Re: Membership question

On 7/9/2014 9:53 AM, Brian Kardell wrote:
>
>
> On Jul 9, 2014 9:35 AM, "Ian Jacobs" <ij@w3.org <mailto:ij@w3.org>> wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > And what % of w3c funding comes from membership fees?
> >
> > Hi Brian,
> >
> > Before I continue to look up data, can you let me know what you wish 
> to determine?
> >
> > Ian
> >
> > --
> > Ian Jacobs <ij@w3.org <mailto:ij@w3.org>> 
> http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs
> > Tel:                       +1 718 260 9447
> >
> >
> Basically, what is worth suggesting in terms of changes (including 
> "webizen"). I'd like to have at least some basic data points to make 
> sure anything we suggest is practical - it's very hard to offer any 
> kind of input without basic data.  It would be nice if there was some 
> kind of simple public summary, but from what I've found, there really 
> isn't. Membership has a cost, the cost of membership limits who can be 
> a member.  Participation has a cost, the cost also affects 
> participation.  And somewhere, all this income is spent - on what? Is 
> it enough?  Too much? Too little?  It's very hard to make anything 
> remotely like a convincing argument if you can't understand the 
> general problem space.  My sense is that there are some fundamental 
> questions on the ab priority list re: this and I'd like to contribute 
> to the conversation with a basic degree of intelligence.
>

I'm not sure I understand the linkage between the webizen idea and this 
data.

At a micro level, you might be interested in our fee schedule 
http://www.w3.org/Consortium/fees which indicates the participation 
costs as a function of company size and country.

At a macro level, the vast majority of our funding comes from Member 
fees.  There is a double digit component that comes from government 
research projects - but that funding is used to support to the 
government contract - not used to support working groups (although I 
believe it helps the working groups).

So, substantially 100% of Member fees goes to support direct Working 
Group activity; indirect support of Working Groups (e.g. Communications, 
Systems Support), and basic operations of the consortium (e.g. business 
development and management).