hi max,
I read:
I'm curious to hear your point of view to this: the university asked me to review the list of software they want to order for the department.
nice at least they _ask_
the university? I guess you all agree that the money should rather be spent in PD development. but since there is no license to aquire the university can't ask companys to give bids on this deal. how can open source projects handle this? any suggestions?
well we are facing a similar problem here but (our it center at least recently donated some money to more traditional projects (I don't ex- actly remember what it was but along the lines of postfix, spamasassin etc...)
For example, I invited tom schouten for a lecture to give something back (while of course leeching some of his energy on the way ;), the travel was paid by a small festival run by some friends.
a few options you might consider:
donations/paypal -- relatively hard to convince the buerocrats but it can work and I suspect when it has been done once already it gets easier next time.
inviting devrs -- usually rather small amounts that can be spent on guest lectures but a unique opportunity for students and staff to relate faces to email adresses and to talk about future plans.
commissioning -- again tough with the buerocrats but a good way to give stuff back to the community (if you can explain why the result should be gpl/bsd style licensed so the uni can't make any - rather virtual anyway - profits from it)
docs/faqs/examples -- actually you commit a lot to the community if your students work on such things and release the results to the general public.
conferences -- setting up a mini festival / conference is also a nice way to show your support (see also the 2nd point) and might help to gain some publicity out- side of your department - should make it easier at some point to convince the buerocrats ;)
just my 0.02EUR
regards,
x