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fwd: [yas] YOU can Support Damian Conway in 2001
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------- start of forwarded message -------
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2000 10:24:31 -0400
To: yas-talk@yetanother.org
From: kevin lenzo <lenzo@cs.cmu.edu>
Subject: [yas] YOU can Support Damian Conway in 2001
Message-ID: <39E4781F.16ACF627@cs.cmu.edu>
Hello All,
YAS has an opportunity to support Damian Conway for a year to
work on ... just Perl. To do this, we will need to "buy out"
his obligations at Monash, and also raise some travel and
expense money. This is one of the best investments we can make
in the Perl community, in my opinion.
Damian has agreed to speak for some of the major sponsors
wherever possible, and to groups of Perl users wherever
he goes.
YAS should be receiving word of the non-profit status shortly.
If this comes through (and it is expected to), all donations
will be tax deductible in the US.
We will be arranging for a web page to accept donations
shortly; if you or your employer would like to make matching
donations, or would like to contribute a chunk, we will
be listing all the contributors as sponsors of Damian in
public places (unless you want to be anonymous).
Please email me directly if you have any questions. I
will personally in China for ten days starting Friday,
but I will attempt to get email access while there, and you
can also contact Kurt DeMaagd (kurt@thepope.org), who
will ultimately be accepting and redistributing the
finances. as YAS money guy.
More information will appear at
http://www.yetanother.org/damian/
Included below are quotes from some emails on the topic.
Yours,
kevin
>From Damian:
> My goal is to secure a grant to let me move to a Research Fellowship at
> Monash in 2001. Then take my Monash sabbatical year in 2002 and spend some
> of it in the States somewhere. Then by 2003, either secure another grant
> or move to being self-funding via writing, speaking, and training. The
> goal is to be based in rural Australia, with 3-5 trips to the U.S. per
> year for conferences, training, and other speaking engagements.
>
> My hope is that I could be doing all that in such a way that my time is
> entirely devoted to the betterment of the Perl community, in terms of
> new module development, language design, new journal articles and books,
> private and public training, conference organization and speaking, and
> other public appearances.
Another from Damian:
>
>
> What would I do?
>
> * Continue to work on helping develop Perl 6.
>
> * Present papers, invited talks, and tutorials at
> various Perl (and related) conferences around the
> world -- at very least YAPC::America, YAPC::Oz, TPC,
> Bang!Linux. And possibly YAPC::Europe assuming I can
> find extra funding.
>
> * Visit the US several times. Give talks to PM groups
> wherever I travel.
>
> * Maintain, extend, and offer support for my existing
> modules: Parse::RecDescent, Text::Autoformat,
> Class::Contract, Quantum::Superpositions,
> Text::Balanced, Lingua::EN::Inflect, Tie::SecureHash,
> Class::Multimethods.
>
> * Develop new and exciting modules: Class::Proxy,
> Regexp::Common, Parse::Slotted, Sub::Literate,
> Mail::TRUCE, Lingua::Tlhingan::ghun, etc.
>
> * Write at least three articles for The Perl Journal.
>
> * Guest edit a special OO issue of TPJ
> (if Jon is still interested).
>
> * Begin work on my new two volume book: "Perl Masterclass".
>
> * Remain active in the Perl newsgroups.
>
> * Be creative. :-)
>
>
> What would it cost?
>
> The cost would be A$95,492, which at the current
> exchange rates is approximately US$55,000.
>
>
> How would it be structured?
>
> Preferrably as a special grant to Monash University. My
> salary and costs would then be paid out of that grant
> (with infrastructure and equipment covered by Monash),
> through the university's normal mechanisms.
>
> Taking the funding as a grant allows Monash to keep it
> as low as indicated above (since they get parity funding
> on all external grants from the government). I would
> assume that there might also be tax benefits to the
> donor in endowing an educational grant.
>
>
> When would it need to be in place?
>
> Our teaching schedule for 2001 is finalized in early
> October. My Head of School is very keen to know by then
> what I am doing in 2001.
>
Yet Another:
>
> I was thinking about this last night and I realized what I would really
> like to work on is something that feeds into this, but is far more generally
> useful...a module named Parse::Perl.
>
> The idea would be to reimplement Parse::RecDescent to dramatically
> improve it's performance (the long promised version 2.0) and then use that
> to develop a complete grammar-based parser for Perl source code.
>
> The Parse::Perl module would provide hooks to allow users to plug in
> their own actions at any level of the grammar, making it vastly easier
> to write:
>
> * pretty printers
>
> * syntax colourers
>
> * source filters
>
> * documents with embedded Perl
>
> * p52p6
>
> Of course, the new version of RecDescent and the consequent Parse::Perl
> module would be "Pure Perl"(tm), as are all my modules, so they would run
> equally well anywhere.
>
> The Parse::Perl module might also be useful for prototyping the Perl 6
> grammar (i.e. p62p5).
And finally:
>
> You already have me at your complete disposal for YAPC::America and I'm
> putting in place a policy of talking to interested Mongers groups in
> *every* city I visit. For example, during the U.Perl tour next month I'm
> giving public seminars in Seattle, Chicago, and NYC (LA and Atlanta miss
> out only because of the awful travel and time constraints of this
> frenetic trip).
>
> Assuming I'm Perl-funded in 2001, I would plan:
>
> * a 3-5 week trip to India (where I've been invited to be the
> guest Perl guru at Bang!Linux in Bangalore) in early March,
>
> * a 3-4 week trip to the U.S. in April/May,
>
> * a much longer trip to the U.S. between YAPC::America and TPC
>
> * a 3-4 week trip in September/October including
> YAPC::Europe and the U.S.
>
> Subject to finding the funding to travel, I would naturally be available
> *everywhere* I was, to give free talks on the usual range of mind-boggling
> ideas. And, of course, I'd be amenable to planning the trips so that I
> was able to give talks in locations convenient to major contributers.
>
>
>
> > Can you tell me what the figures are again? The basic
> > cost is $55K US,
>
> The basic cost was AUS$95,492, which was around $US55K last month and is
> closer to US$50K this month. The AUS$ is artificially low (US$0.54) at
> present, due to market concerns about the Euro, and is more than likely
> to rebound (back to around US$0.60) once the market realizes what a
> bargain it is -- after the Olympics, I suspect. That would make the
> basic buyout figure rebound to US$55K. So I suspect that's what we
> should keep quoting.
>
>
> > and then there was other money.
>
> US$55K keeps my family fed and clothed, and frees me from local work
> to devote myself entirely to "Perl stuff". But as it only covers my
> salary; it doesn't fly me over to the U.S., or around the U.S., or
> accommodate me whilst I'm there.
>
> O'Reilly are bringing me over for the YAPC-to-TPC trip, and *might*
> cover the EuroYAPC/September trip if the U.Perl runs again next year.
> The India trip would be covered by Bang!Linux, but that still leaves
> either one or two transPacific return airfares, plus internal flights,
> plus accommodation. *Some* of that I would cover myself, if I could
> arrange to give some paying courses whilst I'm there, but it still
> leaves a hole of around US$15,000-$20,000 if you want me speaking in
> the States more often.
>
> Clearly, that extra funding is not critical to the success of the year
> in terms of output, but it *might* be in terms of profile and perceived
> direct return to the Perl community. I would like nothing better than
> to speak in a dozen or more U.S. cities next year, but I have to *get
> there* to do that.
>
> (Incidentally, this issue of travel funding is probably the main reason
> I'm not at YAPC::Europe this week).
>
>
> > We've only been talking about the $55K so far, but I don't doubt we
> > can make something happen through YAS.
>
> That would be brilliant.
>
> Once again, thanks for going in to bat for me so strongly, Kevin.
> I really was getting concerned that I'd have to drop out of most
> of my Perlish activities next year, but you've given me hope that
> instead, I may actually be able to increase them!
>
>
> Damian
>
------- end of forwarded message -------
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