[us-marketing] LibreOffice Community starts 50,000 Euro challenge for setting-up its foundation

LibreOffice Community starts 50,000 Euro challenge for setting-up its 
foundation

German-based model provides best stability and safety for users, 
adopters, developers and enterprises
Race for funds open until March 21st

The Internet, February 16th, 2011 - The community around LibreOffice, 
the free office productivity suite, today announced its fifty-thousand 
Euro challenge for setting-up The Document Foundation as a legal entity. 
The race for funds is open until March 21st 2011, which marks the 
beginning of Spring in the northern hemisphere. All users - especially 
enterprises - are invited to donate to the capital stock of the future 
foundation.

"After thorough investigation, the Steering Committee came to the 
conclusion that a foundation based in Germany would provide the best 
stability, not only for our users, but also for adopters, developers and 
enterprises. For achieving this stability, a capital stock of at least 
50,000 Euros is considered best practice in Germany," says Florian 
Effenberger, Steering Committee member of The Document Foundation. "Now 
that we have our first release of LibreOffice, which has been downloaded 
and installed all around the world, the time has come to legally 
establish the future home for our community".

All donations will be used for setting-up The Document Foundation, and 
after the fifty thousand Euros has been collected for the capital stock, 
donations over the top of that sum will be fed directly into the future 
foundation's budget to cover operating costs. Should the race for funds 
not succeed, The Document Foundation will use the donations to 
incorporate itself in a different country that requires less capital 
stock, such as the United Kingdom.

To achieve their ambitious goal of a Foundation in Germany in just five 
weeks, the community has set-up a dedicated website with detailed 
information at http://challenge.documentfoundation.org The site will 
also give adopters, community members and corporate sponsors a voice, 
and will have special features rolled out at the accomplishment of each 
donation milestone.

"We have seen wide support from many organizations, and the amount of 
volunteer work that has been put into The Document Foundation is just 
amazing. Without people donating their free time, knowledge and 
creativity to what will be the future home of LibreOffice, we wouldn't 
be where we are today. However, volunteer work alone can't fund the 
necessary capital stock, which is why we have started a public race for 
donations, especially targeting contributions from enterprises and 
public administrations adopting LibreOffice, and those interested in an 
independent, vital and growing ecosystem around free office productivity 
software", Florian Effenberger adds.

Information about LibreOffice can be found at http://www.libreoffice.org
The home of The Document Foundation is at http://www.documentfoundation.org

About The Document Foundation
The Document Foundation has the mission of facilitating the evolution of 
the OOo Community into a new, open, independent, and meritocratic 
organization within the next few months. An independent Foundation is a 
better reflection of the values of our contributors, users and 
supporters, and will enable a more effective, efficient and transparent 
community. TDF will protect past investments by building on the 
achievements of the first decade, will encourage wide participation 
within the community, and will co-ordinate activity across the community.

Media Contacts for TDF
Florian Effenberger (Germany)
Mobile: +49 151 14424108 - E-mail: floeff@documentfoundation.org
Olivier Hallot (Brazil)
Mobile: +55 21 88228812 - E-mail: olivier.hallot@documentfoundation.org
Charles H. Schulz (France)
Mobile: +33 6 98655424 - E-mail: charles.schulz@documentfoundation.org
Italo Vignoli (Italy)
Mobile: +39 348 5653829 - E-mail: italo.vignoli@documentfoundation.org

--
Florian Effenberger <floeff@documentfoundation.org>
Steering Committee and Founding Member of The Document Foundation
Tel: +49 8341 99660880 | Mobile: +49 151 14424108
Skype: floeff | Twitter/Identi.ca: @floeff

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