3 ms·

Don't assume this is something political. A lot of very good organizations were not accepted this year, Mozilla being one of them.

by kragniz 12y ago

brudgers 12y ago
I'm not making political assumptions. I am assuming that businesses act to protect their business interests and that assisting a competitor compete in core markets is not in a company's interests. I'd be happy to see a business case put forward for Google helping Mozzilla develop a mobile operating system to compete with Android.
- maxerickson 12y ago
  I doubt they run any of the GSOC decisions through any sort of business case analysis. $150,000 is tiddlywinks to a corporation that generates billions on a monthly tempo. Hand wavy good feels are plenty enough justification for that level of spending. (That's a ball park estimate of how much it would cost to fund and administrate several projects)
  - brudgers 12y ago
    Your premise that Google contains enough business incompetence in enough of the right places to fund a direct competitor explains why they have funded Mozilla in the past. It doesn't really offer much explanation as to why Google did not fund them this year. Conversely, even the minimum business process of some VP looking at the list and saying, "We are not going to fund a competitor," Occam Razors this year's events.
    - vertex-four 12y ago
      Google haven't supported a number of major projects this year (including some that they directly benefit from), it's not just Mozilla. One assumes, therefore, that the GSoC management decided that GSoC should support more smaller projects this year. EDIT: If Google only wanted to fund things that directly benefit them, you'd've thought they'd do just that, none of this faffing about with an application process and only funding student work, no?
    - maxerickson 12y ago
      My premise is that it is not incompetent to ignore the business impact of GSOC. If giving $150,000 to Mozilla materially erodes Google's business, giving $150,000 to Mozilla isn't the actual problem. "Every thing was going fine for us, but then the CEO didn't pick up a penny he saw on the street and the whole thing fell apart."
    - sangnoir 12y ago
      Your premise, that the only possible reason to fund a competitor is incompetence, on the other hand, strikes me as absurd. If they weigh business cases at all, they might have considered the value of goodwill they generate for funding competitors to outweigh any loss(es). Aside: how does Google benefit from sponsoring Blender3D, in your immediate-profit-driven opinion?
      - techpeace 12y ago
        I don't think anyone is claiming that they benefit from sponsoring non-competitors, only that they would suffer a disadvantage from funding a competitor, and that this MAY have weighed into their decision-making.
crdoconnor 12y ago
Don't assume it isn't. In previous years they saw Chrome and Firefox as combined bulwarks against IE's dominance of the browser market. Now that Chrome dominates and Mozilla is working on a competitor to android, well...

Don't assume this is something political. A lot of very good organizations were not accepted this year, Mozilla being one of them.

by kragniz 12y ago

Don't assume this is something political. A lot of very good organizations were not accepted this year, Mozilla being one of them.

brudgers 12y ago

I'm not making political assumptions. I am assuming that businesses act to protect their business interests and that assisting a competitor compete in core markets is not in a company's interests. I'd be happy to see a business case put forward for Google helping Mozzilla develop a mobile operating system to compete with Android.

maxerickson 12y ago
I doubt they run any of the GSOC decisions through any sort of business case analysis. $150,000 is tiddlywinks to a corporation that generates billions on a monthly tempo. Hand wavy good feels are plenty enough justification for that level of spending. (That's a ball park estimate of how much it would cost to fund and administrate several projects)
- brudgers 12y ago
  Your premise that Google contains enough business incompetence in enough of the right places to fund a direct competitor explains why they have funded Mozilla in the past. It doesn't really offer much explanation as to why Google did not fund them this year. Conversely, even the minimum business process of some VP looking at the list and saying, "We are not going to fund a competitor," Occam Razors this year's events.
  - vertex-four 12y ago
    Google haven't supported a number of major projects this year (including some that they directly benefit from), it's not just Mozilla. One assumes, therefore, that the GSoC management decided that GSoC should support more smaller projects this year. EDIT: If Google only wanted to fund things that directly benefit them, you'd've thought they'd do just that, none of this faffing about with an application process and only funding student work, no?
  - maxerickson 12y ago
    My premise is that it is not incompetent to ignore the business impact of GSOC. If giving $150,000 to Mozilla materially erodes Google's business, giving $150,000 to Mozilla isn't the actual problem. "Every thing was going fine for us, but then the CEO didn't pick up a penny he saw on the street and the whole thing fell apart."
  - sangnoir 12y ago
    Your premise, that the only possible reason to fund a competitor is incompetence, on the other hand, strikes me as absurd. If they weigh business cases at all, they might have considered the value of goodwill they generate for funding competitors to outweigh any loss(es). Aside: how does Google benefit from sponsoring Blender3D, in your immediate-profit-driven opinion?
    - techpeace 12y ago
      I don't think anyone is claiming that they benefit from sponsoring non-competitors, only that they would suffer a disadvantage from funding a competitor, and that this MAY have weighed into their decision-making.

crdoconnor 12y ago

Don't assume it isn't. In previous years they saw Chrome and Firefox as combined bulwarks against IE's dominance of the browser market. Now that Chrome dominates and Mozilla is working on a competitor to android, well...