Doing It For The Cause

Doing It For The Cause

By Eric Raymond

Since the Netscape release, I have been inundated with requests to speak at technical conferences, address user groups, and talk to corporate meetings about the Open Source [ http://www.opensource.org/ ] concept. See my calendar of speaking engagements [ http://tuxedo.org/~esr/speaking.html ] to find out when I might have time free.

I'm willing to do all these things. Open-source evangelism is my job now. I'll come to your meeting or presentation and donate my time. Yes, that's right, I'll do it for free (the first time, anyway). I accept honoraria, but I don't expect them and don't want to know about them in advance. I'm not doing this for money.

However, I don't have a regular income, so I can't afford to let these trips cost me money. Also, I hate sweating details and filling out expense forms. So you need to cover my travel and lodging expenses, and I want you to do it so I never have to lay out cash or fill out forms. (Also please bear in mind that I do not have a credit card. This is deliberate; I value my privacy.)

If there's air travel involved, I want my plane fare prepaid and prebooked. If there's a hotel stay needed I want the room tab guaranteed, incidentals and meals and all (no chintzy base-rate-plus-tax-only stuff; I loathe having to argue with the front desk).

If you're a cash-strapped user's group or small startup company, I'm a cheap date -- coach class and space on somebody's daybed, or half of a cheap hotel room, will do fine.

If you're a big company or major conference, I expect you to pony up for first class (so my travel exhaustion will be minimized) and I don't ever want to have to even look at the hotel bill. I don't use booze or have any other expensive tastes I can gratify on the road, so you don't have to worry about a bar tab or anything like that.

I don't make these rules out of a love of luxury. I make them in order to keep my life simple, so I can stay focused on the issues and ideas that make me valuable to you.

If you are not a local Linux user's group, you can make your request more attractive to me by scheduling a double-header with the local LUG. In general, I like proposals that allow me to do two or more events on the same out-of-town trip, so please look at my calendar and be creative. If I'm going to be in a city near you, consider coordinating with my sponsors to arrange a joint itinerary and lower costs for everybody.

If you want me back after the first visit:

I'm free the first time. But if you're a profit-making entity and you decide you want my time on a regular basis, I'll have to think up a consulting rate. So far this has not happened.

Date: 1998/11/16 20:03:33