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Some thoughts on the topic:
A foundation does not have to be useful for everyone. If it's useful for someone, then it is already useful. And just because Lua has being doing fine without a foundation, it also doesn't mean a foundation isn't useful or needed. A foundation can still add value. Good things can improve. And there are many needed things that are out of the scope of LabLua. 

Below are just some of the things where I can see a foundation being very useful:

* Serve as a slot and point of contact for companies who wish to sponsor and support Lua related projects that are not necessarily Lua itself
* Develop things that are outside of LabLua's scope of implementation of the language, such as improving the ecosystem and developer experience. This could include things like maintaining critical modules, creating plugins for common text editors...
* Work with community leaders and maintainers of critical tools. E.g. See if the LuaRocks folks need help with anything.
* Advocate and sprinkle more Lua around the world with things like coordinating events, managing social media, writing blog posts, tutorials or other online resources...

This is not the first time a discussion around the possibility of a Lua Foundation came up. That I saw, there were discussions on this topic at least during the past two editions of the Lua dev room at FOSDEM. I've even brought this subject up with Roberto in the past, and others have done the same. Some folks are really keen on seeing something like this happen. I'd be one of them :)

Cheers,
Etiene


2017-04-21 9:31 GMT+01:00 Russell Haley <russ.haley@gmail.com>:
On Thu, Apr 20, 2017 at 11:45 PM, Daurnimator <quae@daurnimator.com> wrote:
>  On 19 April 2017 at 02:53, Andrew Starks <andrew@starksfam.org> wrote:
>> Has something like the idea of a Lua Foundation ever come up?
>>
>> The reason that I ask is because there seem to be many opportunities to
>> explore, all of which require some kind of momentum to be formed or strict
>> adherence to Lua's specific mission. As a result, many efforts feels like
>> hearding cats or sounding like an unwanted extension to Lua itself.
>
> Such as?
>
> I'm curious what you think can be solved by a "Foundation" that can't
> be solved by us, the community.
>
> The main purpose for such a foundation might be as a legal entity and
> touch point for large organisations that don't know how to deal with
> individuals.
> It might be capable of
>   - applying for grants
>   - holding bank accounts for community funds
>   - being named as party to insurance (e.g. for conferences)
>   - being blessed by governments
> At the moment these are generally not done at all, by private parties,
> or sometimes via PUC-Rio and/or LabLua.
> I wouldn't be opposed to such an organisation, but I'm not entirely
> sure what problems you're solving for.
> I also have questions about where such a foundation should be
> founded/based to solve the legal issues it's designed to solve.
>
I think the FreeBSD Foundation serves as an excellent model for Lua.
FreeBSD is it's own entity. The FreeBSD Foundation is a separate
entity that manages the following sorts of things:
- collects donations for FreeBSD
- organizes community efforts and provides funding from donations
- provides advocacy such as special presentations at universities,
events and some publications (notably the FreeBSD Journal)
- provides resources for distribution (build servers, resources, bandwidth etc)
- helps direct and shape projects that the board recognizes as
valuable to the community

The board is made up of current and past commiters and other people
and has some full time staff.

A Lua foundation would be an excellent organization for providing
"with batteries" distributions and many of the other things people
feel the community isn't providing well enough.

On the flip side, companies like ActiveState can provide leadership in
the area of binaries and distribution if there really is any market
for it. But then again, where does a company go if they want to donate
resources to Lua? Is PUC-Rio capable of working with for profit
companies on that sort of thing? Maybe that is also where a Foundation
would help?

Russ




--
Etiene Dalcol

Software Engineer @ Red Badger 
Lua Space http://lua.space
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