Our International team get many enquiries from people and organisations who want to re-use our code, all around the world, and would like a little help doing so. As, sadly, there is limited time in the day, we find that we can’t donate our resources to everyone who asks.

Up until now, we’ve had a fairly ad-hoc approach. Typically, someone makes contact, we send emails back and forth to find out more about their proposed project, and then we make a decision about whether we can offer some developer time and help.

But that’s not really fair: it means that, if we accept one project and then the next week another approach comes in from a project that is just as suitable, we could have committed all our developer time and resource to the first group.

All change

So, we plan to put a new system in place. Here’s the deal:

• Those who would like our help will be asked to fill in an application form with all the details that we’d normally be extracting during those back-and-forth emails
• These applications will be assessed on a quarterly basis
• We’ll let applicants know whether they have been successful within seven days of the closing date
• Not everyone who applies will be successful, but they’ll have another three months in which to reapply with additional information, should they wish

We think that this system is fairer for everyone, and we hope you agree.

If you’ve recently approached us to enquire about getting our help, please bear with us while we transition to this new system: we’ll be in touch soon.

If you’re a group or an individual that might be interested in our help, you can start your application here.

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Image: See-Ming Lee (cc)