I'd like to call to your attention an article I've just posted on the FSFE's website.
https://www.fsfe.org/en/fellows/modulus/user_driven_software_development
That's an interesting approach. RMS mentions the possibility of founding an organisation for a certain feature or project in a few speeches. What you are suggesting is rather like a marketplace for such "organisations" which makes a lot of sense to me.
Btw, we are working on something very similar for a few months now: Flouzo (http://flouzo.net/). It's not exactly the same, as the scope is broader than Free Software, but it certainly is within our goals, and it came from the Free Software world, in a large part *for* the Free Software world, with a reasoning very similar to what David described in his article.
For example, our first campaign is currently financing a GPL violation lawsuit in France (see http://freebox.flouzo.net/), and one of the campaigns currently being prepared will attempt to finance the development of a FS alternative to Google Reader. We also made the Ryzom.org campaign back in last December. Be nice while reviewing Flouzo though - we are still in early development / alpha stage, most of the features aren't here yet or are still clumsy. But it works! ;p
So, if you decide to push the FUDS project further, we'd definitely be interested in helping/participating/financing/whatever. :-)
From: "Xavier Antoviaque" xavier@flouzo.net
Btw, we are working on something very similar for a few months now: Flouzo (http://flouzo.net/). It's not exactly the same, as the scope is broader than Free Software, but it certainly is within our goals, and it came from the Free Software world, in a large part *for* the Free Software world, with a reasoning very similar to what David described in his article.
Interesting. The idea is quite similar, except in the difference of using donations or a contract as such. Personally I think it would be great if free software authors could work under contract from users, not depending on their good will for donations. After all they're creating value and, IMO, they deserved to be compensated, if it can only be arranged.
I've written the proposal and talked it over with a few people, but I don't know what steps I could take to make this crystalize into reality. I think there needs to be enough interest to try to launch something like that, which would require a certain amount of commitment and effort from a few people to make it viable. So, for the time being I am waiting to see if there are people who are interested in making the proposal reality, or not.
--David.
On Tue, 4 Dec 2007 07:31:53 +0100 David Picón Álvarez eleuteri@myrealbox.com wrote:
Interesting. The idea is quite similar, except in the difference of using donations or a contract as such. Personally I think it would be great if free software authors could work under contract from users, not depending on their good will for donations. After all they're creating value and, IMO, they deserved to be compensated, if it can only be arranged.
Agreed; that's something I like about FUDS, it goes further down that road and addresses specifically the revenue issue of Free Software developers. That is one of the things which makes me think FUDS and Flouzo and complementary projects, not competing ones.
I've written the proposal and talked it over with a few people, but I don't know what steps I could take to make this crystalize into reality. I think there needs to be enough interest to try to launch something like that, which would require a certain amount of commitment and effort from a few people to make it viable. So, for the time being I am waiting to see if there are people who are interested in making the proposal reality, or not.
Maybe we could setup a meeting (RL or IRC), open to all parties interested in helping/contributing/etc., to see where we stand and what can be done?