Re: [chairs] Membership for open source implementers

[Arshad Noor <arshad.noor@strongauth.com>]

While US$300 is reasonable for most individuals based in the US
and/or the EU, it may not be so reasonable for people who probably
earn $300-500 per month in some parts of the world.

What might be better, is to do what book publishers do: charge
prices according to what the market can bear.  A textbook in the
US worth $45 is typically sold in some parts of the world for $5
as a paperback, using less expensive paper, etc.

Perhaps OASIS should base their Individual Contributor membership
fees based on the ratio of a country's cost-of-living-index to
that of the US.  This allows for an equitable pro-rating of fees,
while giving OASIS the ability to review the fees each year for
each country.  I'm sure the Bureau of Economic Affairs (BEA) in
the US, or some UN agency, will have the appropriate statistics
they need to establish the annual membership rates.

Arshad Noor
StrongAuth, Inc.

Eduardo Gutentag wrote:

> I'm sure there may be other possibilities to explore -- but if you ask
> me, I still think that individual membership at a basement bargain price
> like OASIS offers is about as good as it gets...
>