> "Do we sometimes harm these migrations by volunteering?" Migrations to free software are generally > driven by individuals, either inside a public administra

> "Do we sometimes harm these migrations by volunteering?" Migrations to free software are generally > driven by individuals, either inside a public administration or by a parent for a school. Those > individuals start bringing free software in and do lots of work (for free) to make it all work. > Problems arise and there is no budget to bring in others to help out; people burn out and then > everything fails. Instead of coming to the conclusion that not having a budget led to free software > failing, the organizations often decide to "get a budget and do it right". He thought it might make > more sense to try to get the budget for the free-software project, instead of volunteering. When reading I thought this was a rather insightful passage. I've noticed this at varying levels by helping others out (family) or by watching others put in overtime for small fixes: if you don't set a budget, then free == charity == not as good as the free market could do in most people's eyes. Does anyone have any additional anecdotes or data into how this happens? I get that people attribute cost to value, even if the two aren't related at all, but I wonder how this affects institutions at a higher level.