<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV><DIV>On May 27, 2007, at 12:01 AM, The Golden Condor ! wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Monaco" size="2" style="font: 10.0px Monaco">Using an existing ads provider is much easier</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Monaco" size="2" style="font: 10.0px Monaco">than trying to manage ads internally. Of course, it doesn't have to be</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Monaco" size="2" style="font: 10.0px Monaco">Google. There are several alternatives. It all boils down to who can</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Monaco" size="2" style="font: 10.0px Monaco">provide the highest CPC (cost per click) and the highest revenue</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Monaco" size="2" style="font: 10.0px Monaco">share.</FONT></P> </BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR><DIV>I could not disagree more. Drupal.org has much more in its mission than raking in big bucks. I would hope that any decision would result in the strengthening of the community, not cashing in. This is a free open source community, not a commercial website venture. I strongly feel that simply going after the highest CPC (or CPM, which is becoming much more common because CPC is far too vulnerable to click fraud and advertising is not always about click-throughs) could end up undermining the community. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>A rough analogy: We live in Boulder, on the edge of mountains. Everybody loves looking at the mountains. Think of all those eyeballs. Should Boulder sell billboard space on the mountainsides to cash in on all that attention? It sure would bring in a lot of cash. But does that make Boulder a better place, in the end? It's a rough analogy, to be sure, and related more directly with aesthetic beauty than we're talking here at d.o, but I hope it illustrates in a way how commercial exploitation of the Drupal commons runs the risk of diminishing the value of the commons.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>I hope that any advertising program would somehow reinforce the Drupal community. Perhaps make the advertising opportunity only available to people and companies that have made tangible (code & documentation) contributions to Drupal directly. That might even have the effect of incentivizing larger companies like Yahoo and IBM, who have been working various R&D projects on Drupal but have not given back, afaik, to contribute their code improvements (assuming they are improvements) in order to have the chance to advertise with a modest presence.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>My own feeling is that introducing advertising runs the risk of fracturing what has so far been a very pure do-ocracy. Drupal's success suggests there's something right about how things have been done so far. Big money hardly ever comes in without strings.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Laura</DIV><DIV><BR><DIV><DIV><B>•</B></DIV><DIV>Laura Scott</DIV><DIV>pingVision, LLC</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>1350 Pine Street, Suite 1</DIV><DIV>Boulder, CO 80302</DIV><DIV>303.415.2559</DIV><DIV><A href="http://pingv.com">http://pingv.com</A></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>