Re: GNU Herds' pledgebank

[Dave Crossland]

On 24/01/2008, Davi Leal <address@hidden> wrote:
> Dave Crossland wrote:
> > Here is the recipe for any user to kickstart the development of a free
> > software project with no initial funding.
> >
> > 1. Estimate the cost of the initial development of the project, "£A"
> >
> > 2. Estimate the number of people who want that development work done
> >    and are willing to pay for it, "B"
> >
> > 3. Divide £A by B to make £C.
> >
> > 4. Set up a pledgebank for your project for 2B people at £C cost.
> >    (more people pledge than pay)
> >
> > 5. Publicise the pledgebank until enough people sign it
> >
> > 6. Collect their money - perhaps using the SFLC Conservancy or your
> >    own USA 501c3(?) non-profit organisation to make payments tax
> >    deductible in the USA and encourage corporate donations.
> >
> > 7. Post a job ad on gnuherds.org or similar for developers. Pay
> >    them Google Summer of Code style.
> >
> > 8. Enjoy.
> >
> >
> > (It would be cool if GNU Herds _was_ a pledgebank :-)
>
> IMHO it seems a good idea Dave!

Its Tiemann's original business plan for Cygnus, as told by David
Harding [1] and combined with the newer pledgebank concept.

[1]: http://s3.amazonaws.com/sfd-2007/sfd-2007.ogg

> Besides the code development, there is some
> work to do to collect the money.

Paypal and SFLC conservancy have carried most the water for us, I
think - http://conservancy.softwarefreedom.org :-)

Also a large GNU project is setting up its own self-reliant 501cX
charity to collect donations directly for itself, since the FSF is a
501c3 (iirc) which has different rules. (Its not done but I expect it
to make a small splash when it is ready :-)

> I do not know if the idea is perfect, as you
> exposed it, or can be improved. Any comment?

I hope to set up something like this, specifically for font
development and especially to promote GPLv3 font development.

> I have registered such new task:
>   task: http://savannah.nongnu.org/task/?7705

Thanks :-)

> Anyway, note I think we do not have human resources to develop it right now.
> Would like some body take on it? Else we can analyze it later.

I'm happy for this to sit around for a long time, I have a long
dependency tree to work through before I am ready to take it on
myself, but it is something I'll sort out eventually. However, the
idea is sound in my mind and by sharing it, perhaps we'll all get
there quicker :-)

-- 
Regards,
Dave