I am very pleased to announce that the University of Waikato has been
awarded US$50,000 for the Greenstone project within the Third Annual
Mellon Awards for Technology Collaboration (see http://
matc.mellon.org/press-release). This competition is meant "to
recognize important organizational contributions to open source
projects which currently or potentially provide significant benefits
to at least one traditional Mellon constituency (higher education,
especially the arts and humanities; libraries; museums; arts
organizations; and nature conservation)." We understand that the
committee was primarily impressed by Greenstone's impact in the
developing world as testified by many users who supported our
candidacy online, thanks to all of you who contributed recommendations.

The University intends to use the award to further the Greenstone
community of developers and users, particularly in developing
countries. This will involve improving the documentation, making
tutorial videos, and stimulating the development of Greenstone
capabilities and user groups in developing countries.

As part of this effort we invite proposals from the Greenstone
community in developing countries for small grants (US$1000 to US
$5000) which will be awarded in 2009 according to the following
criteria:

* one-time assistance (not a continuing subvention) for a project
which will lead to sustainable follow-up: examples of activity could
be organisation of user meetings or training workshops, expert
missions for training and advice (particularly exchange of expertise
within a given region or country), institutional exchanges or user
services;
* priority to regional networks and to countries and institutions in
greatest need (normally grants will not available to individuals, but
there could be exceptions);
* priority to projects which are partially self-funded or partially
funded by third parties.

Detailed proposals should be addressed to John Rose
<john.rose1@free.fr>, Research Associate, University of Waikato, who
will correspond with the submitting parties as needed to refine their
proposals. Awardees will be expected to submit a detailed evaluation
report at the conclusion of their projects.

cheers
ian