<div>Good email Jerry,</div><div><br></div>By default, I think <span style>Multi<font color="#222222" face="arial, sans-serif">-Phase, graduated funding would be my preferred best choice.</font></span><div><span style>I also like Cole's idea of a competition-based funding option.</span></div>
<div><span style><br></span></div><div><span style>In my view, Multi-Phase could also provide for </span><span style>Continuing Funding, in that we could say "You've made progress, and the project is showing promise, but not yet enough to warrant increased funding. Here's another allocation of</span><span style> $X for this cycle</span><span style>". If a breakthrough occurs in a subsequent cycle, we could increase funding.</span><div>
<span style><br></span></div><div><span style>I like Cole's idea about friendly, GGHC-style competitions with specific goals. < $US1K might be a reasonable call, although possibly some competition-style projects might be OK with larger budgets, especially if expensive parts are involved. Maybe for larger-budget projects, we'd need to limit the number of accepted entries.</span></div>
<div><span style><br></span></div><div><span style>I wonder if there might be a way to use the competition idea for more broad community outreach past hacker/ maker spaces: for example, possibly open to schools (tertiary and possibly secondary). This could improve visibility of the HSP beyond our existing community, encourage young people to get involved, and encourage them to join a hacker/ maker space and continue with other projects. Down the track, it might be worth talking with Dale Doherty about whether we could have HSP do that in conjunction with Make's school program.</span></div>
<div><span style><br></span></div><div><span style>I wonder if, for any funding (including competitions), whether it might be </span><span style>useful</span><span style> and </span><span style>administratively easy enough to stage the funding, perhaps splitting it in two:</span></div>
<div><span style> - you submit a proposal. </span></div><div><span style> - if it gets accepted, you get X% of $X to get started</span></div><div><span style> - if you meet the first milestone/ deliverable, you get the balance of $X.</span></div>
<div><span style><br></span></div><div><span style>My intent here is to, on the one hand, provide some funds for people to get started and explore interesting ideas</span><span style>; on the other, not pour funds into project teams who can't execute: </span><span style>instead channel the funds to </span><span style>support those who can get things done.</span></div>
<div><span style><br></span></div><div><span style>This would help to save us channelling too much money into dead-end efforts.</span><span style> If I recall, for the GGHC we only had around 6 or 7 of the 30 original teams drop out completely. A few others never got their project completed within the deadline. It's really that first category that I'm suggesting having a control point for.</span></div>
<div><span style><br></span></div><div><span style>For example, with a staged funding split of say 33%/66%, e14 (GGHC) </span><span style>might have saved around $3.6K (6 x $600) - in this case, roughly 13% of the original </span><span style>$27K </span><span style>budget </span><span style>spent outright ($900 x 30)</span><span style>. Alternatively, this might allow a greater "funnel": more teams can be accepted and be involved, but only those showing good progress get fully funded.</span></div>
<div><span style><br></span></div><div><span style>The downside would be the additional administrative overhead, potential delays in transferring funds, and - if not managed well - the potential to have that scuttle a short, time-boxed competition.</span></div>
<div><br></div><div><br clear="all">Paul<br><br></div><div>Paul Szymkowiak</div><div><a href="http://hackmelbourne.org">http://hackmelbourne.org</a> <br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 14 April 2012 04:16, cole santos <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:cksantos85@gmail.com">cksantos85@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">For me I see educational tools as the easiest barrier to entry.<br>
Projects could be on the order of 100 to 1000. For this I would like<br>
to build a data acquisition unit for model rocket acceleration, gps,<br>
fin control, etc. Parts for this project are about 400 on sparkfun.<br>
This could be done GGHC style best, up front funds with non monetary<br>
prizes that are donated for judge selected winners.. We could do this<br>
level for a long time before we ever go bigger. And big projects more<br>
than 1000 should have match funding.<br>
<div><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On Fri, Apr 13, 2012 at 4:55 AM, Jerry Isdale <<a href="mailto:isdale@gmail.com">isdale@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> The Hackerspace Space Program (HSP) is still in its early formative stages.<br>
> Contract negotiations with our funding agency DARPA (USGovt<br>
> <a href="http://darpa.mil" target="_blank">http://darpa.mil</a>) are barely getting started and related experience<br>
> indicates it could be 6mo to a year before we begin to see any money.<br>
><br>
> Meanwhile, I'd like to start some discussion about the functions of HSP.<br>
> The primary function is to provide small grants for research and education<br>
> projects related to the enhancement of humanity’s survivability. The<br>
> proposal budget calls for $30,000US worth of grants to be funded every 3<br>
> months.<br>
><br>
> What style of grants should we be considering?<br>
><br>
> One-Shot Grant -- great ideas get $X once, and thats it for that<br>
> person/group. Not so great as it doesnt reward innovation and success. It<br>
> might actually encourage people to submit ideas just to get some $ and not<br>
> do the work.<br>
><br>
> Continuing Funding - some great idea (Unubtainium Production Reactor) gets<br>
> funded $X every cycle as long as it continues to show progress. Some<br>
> measure of verified progress is required.<br>
><br>
> Multi-Phase, graduated funding: Projects go through a series of phases with<br>
> increasing funding. This is similar to the USGovt Small Business Innovative<br>
> Research (SBIR) program (<a href="http://www.sbir.gov/about/about-sbir" target="_blank">http://www.sbir.gov/about/about-sbir</a>). Phase 1<br>
> gives a small amount (say $1000US) to help develop an idea and support<br>
> production of a proposal for Phase 2, perhaps with some design<br>
> docs/prototype/simulation. Phase 2 gets a bigger chunk ($5-10,000) and a<br>
> bit more time perhaps to develop and produce a prototype.<br>
><br>
> Grants would probably be in the range of $1000-10,000 so we can support a<br>
> number of innovative programs. We would not expect our funds to be the sole<br>
> source of income for the researcher/educator/developer, nor the sole funding<br>
> for the project. We seek to offset the costs of development, not pay for it<br>
> entirely.<br>
><br>
> What types of projects would be of interest?<br>
> There is a LOT of latitude in the " related to the enhancement of humanity’s<br>
> survivability" statement.<br>
> It could be some educational and outreach programs to teach about Space or<br>
> Limits of Growth or Growing Food or Peaceful Coexistance. It could be<br>
> development of a novel rocket engine, or micro-sat.<br>
><br>
> Given that we are a year (roughly) away from any Requests for Proposals, I<br>
> dont want people to get over excited and start submitting proposals. But I<br>
> would like to hear what people think might be worthy of supporting, and how.<br>
><br>
> Thanks<br>
><br>
> Jerry Isdale<br>
> <a href="http://MauiMakers.com" target="_blank">http://MauiMakers.com</a><br>
> Hackerspace Space Program<br>
><br>
><br>
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</blockquote></div><br></div></div>