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Mark Shuttleworth on companies and free softwareMark Shuttleworth on companies and free softwarePosted May 17, 2011 22:23 UTC (Tue) by neilbrown (subscriber, #359)Parent article: Mark Shuttleworth on companies and free software
The key issue here is that lots of FLOSS projects only reach the 80% mark (and those are the really good ones) where the missing bits are the "boring bits" like polish and documentation.
The suggestion is that it would be good for the FLOSS community to motivate/enable developers to put more effort into those boring bits (true) and that funneling money with the right strings attached is probably the best way to do that (also probably true).
The next step in the chain of reasoning is that the best way to funnel that money is to enable FLOSS developers to sell something to one group of people while still being able to share most of that thing freely with another group of people. I think this is the link in the chain that many people really have a problem with, so they/we don't have any patience with the next link in the chain which is contributor agreements.
So I wonder if the conversation we need to be having is not so much about contributor agreements as about business models. Certainly some models have been found that channel some funding into FLOSS but it seems they aren't enough. In particular they don't seem to help with the "last 20%" problem. Is there a new business model?
The "app store" model has shown that you can make a lot of money by selling something for 99c to enough people. The "humble bundles" show that people are willing to pay for quality when given the opportunity.
It feels like there should be a model that allows those who want to fund software to be "* supporters *" and there by enable developers to finish the job, but I have no idea what it is.... I'm sure it isn't a "--donate" option on all programs....
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Mark Shuttleworth on companies and free software Posted May 17, 2011 23:12 UTC (Tue) by moofar (guest, #70283) [Link]
I agree with your sentiment. Free software is more valuable to me than proprietary software, but there is no easy way for me give money as a single user. I would like to help free and open source projects x,y,z monetarily, but I haven't really heard from any of them that they want money, or could use it, or how much I should give, or how I can give.
How to donate to free software projects Posted May 18, 2011 2:44 UTC (Wed) by denials (subscriber, #3413) [Link] If you search for "donate project-name" in major search engines, quite often you'll find the answer to your questions. Here are some worthy ones to consider, IMO:
Mark Shuttleworth on companies and free software Posted May 18, 2011 5:00 UTC (Wed) by pabs (subscriber, #43278) [Link]
Pretty sure most free software projects would prefer your time (for coding, translating, documenting, promoting etc) rather than your money. If you have more money than time, donate to things that require money. For e.g. it currently costs money to travel to free software conferences. The Libre Graphics Meeting does fundraising drives every year, as does DebConf.
Mark Shuttleworth on companies and free software Posted May 18, 2011 10:08 UTC (Wed) by fb (subscriber, #53265) [Link]
> Pretty sure most free software projects would prefer your time (for coding, translating, documenting, promoting etc) rather than your money. If you have more money than time, donate to things that require money.
I am pretty sure that there are a lot of people like me:
As always, convenience also plays a large role. I would certainly donate _more_ often to different projects if there was a "FOSS donate shop" that made it more convenient for me to donate for software I use a lot.
Mark Shuttleworth on companies and free software Posted May 18, 2011 11:53 UTC (Wed) by Trelane (subscriber, #56877) [Link]
FWIW, there are some formal and informal processes. This is slanted toward GNOME, where I have most interaction.
The formal process I'm most familiar with is GNOME's "Friend of GNOME" stuff (http://www-old.gnome.org/friends/) and particularly their "Adopt a hacker" program.
Informally, hackers sometimes post their needs on planet gnome, e.g. when seif needed a new laptop and set up a paypal donation system so that those so inclined could pitch in. Some of the projects (e.g. zeitgeist) have a paypal donate button, and other hackers have things like amazon wishlists.
HTH!
Projects and managing their donations Posted May 18, 2011 10:22 UTC (Wed) by pboddie (subscriber, #50784) [Link]
I am aware of project organisations that have had problems spending their money, but in such cases the observation about projects needing more people or "time" actually concern volunteers (or "managers" in the business dictionary) who can make sure that money gets spent on useful things, not those who will actually write code or documentation.
Such organisations often don't want to frivolously spend money on things that wouldn't help the project in some way - massive billboard advertising or "Brewster's Millions" endeavours are seen as being irresponsible with other people's money - and thus they can get bogged down in micromanaging grants for worthy causes. Even with a healthy stream of worthy causes being suggested (adding functionality, writing manuals or courses), there's always the concern that such activities won't be sustainable after the paid individuals have finished their work: might such things not just add to the project's workload?
That said, I see a certain amount of benefit in targeted donations where someone might say that they have a specific objective and will pay for it to happen, thus providing the worthy cause and the cash. That isn't so different from a "bounty" - something that Mr Shuttleworth used to offer for various Python projects, as I recall.
Projects and managing their donations Posted May 19, 2011 19:03 UTC (Thu) by sorpigal (subscriber, #36106) [Link]
Don't forget resentment. If we're all donating our time we're all equal. If some of us are paid to join the community, fine. If some volunteers begin to be paid by the project, but not others, then that's a recipe for trouble, infighting, etc.
Maybe feature bounties is the right way to go, but I've never seen that work well for unsexy work.
Projects and managing their donations Posted May 19, 2011 19:41 UTC (Thu) by dlang (✭ supporter ✭, #313) [Link]
do does that mean that companies should never pay people to work on open source projects?
or does it mean that if anyone working on a project is getting paid that people who aren't getting paid shouldn't contribute?
Projects and managing their donations Posted May 20, 2011 0:22 UTC (Fri) by pabs (subscriber, #43278) [Link]
It just means that there are complex issues with motivations at play when the profit motive is introduced or already established within a community.
Google's model of introducing monetary motivation seems to be working well, at least from an outsider's point of view.
This is getting off-topic though, we need a separate article.
Mark Shuttleworth on companies and free software Posted May 18, 2011 8:29 UTC (Wed) by michaeljt (subscriber, #39183) [Link]
> It feels like there should be a model that allows those who want to fund software to be "* supporters *" and there by enable developers to finish the job, but I have no idea what it is.... I'm sure it isn't a "--donate" option on all programs....
The idea of a "donate" button on the bugtracker just crossed my mind. Without any guarantees of fixing, but at least raising the visibility of the bug.
Alternatively, people could donate money towards a particular bug which would be "released" to whoever fixes the bug, or to the project if the person didn't want the money. This would only work for projects that accepted donations of course. It needn't even be run by the project itself - someone else could manage the money and the administration for a percentage of the donations. I know there are things like this already, but as far as I recall they have been pledge things, not donate up front ones.
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