Hi all,

While web-related discussion is moving to the appropriate forum, I'd
like start a new thread about how to secure further development of
Firebird. Why ? Because it's clear that if FB should become
successful project and product, a lot of work have to be put on it.
Cooperative development over Internet is relatively cheap and
doesn't need much equipment, but consume vast amount of most
expensive thing in today's world - the man-hours.

Well, Firebird is an open source project for benefit of all, and it's
fuelled by volunteer work. A lot can be done that way, but if you'd
like take advantage from bug squashing and feature improvements
delivered in reasonable amount of time, an astonishing amount of
man-hours have to be put on every week. We have many skilled
and dedicated people, but it's clear that they have to feed
themselves too, so they can work on/for Firebird only in their spare
time. They would work more (and deliver much faster) if they could
work full-time. So, if you're from a company who (will) make a profit
from FB, you can hire (or sponsor) someone to work on/for it (feel
free to choose people and/or area of development). That way, you
can help yourself, help FB and have influence on how FB will
evolve. Think about it, it's a (relatively) cheap way that you can
participate on FB "ownership".

You can also make some FB T-shirts, coffee mugs etc. and sell
them to the community and give some money from that back to the
development. I think that many small developers would like sponsor
FB development that way (I do). You can also give away these
things as a small compensation for the volunteer work to
occasional contributor, because there are also other areas in
scope of Firebird project that doesn't need dedicated people and
can be realized by vast number of volunteers. For example bug
hunting, doc writing, monthly mailing list summation, free tech
support etc. If you'd like help to boost up those activities, you can
for example sponsor a "Contributor of the month" competition.

You can also provide equipment (do you have a spare HDD ? Give
it to one of our bug testers so (s)he can create large database to
test FB on), mentoring, hosting etc. I'm sure that you'll think up
more simple and cheap ways, how you can attract and support
people that work on/for Firebird.

And small personal note at the end: You know that I work for FB,
but I did NOT submit that to you because I'm looking for sponsor or
employment (but offers are always welcome, I'll just pass them to
someone more needful ,-)

Best regards
Pavel Cisar

Firebird - The most addictive database
http://firebird.sourceforge.net