Funding request: phone line for Sugar Labs PR

[sdaly]

What is being purchased?

A voip.ms service to replace the number Sean Daly organized & had financed
since March 2009: ​http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/marketing/2009-March/000504.html

Why does this purchase benefit the operations of Sugar Labs?

This is our direct contact line for journalists to reach us and has
proven its worth several times, notably when the BBC reached us
through our line and covered Sugar Labs.

Gizmo5, our provider, was acquired by Google late last year. Google
decided to cut off service without a comparable replacement, as
discussed in recent marketing meetings e.g.:

​http://meeting.sugarlabs.org/sugar-meeting/meetings/2011-04-12T14:03:53

It was necessary to replace our dead phone line (service was ended on
April 3rd on short notice) prior to last Friday's press release.

Who will be responsible for the item?

Sean Daly.

How much will it cost?

Cost of voip.ms is approximately 5 USD per month, I seeded the account with $25.

What other options were evaluated for purchase?

• Google Voice has not evolved since March 2009 and remains primitive for our needs, in particular is unavailable outside the USA
• SipGate has limited dialin choice, limited scalability, and costs more than voip.ms.

What were the criteria or features you needed?

• dialin analog line in Cambridge/Boston, possibility of European dialin line
• softphone with personalized (recorded) outgoing message
• incoming message e-mailed to pr at sugarlabs.org as soundfile
• scalability (add numbers, multiple access, frontend to phone server, etc.)
• possibility to organize conference call with journalists

What deadlines are associated with this request?

None.

Other notes?

Originally written to the marketing list at ​http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/marketing/2011-April/003255.html - I am casting this into the format we requested, so we have an example of usage as specified by ​http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Finance#For_purchasing_things .

[mchua]

I think we should get this, and also do it as a lump sum (let's say $120 - that's 2 years' worth) for this rather than set up an automatic monthly payment, because we don't know our future cash flow.

+1 on a $120 lump sum from me.

[walter]

+1 from me as well.

[cjb]

+1, thanks.

[bernie]

+1 from me on a $120 lump sum.

[bernie]

Ping? Has this motion passed?

[mchua]

4 SLOBs said +1, so that's quorum, and the answer is yes. I can't find the instructions for how to submit a purchase order (or whatever we call the "get money out of our bank account to pay for something now" process), though. Any pointers?