly
  3. Any list has an order by definition, this one should be
     ranked by how much each company benefits the project.

Notes:
  - Rule (1) doesn't mean much now, but it may in the future
    if we get flooded with requests for listing
  - Rule (2) seems everyone agrees with. I suggest a token
    monetary fee that should go towards hosting the WineHQ site.
  - Rule (3) is the most tricky of all. But please realise that
    we should be talking from the project's perspective here
    (we are talking about WineHQ site), not our own commercial
    perspective. It is fundamental that things are fair to
    encourage future cooperation, and that is the one and most
    important thing from the project POV. And yes, code contributions
    are not the only thing.
    Regardless, it is not difficult to rank. Here is what I suggest:
      * company makes a request for linking by submitting a patch
        to the appropriate page on wine-patches. If they don't know
        how to do that, they may ask someone for help, but the patch 
        should be posted on the list before it can go in.
      * if there are any disagreements as to the proposed order,
        we can ask for a quick vote on the list. Each vote will
        include the rank the voter gives to the listings. An
        average of the vote should determine the rank. Please
        check out "Wisdom of Crowds" why this works very well.
    In any event, I don't think there is that much of a problem
    to come up with a ranking at the time being.

-- 
Dimi.