[Showme-devel] Sponsoring the ShowMeBox

[Bernelle Verster]

Hi all

I brought up a discussion with Jonas, relating to the general question
"Some companies who make hardware may sponsor DC16, will we approach
them?"

The approach could be in two ways:
a) invite them to sponsor hardware
b) invite them to join show-me-dev just like the rest of us.

The immediate concern was the risk that sponsors would try to steer
our work, or that it becomes a hardware showcase, where sponsors try
to promote their own boxes.

We felt that this project is not a hardware showcase. It is a showcase
of Debian, which means it is thoroughly tested software on hardware
that we know.

On the other hand, in Kris's competition people weren't forced to use
any particular box or software, but there was only support for Beaker.
But making it open to any computer may make it easy to 'steal fame'
from the students by throwing bigger or more polished setups. The
prizes would then be split between the ShowMeBox, and other machines.
This is of course manageable by us, but it becomes really hard to
prove that other computers were not used and I feel this will
ultimately disadvantage the students.

So the conclusion that I/we came to and wanted your input from, is
that we do not allow any hardware sponsorship from sponsors, but that
they are of course welcome to join the project like the rest of us,
and the ShowMeBox competition will only be for ShowMeBoxes.

If there is money or prizes, then the sponsors providing them could
probably set the conditions for prizes (best visuals, best code ...
whatever ...), and hopefully these would end up being quite diverse.

Another thought I'm still grappling with is how to build collaboration
and mentorship between student entrants and the wider Debian
community. I don't want these entrants to disappear afterwards! I am
wondering if the wider community will be interested in this
competition if they can't use fancier machines? But then again, they
may be keen because the constraints of this tiny computer may
challenge them.

Then this raises more questions:
* Will they be able to buy the ShowMeBox for themselves?
* and if so, could they subsidise the students' boxes? In other words,
we make e.g. 200% 'profit' on their Box that we then use to buy Boxes
for students?

Please let me have your thoughts
B