[FFmpeg-devel] Sovereign Tech Fund

[Michael Niedermayer]

Hi Kieran

Iam adding Jonatas to the CC, as he suggested the SoW framework for everything.
Maybe he can clarify it.

more reply from me at the end

On Sun, Jan 28, 2024 at 03:54:20PM +0000, Kieran Kunhya wrote:
> On Sun, 28 Jan 2024 at 03:26, Michael Niedermayer <michael at niedermayer.cc>
> wrote:
> 
> > Hi all
> >
> > We are offered to apply for a sponsorship of FFmpeg by the Sovereign Tech
> > Fund (STF).
> >
> > Please read the following to get a better understanding what STF is about:
> > (In short it is about maintenance and sustainability, not features)
> > https://www.sovereigntechfund.de/programs/applications
> >
> > As some probably already know, Thilo has worked with STF to work out
> > many details of this. SPI will handle the financials for FFmpeg.
> > Everyone willing to benefit from this sponsorship must not be a US
> > sanctioned
> > entity or in a US sanctioned country. And must sign a contractor agreement
> > and simplified SoW with SPI.
> > "A SOW purpose is to protect the contracted from doing a
> > work and not getting paid, and to protect the contractor from paying for a
> > work which wasn't wanted"
> >
> > At this point, what we need is a list of Projects so we can submit an
> > application to STF
> > at or before 12th Feb. (at the 14th they have a meeting and will review
> > our submission)
> > What STF told us, they need ATM is:
> >
> > - A scope of work for the project to defined before hand for the upcoming
> > review and eventually a contract. It doesn’t have to be tied to specific
> > people.
> > - The contract STF will sign with SPI will be a service agreement based on
> > that SOW and milestones. Payment of invoices will be contingent and after
> > delivery (aka performance) of agreed upon milestones.
> >
> > My suggestion is that we create a Trac WIKI page similar to the ideas
> > page for GSoC.
> 
> 
> " To receive funding from the Sovereign Tech Fund, technologies must be
> under-supplied or threatened by other circumstances, acute or long-term,
> such as market consolidation or severe dependencies. The lack of support
> and resources or technical alternatives places the technologies in a
> vulnerable state that threatens the existence and sustainability of the
> project."
> 
> I read that as STF is there to support maintenance of open source projects,
> not just another GSoC wishlist.
> 

> So work like Anton's threading, YUVJ removal etc, that couldn't be funded
> via bounties as they have no direct commercial value but require expertise
> in the codebase.

Yes, thats also how i understand it.
Also ongoing maintenance or various things, infrastructure work and so
on possibly.
Maybe a case would also be our fuzzer coverage is broken since forever
as googles constraints on disk and timeout dont allow it. This is
something that would require a dedicated effort to investigate possible
solutions.


> Statements of Work and milestones (by definition) are for features.

The SoW suggestion/need came from a lawyer that jonatas asked IIUC.
so i can just suggest to put work like what you list above into a SOW like
framework. Or maybe Jonatas can clarify, in case i misunderstood

thx

[...]
-- 
Michael     GnuPG fingerprint: 9FF2128B147EF6730BADF133611EC787040B0FAB

Nations do behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives. 
-- Abba Eban
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