Re: [Caml-list] Whither the Caml Consortium?

[Xavier Leroy <xavier.leroy@inria.fr>]

> What about a reasonably priced individual membership?  Something in the
> range of 50-100 dollars or euros might be reasonable.  I'm certainly not
> willing to personally cough up 2000 euros.

This issue was discussed on this list a while ago.  To summarize:

The current setup of the Consortium is definitely geared towards
corporate members, not individuals.  Raising money to fund future
developments is one goal of the Consortium, but an equally important
goal is to answer the age-old question "what other corporations are
using it?" that we get from prospective industrial users.  The best
answer to this question is: "well, here are some high-tech companies
that no only use it, but support it financially by being members of
the consortium".  (An even better answer would be: "And by the way,
your main competitor is already a member"; instant adhesion guaranteed :-)

There are other reasons for not soliciting individual memberships.
One is that OCaml users, as individuals, already do a great job of
supporting the language, via code contributions, feedback, advocacy,
volunteer's work (e.g. the collective translation of the OCaml book),
etc.  I'd feel a bit guilty asking them for money on top of that...

The second reason is less idealistic: given the legal structure of the
Consortium, registering a new member requires some paperwork on
INRIA's side, whose effective cost is likely to be in the $50-100
range...

- Xavier Leroy
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