[FFmpeg-devel] FFmpeg Community Committee – Updates & Next Steps

[Kieran Kunhya]

On Tue, 4 Mar 2025, 11:17 Michael Niedermayer, <michael at niedermayer.cc>
wrote:

> Hi Kieran
>
> On Tue, Mar 04, 2025 at 08:13:11AM -0600, Kieran Kunhya via ffmpeg-devel
> wrote:
> [...]
> > Hi Michael,
> >
> > Was all the STF discussion around the first application done in public?
>
> No, jb contacted STF in the name of FFmpeg without any public discussion.
> This crossed STFs own reaching out to FFmpeg. Which is how it was noticed
>
> The mail below is from STF to jb.
>
> After that i immedeatly asked both thilo and jb to talk with each other.
> I also repeatedly asked for the STF stuff to be made public.
> I quote a rather sarcastic example from me (in german) asking thilo at the
> end
> of this mail
>
> So again, we need more open communication, more forgiveness, more working
> together and less distrust, some virtual hugs and smiles
>
>
> From: Tara Tarakiyee <X>
> To: jb at X
> Cc: "Fiona Krakenbürger" <X>, Abigail Garner <X>
> Subject: Regarding Your STF Application
> Date: Tuesday, 30 May 2023 22:22
>
> Dear Jean-Baptiste Kempf,
>
> Thank you for your application to the Sovereign Tech Fund. We appreciate
> the interest, but have a few questions about the timing of this
> application. We have already reached out to ffmpeg maintainers through our
> scouting process and gotten a response and arranged a call. We explained
> how our funding works and asked that they go back to the ffmpeg maintainer
> community and come back to us with a joint proposal that is agreed upon by
> your existing governance structure.
>
> Given the timing of your proposal, are we to infer that you knew about
> those conversations yet choose to apply independently? We much prefer to
> have one process ongoing at the time, so we ask that you refer back to that
> conversation and include your work there and we will continue considering
> our support for ffmpeg through our scouting. If that is not possible for
> some reason, please let us know.
>
> Please keep in mind that our mission at STF is to empower FOSS
> infrastructure, so we support activities to improve security and
> maintenance, but very rarely support new feature development, except when
> there is a strong case for them in the public interest. Also it is
> important for us that any supported work has the support of the maintainer
> community.
>
> Please let me know if you have any questions.
>
> Best wishes,
> Tara Tarakiyee
> Sovereign Tech Fund
> https://sovereigntechfund.de/
>
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>
>
> Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2023 18:37:13 +0200
> From: Michael Niedermayer <michael at niedermayer.cc>
> To: Thilo Borgmann <X>
> Subject: Re: FFmpeg development support
>
> > Michael, er hat bereits versucht, das alles im Dunkeln abzuwickeln. Er
> hat bereits einen Antrag eingereicht, den er _nicht_ geteilt hat und auch
> auf Nachfrage _nicht_ teilt. Nur dummerweise hat er uns von der Sache an
> sich erzählt und dummerweise, ist ihm das auf die Füße gefallen.
> > Es gibt einen Grund, warum er darüber auch immernoch nicht redet,
> Michael. Warum denkst du, steht in seiner Mail nur "Habt ihr davon gehört?"
> ?...
>
> Thilo dein Antrag ist public auf der mailing liste (und wiki) ?
> nein?
> wenn nein dann was ist es dunkles was du planst ?
>

Please (as per your own declaration of transparency) therefore supply the
rest of the email chain including all discussion with Thilo and/or other
parties (e.g SPI) about STF.

Kieran

>