[JDEV] Jabber Grant Program

[Michael Bauer]

Jabber.com, Inc. has established the Jabber Grant Program to sponsor select
project work in key areas of open source development.  The purpose of the
Grant program is to sponsor development (either code, documentation, or
website development) that will be shared by the entire Jabber community for
the benefit the entire community.  The Grants would target development in
less glamourous areas (like updating whitepapers) or in more experimental
areas (like integrating whiteboards).  The overall intention of the program
is to increase the number of projects and developers using Jabber.

This program is modeled in some respects on the recent SourceXchange project
bidding system.  While that system was a classic request for proposal
system, the Jabber Grant Program will field proposals for development from
the Jabber community as well as publish specific requests for proposal to
the Jabber community.  The size of the sponsorships will be fairly modest,
although no proposal will go unconsidered.  

There are a number of proposals we have already considered, specifically
updates to documentation and integration with a blogging service.  We're
also very interested in integration with different development environments
and programming languages.  A number of great ideas are being generated in
recent discussions and posts.  We'd be very interested in any sponsored
project ideas you may have.  Jabber.com will be generating some more
specific requests for proposal shortly.  

It's important to note a couple of things.  First, this Program is not open
to any Jabber.com employees or Jabber.org developers sponsored by
Jabber.com.  In addition, Jabber.com reserves the right to change or cancel
this program at any time without notice.  All that being said, if you have
any questions or want to submit your suggestions, please send email or a
Jabber message to bauer at jabber.com.  For a suggestion, please include your
contact information, a description of the project, a summary of the benefits
of the project to the community, and a rough estimate of the project cost.
Thanks!