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GUADEC: New funding models for open source softwareGUADEC: New funding models for open source softwarePosted Aug 16, 2012 4:25 UTC (Thu) by cmccabe (subscriber, #60281)Parent article: GUADEC: New funding models for open source software
Yeah, Kickstarter doesn't really work for software. It's far too difficult to predict ahead of time how successful any given project will be. Your donation could end up going to a program which ends up being a turkey. I'm sure we can all point to "grand rewrites" by experienced and respected companies that ended up going nowhere. Also, even if a project is good, it may fail to develop a community around it, and so fizzle after a year or two.
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GUADEC: New funding models for open source software Posted Aug 16, 2012 5:23 UTC (Thu) by ian00 (subscriber, #55476) [Link]
I disagree. Failure is not significantly more likely for kickstarter software projects than other kickstarter projects. Remember, the vast majority of small businesses fail.
GUADEC: New funding models for open source software Posted Aug 16, 2012 5:45 UTC (Thu) by ian00 (subscriber, #55476) [Link]
I've always felt baffled that Free Software has been so bad about this issue. I think there are so many millions of dollars that would be happily donated and would be put to great use. I can just think of so many ways the current situation could be so much better.
Idea: A distribution adds a payment system that would allow easy donations, to individual non-profits, or the distro itself, or a mix. Throw in something to the distro installation ui, the package manager ui which connects non-profits to the packages they work on. Allow people to opt-out, or opt-in to everything.
GUADEC: New funding models for open source software Posted Aug 16, 2012 5:45 UTC (Thu) by ian00 (subscriber, #55476) [Link]
^ this was meant to be a top level comment
Here's a counterexample Posted Aug 23, 2012 7:03 UTC (Thu) by oldtomas (guest, #72579) [Link]
Yeah, I know: data is (not) the plural of anecdote and all that. Still, here it goes:
<http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joeyh/git-annex-assis...>
Of course, the really interesting part is to ask why this project had such a resounding success (funded with 24K out of a 3K pledge -- that's a factor of eight!). I propose (non-exhaustive):
* Joey is well-known in his circles. No one had a doubt he'd follow through.
* He had already git-annex, i.e. something usable to show around
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