Time out for Programmers

A group of software engineers want to take time out and their employer has agreed to them taking a 1 year sabbatical on 50% pay. They decide to take one of the Blue Michi Gazelles and sail the coast of India for a few months and after that head off to Thailand. On route they will contribute to the Free Software Foundation (FSF) by writing code and documentation for selected projects. They contact Richard Stallman, CEO of the FSF and get his urgent requirements and agree a set of deliverables which he agrees to monitor.

This would be accepted. The sponsorship would be paid in 2 installments - at 6 months and at 12 months on receipt of written confirmation from the FSF that they were satisfied that the project deliverables had been met. The amount paid in the first year would range from 1500 UKP to 3000 UKP and would be determined by the Metis Line PO Review Panel in discussion with the FSF

Time out for Artists

A well known artist needs to take some time out to rest and regenerate his creative energies. He decides to spend time sailing from Cochin to Bombay and back, stopping and visiting local places and studying local art accompanied by a personal friend who is a Professor of Art in Trivandrum, Kerala. He anticipates to spend 6 months on the journey. At the end of this he will document his journey on his website and make several resulting works of art available for people to study and examine using the latest multimedia techniques and maintained indefinitely.

This would be accepted if he is able to get an independant Professor of Art to act as the reviewer of his work and confirm that the end result is able to be truely enjoyed and studied by the public. The sponsorship would be paid on receipt of a letter from the Professor and would range from 750 - 1500 UKP for the 6 months.

Time out for Teachers

If any group needs time out it is this one!

A group of teachers decide it is time for a break from their local comprehensive school in Birmingham. Having a lot of Indian children in their classes they decide to make a trip to India to see for themselves the country that was the birthplace of the childrens parents. During the time they will document the journey and try to help understand the culture of the parents. They will travel on one of the yachts from Cochin to Bombay.

On it's own this is not enough. With defined deliverables to be acted upon it could qualify depending on how much real benefit to the community the PO review Panel believes will result.

However if the teachers decided that they would spend the time also to develop freely available online educational material based on their subjects of expertise then this would absolutely be acceptable. The teachers would have to get the deliverables approved by the FSFE or another acceptable organisation.

Educational program for North African schools

A group comes up with a plan to provide teaching to several schools in North Africa. Each of the teachers will spend 6 months in country and will teach using GNU/Linux PC based systems using educational material on CDROM, thus no Internet connection is required. The computers are donated from people in the West - Pentium III's mainly at this time.

The project is part of a larger program which rewards the teachers by giving them an exciting 2-3 month sailing trip from Europe to the port nearest their destination in Africa and then back at the end of their assignment - including stops at famous ancient ports on the way. The teachers actually pay an amount for their subsistence and share of the costs of maintaining the yachts - thus it is the teachers that are the real givers to the community in every sense, the organisation (which is not for profit) acts simply to facilitate and administer providing the essential framework required.

2 yachts are used - operating side by side bringing and taking back new teachers and donated equipment. The equipment is thus hand carried to it's final destination in Africa and is seen to arrive; remains under the custody of the teachers and the costs to the operation are much less since they plan to attract teachers from the EU and there are no air tickets to buy (and no greenhouse gases) and no shipping costs. Furthermore the yachts are even lower cost since the Metis Line is sponsoring them to the max allowable amount - 6,000 UKP per yacht, paid at 1,500 per year since the project meets the criteria for sponsorship as published on the web:

In this example the yachts provide essential features of the project - attracting teachers, transporting people and equipment - and in addition the project is not limited to coastal areas.

A New Sailing School

A keen yachtsman decides he wants to set up an new sailing school in Asia. He thinks that the Blue Michi Gazelles would make an ideal training vessel - they are fine sailing vessels, ultra low cost, robust and easily maintained. He knows that this would not qualify as a Privileged Operation on it's own but he approaches the PO Review Panel with the proposal that he will maintain 30 places per year at the school for children from poor backgrounds - providing them with 1 months free accommodation and sailing tuition. The purpose is simply to give the children some enjoyment but he will also select the best ones to work with him in running the school.

Whilst this does not fit the picture of the yachts being used for time out it is undoubtedly a beneficial use of the vessels and would be supported by the PO Review Panel. Likely the sponsorship would be 1500 UKP sterling per year.

last modified: Aug 21 22:20:29 2009 GMT
last compiled: Aug 24 09:03:32 2009 GMT on acer.kondosyokai.local

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