On Thu, 27 Mar 2008, Keaton Adams wrote:
> I have been working with PG / Open Source projects for only a year and
> need some direction on how to propose having this development effort
> undertaken by the PG development group.
Don't everybody answer at once.
The "PostgreSQL Global Development Group" (or PGDG for short) is a legal
entity with group of organizers. They tell you outright at
http://www.postgresql.org/developer/ : "We don't hire programmers, we
reach across the Internet, drawing the best database developers in the
world to PostgreSQL". While it's great to donate money to them via
http://www.postgresql.org/about/donate that fund is earmarked for
"advocacy materials, conference expenses, legal expenses, and travel
costs"; note the lack of the work "development" on that list.
> This is probably better answered by the PostgreSQL developer team
The people actually developing new features in PostgreSQL aren't all on a
single "team" as you're used to in traditional software companies, they're
a community: lots of people with similar goals who happen to be working
on the same project, each with their own agenda and source(s) of funding
and motivation. There is a "core team" of 7 people:
http://www.postgresql.org/community/contributors/ but since they're all
too busy to write your feature their existence doesn't really help you.
Bruce addresses part of what you're asking about at
http://momjian.us/main/writings/pgsql/company_contributions/ which has
some more good comments on the whole community aspect to things, I'd
recommend that since you say you're still new to how open source projects
work. But that article is more aimed at companies offering bodies to work
on the code rather than ones with dollars to spend.
The exact mechanics of how to effectively sponsor work on a feature you'd
like to have is somewhat off-topic for this list. Discussion here is
aimed at hashing out technical issues, not business ones. And it's kind
of a touchy subject to bring up as well, since it's hard to make
recommendations without looking unprofessional--which partly explains the
dead silence you've gotten as a response here so far.
--
* Greg Smith gsmith@gregsmith.com http://www.gregsmith.com Baltimore, MD