Hi

On Thu, Jul 24, 2025 at 06:05:12PM -1000, compn wrote:
> On Wed, 23 Jul 2025 11:59:23 +0200, Michael Niedermayer wrote:
> 
> > Hello Kieran
> > 
> > On Wed, Jul 23, 2025 at 10:39:01AM +0100, Kieran Kunhya via ffmpeg-devel wrote:
> > > > About 2. (IMHO)
> > > > * The solution is to hire carl or someone else (or find a volunteer)
> > > >   to do this work. Changing the tracker will not fix this.
> > > >
> > > >   FFlabs should have  enough captial to hire carl for this. People should
> > > > ask
> > > >   FFlabs to hire him and carl to accept to be hired for this work.  
> > > 
> > > 
> > > The commercial decisions of FFlabs are for its shareholders during its
> > > internal meetings, not this mailing list.  
> > 
> > Thats a misunderstanding.
> > 
> > Let me quote the president and CEO:
> > 
> > "The company is just a way to finance the community to work on the same
> >  things as usual."
> > 
> > and
> > 
> > "To me, the company should be transparent to the project. It's just a way
> >  to funnel money to the community."
> > 
> 
> hello,
> 

> fflabs should have its use and goals documented on its
[...]
> does not sound like a community focused company at all.

i agree and i raised that issue with the CEO yesterday and asked
where I could send proposed changes.
But he is quite busy so dont expect that he will look into
this right away.

About raising the issue of employing carl.
I have raised that multiple times, and i remember none of the shareholders
objecting. But it never happened.
This may make more sense if you consider that to employ him, 3 things
really need to happen at the same time
1. carl needs to want to work for FFlabs
2. It has to fit into the greater strategy of FFlabs
3. FFlabs needs to have sufficient funds.

In the early days, FFlabs simply did not have the funds to employ more people
And also needed to concentrate on growth that is on people directly doing
consulting work that brings in more money and customers
Funds are available now AFAIK, but carl is no longer here


Keep in mind 3 people quit in 2025 and revenue keeps growing so we should have
funds to contract or employ more people. But there is of course also more work
that needs to be done.
And the promise our CEO gave to the community was to finance the community.
So i think it does make sense that the community monitors it and if needed
politely reminds and insists on adjustments ...
Also if noone from the FFmpeg community wants to do any contract work or be
employed by FFlabs in 2025. People need to understand that FFlabs is a
"for profit" company and it cannot accumulate captial without paying taxes.
So it would be wastefull, and FFlabs will likely use the captial for
other things this year and it will just be lost for the FFmpeg community.

In summary i think it does make sense for the FFmpeg community to think
about where money could help teh most and then propose this to FFlabs
as a clear and executable suggestion.

PS: of course all funds available in FFlabs should be used in a way that
    grows FFmpeg and FFlabs. More money in FFlabs means more money available
    to the FFmpeg community. Thats why spending money in a way that brings in
    more money should be prioritized as long as we dont have enough to fund
    everything in FFmpeg that we want to fund.

thx

[...]
-- 
Michael     GnuPG fingerprint: 9FF2128B147EF6730BADF133611EC787040B0FAB

No human being will ever know the Truth, for even if they happen to say it
by chance, they would not even known they had done so. -- Xenophanes