[[:home | Home]]

[[:proj:project | Project]]

====== Funding ======

===== Yes - it's free, but ... =====

SOFA Statistics is completely free and you can use it without restriction on as many machines as you like.  The application is released under the open source AGPL3 licence.

The main ways you can support the project are by:

  * spreading the word
  * letting us know if you strike any problems
  * helping other users in the community (http://groups.google.com/group/sofastatistics)

If there are particular features you need that are not currently available, we can always discuss the possibility of a commission payment to have them developed, or to have them developed more quickly.

===== Lessons =====

  * Use the community to lobby on behalf of project awards or funding
  * Explicitly think about the Developing World angle

===== TechNZ =====

  * need to call either North Shore or Manukau - [[http://www.frst.govt.nz/funding/business/technzpartners]]
  * see [[http://www.frst.govt.nz/funding/business/technzpartners/sixstep]]

===== CAST =====

  * University academics might be able to participate using grants from its Fund for Innovation and Excellence in Teaching
  * The International Rice Research Institute provided early funding for development of a customised CAST e-book with biological examples that later became the Biometric e-book in CAST.
  * The Rockefeller Foundation contributed towards development of the two African CAST e-books that were originally targeted at agriculture students in sub-Saharan Africa.
  * Both the UK Met Office and the UK Department for International Development helped to fund a series of e-books for use in courses run by the University of Reading to teach basic statistics to climatologists in Africa.
  * The CAST material about design of industrial experiments was developed with funding from Nestlé.
  * The World Food Programme funded development of the first chapter of the Official Statistics e-book about Data Presentation.

===== Andrew W. Mellon Foundation =====

  * [[http://www.mellon.org/grant_programs/programs/rit | Research in Information Technology ]]
  * Likes open source which reduces the cost of tertiary education esp library, learning, reducing cost of scholarly activity etc.  Might be a fit if framed carefully.
  * Gave $100,000 to the Open Polytech to improve Moodle [[http://www.openpolytechnic.ac.nz/aboutus/newsandevents/OPMellon | Open Polytechnic receives international award]]
  * Gave $50,000 to the University of Waikato for the Greenstone project within the Third Annual Mellon Awards for Technology Collaboration (see http://matc.mellon.org/press-release). "We understand that the committee was primarily impressed by Greenstone’s impact in the developing world as testified by many users who supported our candidacy online" [[http://www.greenstone.org/blog/2008-12-23/greenstone-wins-andrew-w-mellon-foundation-matc-award/]]

===== Tertiary Education Commission =====

  * Supported by $1.5 million in funding from the Tertiary Education Commission, The Open Polytechnic project team selected an open source eLearning system, Moodle, and made improvements to it for widespread release. [[http://www.openpolytechnic.ac.nz/aboutus/newsandevents/OPMellon | Open Polytechnic receives international award]]

===== Misc =====

  * FoRST funded WEKA

===== Bounties =====

We could explicitly mention that we are willing to discuss bounties etc with interested parties e.g. $5,000 for the addition of major functionality - perhaps that required by a business integrator making a killing off our product ;-).