578560 - Corporate subscription to LWN

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(mozilla.org Graveyard :: Server Operations: Projects, task)

Description

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

Recently, a few of us have been discussing the idea of a corporate subscription to LWN (http://www.lwn.net/). I asked Shaver about this at the Summit and he said "File an IT ticket and get them to negotiate a price."

So here it is.

Their Corporate Subscriptions page is here:
http://lwn.net/op/CorporateSubscriptions.lwn

This would not be restricted only to employees; Debian had a subscription for a while, paid for by HP, which was for all Debian developers, so that sort of thing can be done. I'm sure LWN would have creative ideas about how to manage the auth.

Gerv

Comment 1

[Shyam Mani [:fox2mike]]

I can take point on this and grab more details.

Comment 2

[Shyam Mani [:fox2mike]]

(In reply to comment #0)
> This would not be restricted only to employees; Debian had a subscription for a
> while, paid for by HP, which was for all Debian developers, so that sort of
> thing can be done. I'm sure LWN would have creative ideas about how to manage
> the auth.

Gerv,

How many people are we talking about here? While Debian Developers is an easily locked down, finite group..the Mozilla community (is what I gather from your statement) is a far far larger group of people.

I've not even gotten to LWN yet, but I don't even want to do that without knowing what exactly we're trying to do from our end. For example, LWN access for MoCo, MoFo, MoMo is easy to put across to people and explain. Are we going beyond that, if so..to what extent exactly?

Comment 3

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

Shyam: I don't want it to be just people who are employed; that makes a distinction within the community we try hard to avoid making.

We are moving more towards using LDAP to track everyone, not just people who are employed or who have CVS accounts, so perhaps the answer is: everyone with an account in Mozilla LDAP?

Or perhaps the answer is: everyone who has some sort of Mozilla SCM access? That might be a more clearly defined set.

Have a chat with them and see what they say.

Gerv

Comment 4

[matthew zeier [:mrz]]

@gerv - who's supposed to have access to this?  Anyone/everyone?

Comment 5

[Dave Miller [:justdave]]

According to comment 3 he's suggesting anyone with a Mozilla LDAP account.

Comment 6

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

mrz: it's hard for me to say as I know nothing about LWN's auth systems and very little about Mozilla IT's capabilities. Comment 3 suggests that you have a chat with LWN to see what is technically possible. 

The only answer I would be unhappy with is one containing the word "employee". The best answer, if it were possible, would probably be "anyone with some sort of Mozilla SCM access". 

Gerv

Comment 7

[matthew zeier [:mrz]]

 
> The only answer I would be unhappy with is one containing the word "employee".
> The best answer, if it were possible, would probably be "anyone with some sort
> of Mozilla SCM access". 

So all 800 users?  Or roughly $4000/month?

Comment 8

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

mrz: are you saying that based on a quote they have given you?

The subscription page says:
"Gold packages for larger institutions are available; contact us to discuss pricing for your situation."

That is what this bug was filed to get someone to do :-) I think we might get a good deal, as a free software non-profit. But if it turns out to be that expensive, we may have to rethink, I don't know. Just let's get some data :-)

Gerv

Comment 9

[matthew zeier [:mrz]]

That's the rough estimate based on a volume per-user cost (and the total number of SCM users we have).

Comment 10

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

Both of the quoted rates are less than $5 per month; 

Another option is that they do a rate based on take-up rather than based on the number of people who potentially could gain access. But I don't know if they offer that. So can someone please get in touch with them and have a conversation (which costs nothing :-) about what sort of deal they may be able to do us in various circumstances, as suggested in this conversation in this bug?

Gerv

Comment 11

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

Oops, sorry, that comment was missing a bit.

Both of the quoted rates are less than $5 per month; if it was $4, it would be $3200 a month. And we have more than three times the number of their largest quoted plan, so I bet we could get even cheaper.

Shaver didn't give me an upper bound, so let's ask them what they can do for us, and then see if it seems like a good deal. 

LWN is a great resource for the free software world, and they do decent, well-researched, responsible journalism (which is a rarity) and I think it would be good for both Mozillians, for LWN and for the wider FS community if we had a corporate sub. I think they'll see it the same way. So let's ask and find out.

Gerv

Comment 12

[Luis Villa [Outside Counsel; for non-law use [e-mail]]]

For what it is worth, I was already in a conversation this morning with some Fedora folks, so I asked them what they are paying for their corporate/group subscription. IIRC they bought something like 500 subscriptions and then gave them out on a first-come first-served basis to any registered contributor who wanted them, but that might be a bit of a PITA.

Comment 13

[matthew zeier [:mrz]]

Okay, firmed up estimate or $2400/month for all 800 SCM users.  Or step in at $1400/month for 400 users.

Or put in other terms, 2-4 Talos machines a month.

Comment 14

[matthew zeier [:mrz]]

Pricing research in this bug.  I have no budget for this and in brief hallway talks, this is more in the Foundation's realm than mine.