Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on July 25, 2002 02:22 AM
Open source is different, so maybe it needs a different model to get software developed for it.
One thought I had was to set up a non-profit foundation that collected money from people to pay developers and maintainers of GPL software.
Maybe this could be in the form of an auction. Say you need a small business accounting package. You, and other people, would pledge to contribute what ever amount of money you wished to. Then the foundation would accept proposal, and pick the best one (maybe this would be voted on as well), then fund the project.
Other things that could be done are:
Hardware donations to project
Awards of cash prizes to worthy projects (like the Nobel Prize>
Cash grants so developers could devote more time to a project during a critical phase
Jobs for Maintainers and/or lead developers so they could work full time on a project
Contracts to develop features or squash bug
I think a community supported model would work better for Open Source than a corporate model would.
Learn about Linux
Download Linux
Get Linux help
A Simple Solution?
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on July 25, 2002 02:22 AMOne thought I had was to set up a non-profit foundation that collected money from people to pay developers and maintainers of GPL software.
Maybe this could be in the form of an auction. Say you need a small business accounting package. You, and other people, would pledge to contribute what ever amount of money you wished to. Then the foundation would accept proposal, and pick the best one (maybe this would be voted on as well), then fund the project.
Other things that could be done are:
I think a community supported model would work better for Open Source than a corporate model would.
#