[R] R Founding

[Duncan Murdoch]

  On 16/09/2010 6:49 AM, jaropis wrote:
> A few days ago Tal Galili posted a message about some controversies
> concerning the future of R. Having read the discussions, especially those
> following Ross Ihaka's post, I have come to the conclusion, that, as usual,
> the problem is money. I doubt there would be discussions about dropping R in
> its present form if the R-Foundation were properly funded and could hire
> computer scientists, programmers and statisticians. If a commercial company
> is able to provide big-database and multicore solutions, then so would a
> properly founded R-Foundation.
>
> In my opinion the main reason for the lack of funding is that the Foundation
> does not want to accept it from users and waits for the likes of Google to
> bring them a sack of money. I have already posted about this, but this seems
> to be the time and place to repeat it: it is very difficult to donate
> anything to the R-Foundation. First you have to find the appropriate link at
> the r-project page, then you have to fill out a form and send or fax it to
> the Foundation. I am not comfortable sending my details over snail-mail or
> fax.
>
> I would GLADLY donate 30-50$ each year just to see R develop, but there
> needs to be a way for me to do it in a civilized manner. If the userbase of
> R is over 2 million there will surely be 100,000 users who, like myself,
> will happily fork out 40$ a year - would that help? you can do the
> calculation yourselves. Set up a donation page in which I will be able to
> pay by credit card or PayPal and you will start getting donations from
> individual users. Advertise this at the startup message of the program: say
> something like "support us at www.suppoRtR.com" and the money will start
> coming. I am sure there would be enough to employ some foundation members
> full-time, pay external CSs and even protect the system in court from those
> who make money off of somebody else's work and do not give back to the
> community (you know who I am talking about).
>
> R and the Foundation have helped a lot of us to do our research and make
> real money. Now give us a chance to help you!
>

Sure, I'd love to have $4M, but writing this to the R-help list isn't 
going to bring it in.  You should convince the executive of the R 
Foundation.  The co-Presidents are Ross Ihaka and Robert Gentleman.

Duncan Murdoch