Crowdfunding open-source projects can work and has worked to get them going, but the "big bang" model of crowdfunding -- a single large payment at the beginning

Crowdfunding open-source projects can work and has worked to get them going, but the "big bang" model of crowdfunding -- a single large payment at the beginning -- has two problems. First, you have to persuade people of the usefulness of your product before they actually have a chance to try it out. This is sometimes possible, but often difficult. Secondly, as anyone in the software business knows, most of the cost of a mature software product is in the maintenance, which can stretch on for years, not the initial development. For these reasons I think a different approach to crowdfunding is needed: one that is finer-grained, collecting smaller amounts of money for smaller units of work, and that is designed to work on an ongoing basis. The reason I think this could work is that the developers of a successful open-source product actually do have something to sell: their time. There are always bugs to fix and new features to implement, and crowdfunding contributions can be a way for users to vote on what they want done next.