Code Sprint Guidelines

A codesprint is an in-person gathering of developers for doing some serious coding, writing documentation, and having face-to-face project collaboration. (It is not aimed at training, presentations, workshops, etc.)

The OSGeo community has two annual "big" sprints (annual, multiproject, multiday events of more than 20 people): the Bolsena Sprint and the North American Sprint. A number of project-oriented sprints also occur, such as the one-day sprint associated with the FOSS4G conference, single-project sprints such as have been held for GRASS, QGIS and uDig, and very regional (chapter-level) sprints.

Codesprints are clearly within the scope of OSGeo's mission, and so the Foundation should in general support them.  This page provides some guidelines for deciding whether a given sprint should be supported, and if so in what fashion.

Sprint Info Required

A proposal for supporting a sprint by OSGeo should include the following information about the event and the funding model for it:

Basic Information

• Audience: how many people are expected?
• Region: is the sprint localized to a specific region?
• Projects: is the sprint to work on just one specific project, or is it for multiple projects?
• Length: how many days will the sprint cover?
• Venue: where will the sprint be held?  will food be provided?  will overnight lodging be provided?

Expected Expenses

• what is the expected cost per attendee, for travel, lodging, and food?
  

• what is the expected cost for the venue (such as conference room, wifi support, snacks, etc)?
  

Expected Revenues

• what is the expected registration fee, if any, for each attendee?
  
• what is the expected amount of third-party sponsorships?
  
• what in-kind donations are expected (such as donated use of a conference room)?
  
• what is the desired amount of OSGeo sponsorship?
  

Profit / Loss / Risk

• What is the expected profit of the event, if any? where will any surplus money go?
• Under what circumstances might the event incur a loss? how will this risk be mitigated?

OSGeo Sponsorship Criteria

When deciding to support a sprint, OSGeo should follow these guidelines:

• OSGeo should not be the sole source of funding for the event.  OSGeo prefers sprints to be at least partially funded by third-party sponsors, and may choose to provide funding "matching" the amount of sponsorship money raised.
• OSGeo understands that some events may require up-front costs, e.g. for deposits, and some events may present a financial risk, e.g. if the number of attendees is not met.  Instead of direct funding, OSGeo may provide "back-stop" funding and assume the liability risk.
• OSGeo prefers code sprints that are aimed at the larger community.  That is, sprints that are multiproject and not local to a (small) geographic region are more likely to be funded.
  

As a very rough guideline, OSGeo will provide financial support proportional to the "size" of the event, as measured by(the number of projects) times (the number attendees) times (the number of days).