Poll Results: 48 hours later

The first set of poll results is from eSword@YahooGroups.

What should be done with e-Sword-users.org, and the domains it owns?

Abandon the site;	1	1%
Run it as a one person owned and operated website;	19	36%
Incorporate;	14	26%
Find an organization to adopt it;	11	21%
Something else;	7	13%

The second set of poll results is from e-Sword-users.org.  These results are from roughly 12 hours after the poll was created.

Which of the following should happen to e-Sword-Users.org?

• Abandon the Website                                                         17% (1 vote)
• Run it as a one person owned and operated website          0% (0 votes)
• Incorporate as a for-profit organization                           17% (1 vote)
• Incorporate as a non-profit organization                          50% (3 votes)
• Find an organization to adopt it                                        17% (1 vote)
• Something else                                                                     0% (0 votes)

Total votes: 6

 

Several people reported that they were unable to cast votes in the poll at e-Sword-users.org.

Wanted: Volunteer accountant and Volunteer Drupal programmer.

This afternoon, I paid for web hosting for e-Sword-users.org for one month. The current hosting expires 13 April 2011. The website is back up.

The following positions need to be filled immediately:

#1: Website Designer:
One volunteer to create and maintain e-Sword-users.org:

• Must know Drupal;
• Web portfolio must be available;

This is a volunteer position.

• Roughly 90 days to complete the site reconstruction; (This should cover all unforeseen delays.)
• Ongoing maintenance will be needed;

Subcomponents:

• Webforum;
• Text Blogs;
• Video Blogs;
• Binary file distribution;
• Sitewide RSS Feed;
• Multilingual;

The current site layout and design was a draft.  The expectation was that it would be reconstructed, after a better idea of what users wanted, and expected was obtained.  That reconstruction has not yet taken place. The primary task for this position will be to do that site reconstruction.

#2: Accountant

One volunteer to:

• Setup a budget for e-Sword-users.org;
• Make weekly reports about income and outgo for the week;
• Make monthly reports about projected income and outgo for the month;
• Locate suitable affiliate programs, and ensure that links to those programs are in place, and correctly linked;
• Determine what the expenses and income for this site for the last two and a half years has been. Ideally, a forensic audit of all financial data would be done;

If a legal corporation for e-Sword-users.org is created, both of these positions 

would automatically fall under the auspices of that organization.

If there are no suitable candidates for both of these positions by 9 April, then the website and project will be shut down on 13 April, and not be resurrected.

Poll Results: 24 hours later: What should be done with e-Sword-users.org, and the domains it owns?

After 24 hours, the poll results are:

Abandon the site;	0	0%
Run it as a one person owned and operated website;	13	41%
Incorporate;	9	29%
Find an organization to adopt it;	6	19%
Something else;	3	9%

15,000,000 Downloads

In the middle of last week, the regular mailing of eStudySource News contained a note that 15 million downloads of e-Sword have occurred.

In March 2010, it was announced that there had been twelve million downloads of e-Sword.

That comes to three million downloads per year. 

By way of comparison, there have been 39 million downloads of Firefox 4.0 since 22 March.

What should be done with e-Sword-users.org, and the domains it owns?

I created a poll:
What should be done with e-Sword-users.org, and the domains it owns? on the eSword support list poll area at yahoogroups.

Options are:

• Abandon the site;
• Run it as a one person owned and operated website;
• Incorporate;
• Find an organization to adopt it;
• Something else;

You can change your vote until the moderator closes this poll.

Abandon the site means exactly that.  All resources and other content on the site will be lost.

Run it as a one person owned and operated website, means that a single individual will run it, paying the bills, updating the software, adding content, as they have the time and money to do so;

Incorporate means incorporating an organization run by the users, for the users, that operates the website and other projects related to the "current" e-Sword-users.org. This organization could be modelled on The Crosswire Bible Society, or The Document Foundation, or something else.

Find an organization to adopt it, means looking for an organization that is willing to pay the bills, provide manpower, and everything else that is required to keep the website, and its projects up and running;

Something else, means just that.  Another option that has not been listed. There might, indeed probably are other options that I haven't yet thought of.

Proposal: A Foundation for e-Sword users

After pondering the issue for the last several months, I have concluded that the users of e-Sword would be best served by a formal foundation.  An organization that was formally incorporated, and could transfer functions from one individual to another, with a minimum amount of interruption to the users.

_The Sword Project_ is one potential model for the proposed foundation.
_The Document Foundation_ is a second potential model for the proposed foundation.

To discuss this issue with other individuals, I created a list esu_foundation@yahoogroups.com, or http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/esu_foundation/

I would greatly welcome, and appreciate hearing the thoughts and proposals of other people, on the list: esu_foundation@yahoogroups.com.

EULA / Bible Study Software

Bob Pritchett made an interesting comment in the thread at 
http://community.logos.com/forums/p/27872/206312.aspx. Specifically, «We design our software around a "purchase once, use anywhere" model—for the original purchaser.»

That attitude does soften the financial pain of purchasing resources for Libronix. 

The caveat is that the hardcopy publishers that license their content for Libronix may not agree with his interpretation.