Support Update, v.4

On January 5, we had another meeting to evaluate requests for support by this program. It was a very interesting meeting because we looked at and decided to support ideas that spanned from individuals to bigger programs and institutions.

Specifically, we decided to upgrade the hardware for two long time contributors to Firefox. We also are going to sponsor some travel for contributors who need assistance to attend the 2007 FOSDEM conference. Finally, we decided to support the Open Source Lab at Oregon State. Over the next few weeks, we’ll finalize a grant to the OSL for ongoing operations.

This meeting was instrumental because it helped expand the vision for this program. By supporting individuals, we are helping those volunteers who are contributing directly to the Mozilla project. However, with larger grants like the one to OSL, we are finding ways to support ideas and institutions that represent the next layer of community outside of individual contributors. Later this month, I will be giving a 6 month review and description of the vision going forward for this program. Part of that discussion will focus on how we specifically support the layers of individuals, projects, and initiatives that all make up some part of our community.