5 ms·
I read a post recently that said part of the open source funding issue comes down to a financial "structure" mismatch. Open source folks are often individuals o
by akeck 5y ago
I read a post recently that said part of the open source funding issue comes down to a financial "structure" mismatch. Open source folks are often individuals or loose collections of individuals. Sometimes they have things like Patreons, ask to receive crypto currencies, etc. Companies don't/can't provide funding via these types of structures, so the writer of the post ended up incorporating a company, setting up a mercantile bank account, commercial payment processing, etc., so companies would be comfortable funding his efforts. Fortunately, this path is lot easier lately with services like Stripe, etc.
- hotpotamus 5y agoI have a feeling if a company wrote a large enough check, they'd figure out how to cash it.
- ricardobayes 5y agoWell, wrte it to whom? No legal structure is what the comment was partly about.
- themerone 5y agoMy Fortune 500 company has to pay a third party to pay for Google Maps, because we can't pay a supplier with a credit card. If we can't find a way to pay Google, there is no hope for some random developer in Nebraska.
- ytdytvhxgydvhh 5y agoThat feels backwards. Little shops are flexible and can probably do what needs to be done. Lumbering behemoths have (too many) rules and restrict themselves (often) unnecessarily.
- macinjosh 5y agoJust because a dev lives in the Midwest doesn’t mean they’re idiots compared to coastal elites. The hate/mockery/minimizing of anyone not from a major coastal city is really gross. Screw you.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- themerone 5y agoI am a developer in the midwest, and maybe if you hadn't completely missed my poin you wouldn't be such a jerk. Nebraska is a reference to an XKCD Comic (https://xkcd.com/2347/ https://xkcd.com/2347/). The idea is that there are nameless people all over the world contributing to critical open source infrastructure. Back to the point. Running Google Maps on one of my low traffic sites, would generate at most, several dollars a month in charges. It would be a rounding error in our budget, and we can't pay it. Our purchasing rules are not flexible enough to work with google. Paying Google is hard enough, an independent oss developer with no company would be impossible. I would get laughed at if I suggested throwing a few bucks at a developers Patreon.
- lazide 5y agoHow does your company handle coffee? Surely there is SOME mechanism for small incidental charges, or how could your company even exist?
- yjftsjthsd-h 5y agoCoffee company sends a monthly invoice.
- lazide 5y agoSo no Starbucks with a client on sales calls I guess?
- themerone 5y agoNebraska is a reference to https://xkcd.com/2347/ https://xkcd.com/2347/
- ldng 5y agoThey must adapt. Period. And don't worry, when they have to, they do find solutions. The thing is, with open source, you don't have to, worse, the vast majority of enterprises rely because you don't need to make any effort.
- wiether 5y agoSolving this issue isn't one of the goals of https://opencollective.com/ https://opencollective.com/ ?