[OS X Emacs] Aquamacs - funding further development

[David Reitter]

David,

I’ve already pointed it out in an e-mail to Arthur - I wasn’t soliciting further donations here.

Donations are appreciated.  They have been a way to incentivize development and pay for occasional bug fixes or features (on a “thank you” tip bases rather than proper pay).

That said, the volume of donations for a project with maybe around 14,000 users will never allow us to actually hire a developer.  That will cost me, with overheads and benefits, at least $140k per year.  And that assumes we can find a willing developer who is familiar with Mac, Emacs, C and Lisp.

I have had conversations with several people at the National Science Foundation, where most of my research funding comes from at the moment.  And while I think I can make the case that there are lots and lots of broader impacts of Aquamacs, it is more challenging to situate it in a specific area (e.g., biology, or computer science).  Besides this avenue, foundations would be a good source.  I would be willing to coordinate a proposal, and to get there, I’d like to see an advisory board first.

- David

PS.: This is not typically a public discussion, but thinking about it - why not?


--
Dr. David Reitter
Assistant Professor of Information Sciences and Technology
Co-Director, Applied Cognitive Science Lab
The Pennsylvania State University
http://www.david-reitter.com





> On Aug 19, 2015, at 7:51 PM, Cross, David <d.cross at tcu.edu> wrote:
> 
> I am in the same boat as Arthur: I don’t have the time or skill for development, but I have contributed, and will continue to contribute financially.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> David R. Cross, Ph.D.
> Professor, Department of Psychology
> Co-Director, Institute of Child Development
> Texas Christian University
> Fort Worth, TX 76129
> d.cross at tcu.edu
> 
>> On Aug 18, 2015, at 2:40 PM, Arthur Ogus <ogus at math.berkeley.edu> wrote:
>> 
>> Dear David,
>> 
>> Thanks.   I cannot help with this in a meaningful way; I used to know some lisp (Common Lisp) but that was years ago,
>> and I am much too busy with academic work right now in any case.  
>> 
>> I should contribute financially, however, and will do so once I finish my current travels.
>> Aquamacs is a great tool.
>> 
>> Best,
>> 
>> 
>>> On Aug 18, 2015, at 12:48 AM, David Reitter <david.reitter at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Art,
>>> 
>>> On Aug 16, 2015, at 8:03 AM, Arthur Ogus <ogus at Math.Berkeley.EDU> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Is development still continuing?  Haven’t seen anything new in a while.
>>> 
>>> The codebase has been pretty stable.  Aquamacs is on my mind, but I simply have a lot of projects on my plate.
>>> 
>>> Emacs merges haven’t happened because Emacs has changed its git codebase, and despite many hours of efforts and support by Eric Raymond, we haven’t been able to to transfer the Aquamacs history.  We can always cut it off and abandon the history, but I was hoping to avoid this.
>>> 
>>> I would like to put together an advisory board consisting mostly of senior academics and industry people. 
>>> The goal of this is to discuss how to keep this project running in a sustainable way, and that means finding funding for a (research) programmer, and finding that programmer that can do it.  If you’re interested, e-mail me personally.  
>>> 
>>> Best,
>>> David
>>> 
>>> 
>>> --
>>> http://aquamacs.org -- Aquamacs: Emacs on Mac OS X
>>> http://aquamacs.org/donate -- Could we help you? Return the favor and support the Aquamacs Project!
>>> 
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>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Arthur Ogus
>> Professor of Mathematics
>> University of California
>> Berkeley, CA 94720
>> 510 642-8065
>> 
>> 
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> 
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