Our contributions to Joomla

2010-02-26 Asked on Skype chat Ryan for just invoice and account number to pay 1000$ OSM for Andrew development work on Joomla 1.6, told me that he can make both happen

2010-03-08 Remembered on Skype chat Ryan that we are waiting for invoice, and gave all details for the invoice, no reply

2010-03-10 Re-pinged Ryan on Skype chat, got answer that he missed 2010-03-08 chat, and information that rather than just sending invoices, they need to have an agreement signed. Answered that we don't need a contract, just an invoice and account number and promise (we trust) that the money will go to Andrew for productive coding development work on Joomla 1.6. Ryan promised more information later that day.

2010-03-11 As no mail came, re-pinged Ryan

2010-03-13 Mail came in from Ryan with a 4-pages contract tailored for ongoing sponsoring, that needed indepth review from our side. Re-scheduled by lack of time from Beat until time available or ping from OSM

2010-04-14 As s month passed by with no ping came from OSM: Reviewed contract but too much clauses in it, needing a lawyer review on our side, making cost of lawyer similar to sponsoring, so decided to reply to Ryan

2010-04-15 Emailed reply to Ryan that there is just too much in it that needs our lawyer's review to sign that, which would swallow the amount that we want to sponsor for productive work. Re-asked for just invoice.
2010-04-15 Received reply from Ryan that he called OSM lawyers and will reply within day
2010-04-15 Replied that Seeing reaction to my reply to call lawyers instead of accountant or maybe tax-advisor means my message wasn't understood, and offered to have a call.

2010-04-15 Beat had a very good phone call with Ryan, were we could discuss the issues and propose solutions. Ryan wishes to have a collegial decision from OSM board on this before coming back.

• Basic idea is that donating to sponsoring joomla tasks should be easy and fun. + sponsoring specific tasks or causes is key for motivating people to donate money. E.g. we wish that our money goes to productive development coding tasks, not to lawyers. Having to review and sign a contract before being able to donate money for Joomla development isn't fun and cost-effective.
• Community has already been informed for our decision to sponsor Andrew for development tasks, with positive feedbacks. So no issues there.
• Ryan understood well the idea, and wanted to discuss within OSM board, then come back to us, hopefully with account number and invoice to pay the money to OSM for development coding work on Joomla 1.6 by Andrew.
• We understand and appreciate highly Ryan's entrepreneur view and wish to have a collegial OSM board decision on this.

2010-04-30 As there is still no news from OSM, and Joomla 1.6 beta approaches, which makes it go away from Andrew into bugssquad, emailed Ryan to ask for progress been made for us to be able to pay.

2010-05-03 Touchbased with Andrew by Skype chat and informed him about delay still waiting on invoice and account number from OSM. Evaluated possibility to do it directly without OSM if OSM isn't able to issue an invoice and account number in time.

2010-05-11 Skype-pinged Ryan while he was online to ask if he got email of April 30th. No reply.

2010-05-14 Again Skype-pinged Ryan while he was online

2010-05-17 Still no reply, so Sent email to Ryan with CC to Dave and Andrew to ask for reply in time BEFORE beta to be able to help effectively 1.6 before it goes into bugsquad.
2010-05-17 Skype-informed Ryan of email sent. No reply.

2010-05-17 Great news: Joomla 1.6 beta 1 has now been released and moved from Development into Joomla Bugs Squad, which is getting pretty active by itself.

2010-05-17 Still no reply to email or skype pings to Ryan, re-pinged Ryan. The purpose of our work-sponsoring decision is now void unfortunately. OSM has not been able to provide a simple invoice and account number to be able to pay in around 3 months!
2010-05-17 Finalyl got answer from Ryan, only reviewing and signing that contract is for now possible way to pay OSM. But as it costs over 1000$ legal costs to do that, it just doesn't make sense. We agreed to meet soon to discuss how to improve many things.