[ANN] Ruby Central, Inc. Codefest Grant Program

Ruby Central, Inc. is pleased to announce its first...

                      Ruby Codefest Grant Program

The goal of this program is to provide support for local and regional
groups of Ruby programmers who wish to organize a "codefest" at which
they produce a working version of a specific Ruby library. By
supporting these activities, we hope to contribute to both the
quantity and quality of code for Ruby programmers everywhere.

A total of up to $1500(US) will be awarded, with a $500 maximum per
group. Grants will be awarded based on a ranking of applications by a
panel of Ruby experts, including:

    Matz
    Hal Fulton
    Lyle Johnson
    Nathaniel Talbott
    Dave Thomas
    Jim Weirich
    why the lucky stiff

The groups applying do not have to be existing Ruby users' groups.
They may be constituted for the purpose of the grant program.

You can apply on behalf of your group at:

  http://www.rubycentral.org/grant/application.html

The application deadline is January 15, 2005. Decisions will be
announced by March 1, 2005.

The application form includes detailed rules and guidelines. If you
have questions that are not answered there, please contact us
directly.

Thanks for your interest!

David Black
Chad Fowler
Rich Kilmer

for Ruby Central, Inc.

David A. Black ha scritto:

         Ruby Central, Inc. is pleased to announce its first...

                      Ruby Codefest Grant Program

The goal of this program is to provide support for local and regional
groups of Ruby programmers who wish to organize a "codefest" at which
they produce a working version of a specific Ruby library. By
supporting these activities, we hope to contribute to both the
quantity and quality of code for Ruby programmers everywhere.

This seem a great initiative, congrats from me :slight_smile:

Just a thing: maybe it would be worth it to publish the proposal so that even if they did'nt get the grant someone could still choose to support them.

Oh, and imo you should add a signature pointing to
http://rubycentral.org/index.rb?dest=contributions
on every message related to rubycentral :wink:

And, I'm happy to add:

      Nobu

:slight_smile:

David

···

On Thu, 2 Dec 2004, David A. Black wrote:

         Ruby Central, Inc. is pleased to announce its first...

                      Ruby Codefest Grant Program

The goal of this program is to provide support for local and regional
groups of Ruby programmers who wish to organize a "codefest" at which
they produce a working version of a specific Ruby library. By
supporting these activities, we hope to contribute to both the
quantity and quality of code for Ruby programmers everywhere.

A total of up to $1500(US) will be awarded, with a $500 maximum per
group. Grants will be awarded based on a ranking of applications by a
panel of Ruby experts, including:

    Matz
    Hal Fulton
    Lyle Johnson
    Nathaniel Talbott
    Dave Thomas
    Jim Weirich
    why the lucky stiff

--
David A. Black
dblack@wobblini.net

David A. Black wrote:

         Ruby Central, Inc. is pleased to announce its first...

                      Ruby Codefest Grant Program

The goal of this program is to provide support for local and regional
groups of Ruby programmers who wish to organize a "codefest" at which
they produce a working version of a specific Ruby library. By
supporting these activities, we hope to contribute to both the
quantity and quality of code for Ruby programmers everywhere.

What would it take to get a similar effort to contribute to both the
quantity and quality of documentation for Ruby programmers everywhere?

I applaud this initiative, and I expect we'll see some top-quality code come from this, but I notice that, while many people will code for free, far, far fewer show much initiative for writing documentation, even for their own code.

Maybe throwing a few bucks around will pique more interest. Perhaps pay someone to translate the copious Japanese documentation, or offer bounties for documenting the standard library.

James Britt

David A. Black wrote:

         Ruby Central, Inc. is pleased to announce its first...
                      Ruby Codefest Grant Program
... for Ruby Central, Inc.

This is a great initiative! Thank you!

-g.

···

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web appliction engine: http://www.navel.gr/nitro
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James Britt wrote:

What would it take to get a similar effort to contribute to both the
quantity and quality of documentation for Ruby programmers everywhere?

I imagine some high-quality documentation could come out of a Codefest focused on it. With some acting as writers, others organizing the concepts into tutorials and critiquing the work as it comes out. Others could take the documentation and build a cohesive site from it.

_why

This idea interests me quite a bit, probably because I'm currently adding documentation to the standard library, bit by bit. I recently finished erb and I'm now working on delegate and forwardable.

I move pretty slow. Work a little as I have time. Sadly, that means I've done nothing this week, as I am swamped.

I could write quite a bit of documentation while someone was paying me to do so on the other hand... :smiley:

Is this drastically against the Codefest Grant program as it stands now though? Would an offer to document X, Y, and Z not be considered?

James Edward Gray II

···

On Dec 2, 2004, at 4:33 PM, James Britt wrote:

Maybe throwing a few bucks around will pique more interest. Perhaps pay someone to translate the copious Japanese documentation, or offer bounties for documenting the standard library.

James Britt wrote:

> What would it take to get a similar effort to contribute to both the
> quantity and quality of documentation for Ruby programmers everywhere?

I imagine some high-quality documentation could come out of a Codefest
focused on it. With some acting as writers, others organizing the
concepts into tutorials and critiquing the work as it comes out. Others
could take the documentation and build a cohesive site from it.

making a good documentation plan part of the judging criteria for
determining who gets the awards would go a long way toward ensuring
that the docs get written.

I agree with James too though, it would be nice to put together some
kind of incentive for quality translations/documentation. maybe we
could use one of the existing community systems to collect small
bounties and pay writers.

-pate

···

On Fri, 3 Dec 2004 07:41:04 +0900, why the lucky stiff <ruby-talk@whytheluckystiff.net> wrote:

_why

Hi --

···

On Fri, 3 Dec 2004, James Edward Gray II wrote:

On Dec 2, 2004, at 4:33 PM, James Britt wrote:

> Maybe throwing a few bucks around will pique more interest. Perhaps
> pay someone to translate the copious Japanese documentation, or offer
> bounties for documenting the standard library.

This idea interests me quite a bit, probably because I'm currently
adding documentation to the standard library, bit by bit. I recently
finished erb and I'm now working on delegate and forwardable.

I move pretty slow. Work a little as I have time. Sadly, that means
I've done nothing this week, as I am swamped.

I could write quite a bit of documentation while someone was paying me
to do so on the other hand... :smiley:

Is this drastically against the Codefest Grant program as it stands now
though? Would an offer to document X, Y, and Z not be considered?

Some kind of documentation support is certainly not out of the
question in the future for Ruby Central, but that would be a different
initiative. The Codefest program is specifically in support of code
production.

David

--
David A. Black
dblack@wobblini.net

Paying to encourage documentation is a good idea, I think, and it
should be structured the same as a Codefest. Rather than nominating
$50 for a certain translation or standard library file, for instance,
offer $300 for a Docfest with certain agreed outcomes. The scale,
cooperation, and time dedication will surely produce a better result
for everyone.

Cheers,
Gavin

···

On Friday, December 3, 2004, 12:31:27 PM, David wrote:

On Dec 2, 2004, at 4:33 PM, James Britt wrote:

> Maybe throwing a few bucks around will pique more interest. Perhaps
> pay someone to translate the copious Japanese documentation, or offer
> bounties for documenting the standard library.

Some kind of documentation support is certainly not out of the
question in the future for Ruby Central, but that would be a different
initiative. The Codefest program is specifically in support of code
production.