Re: [Linux-aus] Grant Request: Thousand Parsec AI Competition Prizes...

[Tim Ansell <mithro@mithis.com>]

Sorry about taking so long to reply.

On Thu, 2007-02-01 at 23:48 +1100, James Purser wrote:
> Hi Tim,
> 
> I've had a read through your grant request, and just have a couple of
> questions to ask:
> 
> - Firstly, beyond helping to develop a core part of Thousand Parsecs,
> how would the granting of this application help the greater community?

Thousand Parsec is niche project within a niche area (Open Source
Gaming). There are still benefits to the greater community,
 - Promote the development of Open Source Gaming (you can find out why I
think this is important by looking at the Gaming Miniconf intro -
http://lester.mithis.com/~bittorrent/low-01-intro.ogg.torrent ). 
 - Help demonstrate alternative forms of getting things done and
building community. 
 - Enticing AI developers (such as academics) to use and get involved
with open source
 - More people to learn about AI/machine learning which is useful in
games and often other areas (specifically because of the type of
challenges faced in games like Thousand Parsec).

> - Is there another way that LA could help the project through
> non-monetary means?

Linking to the project is always good. Other then that, I can't think of
anything at the moment. 

Maybe in 6-9 months a developer get together would be good (however if
my plans go well we might have a few more developers making this a bit
expensive).

We are always after testers, coders, artists and such. I am not sure
however how LA could provide help in that regard (apart from the
Linking).

Mirroring the project page and or download files could also be an
option. (However we have plenty of bandwidth and mirror on SourceForge,
so it isn't a huge help.)

> - What other projects or activities could be done to help the Australian
> FOSS Gaming scene other than this competition?

Getting artists and developers together would be a good start. I tried
to do this at the Gaming Miniconf but just didn't have the time (as in
the 1 day we had was already packed).

A few more OSS Gaming related talks at the main LCA would also be
another good thing.

More reachout to the student courses who are training new game
developers, such as the courses at the Australian Academy of Interactive
Entertainment.

More contact with the commercial developers and trying to get them to
contribute back to the community rather then just taking.

> Just some random thoughts.

Some other food for thought,

Another possible impact of this grant succeeding is that it shows that
LA is able/willing to help smaller more niche projects (where the
support has bigger effect but is less visible).

I was just looking through the Grant tracker and it looks like the
latest update was done on 2006-04-28. Is there a new method for tracking
grants? This could be contributing to the fact that people are pensive
about putting in grant requests.

I found the following page in the wiki,
http://wiki.linux.org.au/Ctte/GrantsReport2006 it looks like that LA
concentrated mainly on education and community outreach. Maybe this is
what you want to focus on?


I would also like to clarify what I was/am after. The current prizes are
(from the page http://www.thousandparsec.net/tp/comp.php)
-----
There are two major prizes up for grabs, each major prize consists of 
      * $AUD 300 in cold hard cash.
      * "Artwork of Thousand Parsec" Wall Calender.
      * Signed Thousand Parsec T-Shirt.
      * Custom Thousand Parsec Mug.
There are also 2 minor prizes, each minor prize consists of 
      * "Artwork of Thousand Parsec" Wall Calender.
      * Signed Thousand Parsec T-Shirt.
      * Custom Thousand Parsec Mug.
-----
I would like LA to provide the following,
 2 x $AUD 300 to become part of the two major prizes (making the cold
hard cash $600).
 4 x Swag (such as Tshirts, books, CDs, etc) to any value that LA
wishes.

Total: $AUD 600 + cost of swag.

I'm open to other suggestions on how to breakdown the contribution if LA
wants to be more specific in their contribution. Maybe another category
could be added something along the lines of "Worthy new contributor to
FOSS".

Thousand Parsec runs on Windows, Mac OS X and most Unixes. Some Linux
specific stuff to convert the winners (who may be running Windows or Mac
OS X) to Linux might be good too?

Thanks for your interest.

Tim Ansell
PS What are other peoples thoughts? Is this the type of thing you want
LA funding?