Hi, the smalltalk community is very small, so there is always going to be a kind of "conflict of interest". ESUG has sponsored many projects in different flavors of smalltalk and for sure, in many of them, there was one or more members of the ESUG board and other boards or groups or companies and nobody cared... I don't think that this idea has a "hidden agenda", I mean, the money it is not going to go to any ESUG board member's pocket but to somebody that will help to have a better smalltalk. Also, for me the election process of the ESUG board was always clear, open and I could saw it with my own eyes, so I have no doubts there either. ESUG has helped a lot of people and organizations related with smalltalk, it would be a pitty not to do it with pharo. I see this action as a positive one, so I think it is a good idea. In any case, companies that give money to esug that could see this as a "threat" should be the one to complain but I have not seen any doing it so far. The Smalltalk comminiy is small (ironically), let's help each other! Let's be positive! Hernan Ps: thank you for being open and ask something you are not obligated to, that shows transparency, and please do not confuse clear proceses with lack of transparency, when you DO there is always somerhing you are going to DO wrong, but at least you did! On Wed, Jul 4, 2012 at 5:25 PM, Steven Kelly <stevek@metacase.com> wrote:
Thanks for asking us. Personally I think it would be better for ESUG not
to contribute financially to Pharo. In general, user groups don't contribute financially to the organizations which make the products in question - indeed, often it works the other way around, with the product organizations sponsoring user groups or their activities.
I'm sure everyone would agree that any board members with a clear
connection to Pharo should declare a conflict of interest on this issue, and refrain from discussion or voting. That's standard practice, and for good reason. Even when a board is completely open, honest, and declares even potentially perceived conflicts of interest, those outside the board will always be outsiders, and liable to feel not everything is being revealed - that's just human nature.
It's great that the board is asking for our opinions, and I'm sure
they'll make the best decision for ESUG. And whatever happens, I'm sure Pharo and other Smalltalks know ESUG is very much on their side.
All the best, Steve PS useful advice on conflicts of interest for non-profits: http://www.boardsource.org/Knowledge.asp?ID=3.389 -- Steven Kelly, CTO, MetaCase
-----Original Message----- From: esug-list-bounces@lists.esug.org [mailto:esug-list- bounces@lists.esug.org] On Behalf Of Damien Cassou Sent: 4. heinäkuuta 2012 18:02 To: ESUG Mailing list Subject: [Esug-list] ESUG considers sponsoring the Pharo Consortium
The ESUG board currently considers sponsoring the Pharo Consortium (see http://lists.gforge.inria.fr/pipermail/pharo-project/2012- June/066881.html). We believe that Pharo is important for the Smalltalk ecosystem.
Note that ESUG is promoting Smalltalk in general and this action is in the same vein as previous actions such as sponsoring local Smalltalk groups (FAST, Catalan, Russian, ...), Smalltalk dialects (SqueakFoundation, etoy), development projects (Mars, DBXTalk, DrGeo II, SqueakVirtual Machine cleaning), and books (Seaside and GNU book).
Before deciding, the board would like to gather feedback from the community. We want to be clear that there is a strict distinction between ESUG and Pharo (both consortium and association) even if some people are involved in both.
What do you think?
-- Damien Cassou http://damiencassou.seasidehosting.st
"Lambdas are relegated to relative obscurity until Java makes them popular by not having them." James Iry
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-- Hernán Wilkinson Agile Software Development, Teaching & Coaching Phone: +54 - 011 - 4311 - 8404 Mobile: +54 - 911 - 4470 - 7207 email: hernan.wilkinson@10Pines.com site: http://www.10Pines.com Address: Paraguay 523, Floor 7 N, Buenos Aires, Argentina -- *Hernán Wilkinson Agile Software Development, Teaching & Coaching* *Phone: +54 - 011 - 4311 - 8404** Mobile: +54 - 911 - 4470 - 7207 email: hernan.wilkinson@10Pines.com site: http://www.10Pines.com <http://www.10pines.com/>* Address: Paraguay 523, Floor 7 N, Buenos Aires, Argentina