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- David Luchuk offered a brief outline of some possible uses for added revenue including the acceleration of key deliverables, hiring of strategic resources and issuance of value-added contracts to support the Foundation's work.
- Jim St.Clairasked whether Trust over IP has a comprehensive list of needs and possible activities it would aim to support with additional funds adding that it will be easier to start with a complete sense of exactly what the Steering Committee wants and then seek a budget to fit.
- John Jordan indicated that the Foundation will benefit from more time and effort committed from the Program Manager on community engagement and outreach to new and prospective members. Other Linun Linux Foundation projects, for example, feature a "Director of Ecosystem" role in addition to Program Manager.
- Drummond Reedagreed that more effort dedicated to outreach would ultimately lead to more paid memberships and a more diverse community.
- Jim St.Clairasked whether Linux Foundation places constraints on the manner in which Trust over IP choses to spend its budget.
- David Luchukexplained that it is not a question of constraints being imposed. Rather, Linux Foundation aims to ensure they fully understand what projects like Trust over IP are trying to achieve so that the maximum benefit can be generated from resources and services Linux Foundation has to offer its projects.
- Will Groahreminded the group that in prior discussions, Steering members had envisioned an order-of-magnitude change in the budget for Trust over IP. He asked whether there was clarity on how much revenue was generated, and how program operations were managed, at other Linux projects.
- David Luchuk committed to follow up on this question with Linux Foundation and JDF.
- Karl Kneisindicated that Trust over IP needs to point to progress and deliverables in its marketing and communications. We need to challenge ourselves to produce artifacts that show progress to educate the market on what we are doing. Trust over IP needs to be seen for being more impactful and influential.
Options - open discussion
- David Luchukshifted the discussion to potential options for increasing revenue by highlighting possible changes to membership fee structures, potential to pursue a membership drive, opportunity to seek targeted funding through crowdsourcing and fee-for-service approaches such as external certification.
- Jim St.Clair observed that these options are mutually supportive and all ultimately tie back to demand in the market for Trust over IP expertise and products.
- Drummond Reed asked about the role Linux Foundation plays in determining how Trust over IP spends its operating budget.
- Darrell O'Donnell added that our Foundations needs to better understand what we have access to from Linux directly.
- David Luchuk reiterated that Linux Foundation aims to fully understand what Trust over IP aims to achieve with its budget so that the community benefits as much as possible from services it offers to projects.
- Will Groahraised the possibility of generating revenues by seeking sponsors for media content, such as webinars and podcasts.
Conclusions and Next Steps
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