2009/1/29 Dave Neary <<a href="mailto:dneary@free.fr" target="_blank">dneary@free.fr</a>> <div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Hi, <div> Nathan Willis wrote: > I culled together a brief list of past sponsors based solely on the wiki > pages available from 2007 and 2006.  Were there any others?  I know the 07 > list was unofficial and there wasn't one up for 08. </div>I assume you mean prospects, rather than sponsors? I think most of these have never sponsored... >    - ATI <div>>    - Canon >    - Epson >    - Google >    - HP >    - IBM >    - Intel >    - Xerox >    - Xara >    - O'Reilly >    - Eyrolles >    - FSF >    - Grafika >    - Société des arts technologiques (SAT) >    - CPE.fr >    - Aldil.org >    - Flock >    - GNOME >    - <a href="http://gnulinuxmag.com" target="_blank">gnulinuxmag.com</a></div></blockquote><div> Hi, Just for the record, from this list, here are the ones who were sponsors and actually donated money or substantial help in value. - Google (2008 $) - HP (2006, 2007 $) - Intel (2007 $) - Xerox (2007 - lend equipment) - Xara (2006 ???) - O'Reilly (2006 - $ + books) - Eyrolles (2006, 2007 $ + books) - FSF (2006, 2007, 2008 $) - Grafika (2007 - large free publicity) * * * Sponsors not in the above list : - GIMP team (2007 $) - Our community (2008 $) - Quebec government (2007 $) - GRICS (2007 $) - Révolution Linux (2007 - services) * * * - GNOME helped with admin in  2008<a href="http://gnulinuxmag.com/" target="_blank"></a> for a low cost and I hope they can be onboard again in 2009. </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">You might add on your prospect list film studios like Hammerhead, Rhythm & Hues, Dreamworks, Disney, ILM, and that New Zealand one whose name I can't remember (but they don't spend money on this type of thing, usually). Oh, and those Spanish guys who did the bird movie in Blender? Although they're probably looking for money, rather than spending it. General ideas: Companies interested in free software graphics might be hardware companies (cameras, scanners, tablets, printers), Linux distributions (Canonical have an Ubuntu distribution that focuses on multimedia creation), movie studios (who work with the distributions - in particular Red Hat - a lot already) and art studios. You might also manage to get help from magazines who use free software in their toolchain (many of the Linux mags do, I think).</blockquote><div> Absolutely agree.  </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Individuals might also be interested - especially those who donated last time.</blockquote><div> This brings up again the idea of putting together a Pledgie Campaign. We have had a tremendous success last year with our community and it was actually THE gold sponsor of the event! </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> You might also manage to wangle a grant from an appropriate non-profit - the FSF is a previous sponsor, as you noted, and you might try the Linux Foundation - they may be able to pay for travel for some people through their travel fund - and if you tailor your argument right, some of the mobile companies might be interested, if you pitch it as a workshop for developers of the low-level library end of things (littleCMS, Cairo, Clutter).</blockquote><div> Again, completely agree! Good ideas! What we need now is put together a short but convincing letter about what LGM is about. We can reuse some stuff from previous years but at the same time a new look and fresh things would be great too. > if you pitch it as a workshop for developers of the low-level library end of things (littleCMS, Cairo, Clutter). kind of thing. Remember that LGM is THE annual meeting of the graphic OSS apps developers and it is the Fourth Edition. For all the teams it's a unique moment for international gathering and crucial meetings among and between teams. LGM is hard work. In that view, sponsors are clearly helping the development of those apps. If they trust these apps are good for them in any respect, then they should consider throwing some money in. Every dollar/euro counts. I would also add that this year — in January 2009, now this is fresh news — The Seybold Report, one of the most well-known analyst of the publisher's world made a review of Scribus and I suspect they will be looking more and more at the OSS world in the coming months and years. That could also help convince some large manufacturers to step in. These guys all read TSR. Cheers! Louis </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Cheers, Dave. -- Dave Neary <a href="mailto:dneary@free.fr" target="_blank">dneary@free.fr</a> Tel: +33 9 51 13 46 45 Cell: +33 6 77 01 92 13 </blockquote></div>