I’m off to Chicago today for Postgres Open, a new PostgreSQL conference. I’m pleased that I’ll be presenting “Get Your Preferred Feature Developed!”

There are lots of developers out there who, like me, have ideas for projects they want to work on for PostgreSQL, but don’t have the free time to make it happen. The idea for this talk is to pitch this fact to an audience of organizations with a major investment in PostgreSQL and an interest in seeing it improve. Perhaps one or more of them will look into sponsoring development of something that interests them, or that they need. This way, interested developers might get paid to work on projects that interest them, to the benefit of the project, the community, and of course their sponsors. Naturally, I’ll be drawing on PGXN as an example of how this sort of thing can work.

If you’e like to learn more, tune in! The whole conference will be live-streamed. Check the site on Wednesday to get hooked up.

I’m pleased to announce that, thanks to a pledge from Enova Financial at the newly-minted “Patron” level, we have achieved our fundraising goal of $25,000. Thanks to Jim “Decibel!” Nasby for putting together the contribution that put us over the top!

I’m thrilled to find that this approach to getting a project going actually works. I’ve had the idea for PGXN for a long time, but knew that I was never going to be able to make it happen unless I could get help. So putting things together, writing a spec and project plan, and putting together the fundraising site with a prominent “fundraising thermometer” and contribution levels…well, it really paid off.

So for others of you with ideas of projects you’d like to take on, but don’t have the tuits without financial assistance, take heed! With a bit of work up-front and a the design of some compelling rewards for contributors — as well as a simple way for folks to donate (perhaps use Kickstarter or FOSSExperts)— you too can make your dream a reality. Well, that and personally seeking out potential funders and lobbying them. It takes some doing, but the payoff is well worth it.

And the payoff here is that I’ll actually be able to make PGXN happen. We already have the upload site up and running (with more features in the works), and now we have the funds for me to make the final design become a reality, as well as the command-line client.

And it was made possible by everyone who has supported us:

• myYearbook
• PostgreSQL Experts, Inc.
• Dalibo
• Enova
• Etsy
• United States PostgreSQL Association
• Command Prompt
• Marchex
• Richard Broersma
• TigerLead
• Thom Brown
• Hitoshi Harada
• 25th-floor
• Hubbell Group
• John S. Gage
• Greg Smith
• UrbanDB.com
• depesz
• Jim Nasby
• David Golden
• Jeff Davis
• Estately
• Chris Spotts
• Kineticode
• CxNet (Chile)
• Schemaverse
• Fábio Telles Rodriguez
• Michael Nacos
• August Zajonc

And special thanks to Josh Berkus for suggesting the fundraising approach, and to making suggestions and helping out as I created the infrastructure to make it happen. And also to Gavin Roy for the founding contribution from myYearbook that really got things kicked off.

Other folks who have helped with feedback and comments as development has got underway include

• Aριστοτέλης Παγκαλτζής (Aristotle Pagaltzis)
• David Golden
• Tatsuhiko Miyagawa
• Matt S Trout
• Graham Barr
• Jarkko Hietaniemi
• Andreas J. König
• Other folks I’ve forgotten (sorry, remind me!)

My thanks to you all! Watch this space for further developments. I aim to have the project complete this winter, with a formal launch no later than PGCon.

Yesterday was a busy day. In addition to making the first PGXN release, I updated the fundraising spreadsheet and then the thermometer displayed on the main site. The good news is that things are coming along nicely. Thanks to recent contributions from Command Prompt, Marchex, Hitoshi Harada, and 25th-floor, we are now just $2500 short of our goal of $25,000. Thank you all!

Can you help us get to our goal in time for PgWest 2010, which is November 2-4 in San Francisco? I’ll be giving a talk there, “Building and Distributing PostgreSQL Extensions Without Learning C”, in which PGXN will of course be featured. Would be great to announce that the fundraising was successful.

As for the time I’ve put in so far, I’m happy to have PGXN Manager up and working, but of course it has taken more hours than I expected. 76.5 so far. I’d estimated 40. Meanwhile, the database design is up to 43 hours from the estimated 24. And that doesn’t count the hours I spent chasing shiny yaks and shaving them, like SemVer and Router::Resource. Those of you who estimate development projects, take heed! I clearly need to double all my estimates before I submit them.

Still, with the fundraising nearly done, I’m committed to finishing this project. I view it as a project budget, and so that’s what it will be, whether or not it takes me twice or four times as many hours as I’d estimated.

That said, you could help. Right? PGXN Manager is in good shape, but it’s not done. If you’d like to roll up your sleeves and contribute some code, please fork it, build it, and hack what you can. A few things on the to-do list:

• Add user admin interface. Should include checkbox to make and remove administrative permission
• Add mirror admin interface
• Add extension ownership permissions interface

The database API is there for these bits already; the code would mainly be in Perl. Hit me on #pgxn on Freenode if you want to help.

If documentation is your thing, contributions there would be appreciated, as well. In particular, the About PGXN page is a bit thin. Other interfaces will need help, too. More on that as we add users.

Thanks everyone for your support!

This project started when I wrote up the specification and got general approval from pgsql-hackers. Then, at PGCon, it made the list of development priorities for PostgreSQL 9.1 (when I was then calling it “PGAN”). It was when MyYearbook.com’s Gavin Roy pledged a founding contribution of $5,000 (also at PGCon) that I was able to put in the time to create the fundraising site and start soliciting donations. I’m really grateful to Gavin for stepping up like that, putting his money on the line on the assumption that I would be as good as my word and get the work done.

Since then, we’ve done quite well, and are getting closer to our goal every day. PostgreSQL Experts soon committed to cover $5,000 in expenses, Dalibo pledged €5,000 last month, and just yesterday Etsy promised $1,000. We’ve also received contributions from:

• Richard Broersma ($250)
• TigerLead ($250)
• Hubbell Group Inc. ($100)
• John S. Gage ($100)
• Damian Soto-Renou ($100)
• Thom Brown ($100)
• Kineticode, Inc. ($25)
• CxNet (Chile) ($25)
• Schemaverse ($25)

So far, we’ve raised $18,359. Yay! I’m really happy with how well this is going. But we still need to raise another $6,641 to meet our goal. I’m hoping to get that done in the next couple of weeks. Can you help out?

I’m pleased to announce two things:

• This blog. Here I’ll make regular posts as I develop PGXN, and to keep it up to date with regular operational updates and release announcements (for extensions on PGXN, not just PGXN itself) once the site goes live. Subscribe to the feed to stay up-to-date in your favorite reader.

• The PGXN Twitter stream. Follow along as our fundraising draws to an exciting conclusion and development begins. Once the site is launched, new extension releases will be tweeted, as well.

Thank you for your support! More news to come, so stay tuned!