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I would be very interested in learning how to go about getting a well funded core team for an open source project (libreqos.io). We are increasingly popular, bu

by dtaht 3y ago

I would be very interested in learning how to go about getting a well funded core team for an open source project (libreqos.io). We are increasingly popular, but still lack a business model. I too tend to reject most friction-creating and value-subtracting processes, but the top ramen is running low.

specialist 3y ago
When you find out, please share. There's dozens of us. I've been slow walking my FOSS releases because I have no idea how to squeeze some ramen out of it. Though my (dare I suggest) paradigm/category busting project was really hard (for me) to figure out, the end result is simplicity itself. And so therefore trivial to clone, fork, run away. Possessing the business acumen of plankton, I've been swindled, plagiarized, and mooted a few times before. I don't need much more than ramen money. But not getting anything while others profit from my work, again, would really suck.
- pombreda 3y ago
  You should not do FOSS if you do not want to make a gift, with few strings attached --if any. Use a proprietary license instead :]
  - specialist 3y ago
    Interesting. Where can I read more about FOSS as gifts?
kdmccormick 3y ago
Happy to share, although I don't know how applicable the journey is to most. The project started as nonprofit with both a business goal (sustain itself by selling online courses) and a philanthropic vision (essentially: increase education access by disrupting the degree market & also open sourcing the code). A decade later, the nonprofit sold the entire online course business, its brand, and most of its staffing to a for-profit company. It kept the copyright to the open source code, and the remaining staff now use the proceeds of the deal as an endowment to pusue the original philanthropic mission, which includes being a sort of core team for that open source code. Some details [0]. The online course business is edx.org, the buyer was 2U, the source code is Open edX [1] and the nonprofit started as edX Inc and was renamed to Axim [2] after the sale. 0. https://press.edx.org/2u-inc.-and-edx-complete-industry-redefining-combination https://press.edx.org/2u-inc.-and-edx-complete-industry-rede... 1. http://github.com/openedx http://github.com/openedx 2. http://axim.org http://axim.org TL;DR: Start off as a nonprofit, build a valuable product, sell the product, and then use the money to continue the nonprofit. YMMV ;) EDIT: Probably obvious, but I should note that this didn't all just "happen"--there were (and are) extremely passionate people on both sides of the sale and in the project's open source community who worked hard & advocated loudly for years, ensuring that both the nonprofit built a compelling product and the open source project thrived. Both of those were critical ingredients in the project getting to its current well-funded state.

by dtaht 3y ago

specialist 3y ago

When you find out, please share. There's dozens of us. I've been slow walking my FOSS releases because I have no idea how to squeeze some ramen out of it. Though my (dare I suggest) paradigm/category busting project was really hard (for me) to figure out, the end result is simplicity itself. And so therefore trivial to clone, fork, run away. Possessing the business acumen of plankton, I've been swindled, plagiarized, and mooted a few times before. I don't need much more than ramen money. But not getting anything while others profit from my work, again, would really suck.

pombreda 3y ago
You should not do FOSS if you do not want to make a gift, with few strings attached --if any. Use a proprietary license instead :]
- specialist 3y ago
  Interesting. Where can I read more about FOSS as gifts?

kdmccormick 3y ago

Happy to share, although I don't know how applicable the journey is to most. The project started as nonprofit with both a business goal (sustain itself by selling online courses) and a philanthropic vision (essentially: increase education access by disrupting the degree market & also open sourcing the code). A decade later, the nonprofit sold the entire online course business, its brand, and most of its staffing to a for-profit company. It kept the copyright to the open source code, and the remaining staff now use the proceeds of the deal as an endowment to pusue the original philanthropic mission, which includes being a sort of core team for that open source code. Some details [0]. The online course business is edx.org, the buyer was 2U, the source code is Open edX [1] and the nonprofit started as edX Inc and was renamed to Axim [2] after the sale. 0. https://press.edx.org/2u-inc.-and-edx-complete-industry-redefining-combination https://press.edx.org/2u-inc.-and-edx-complete-industry-rede... 1. http://github.com/openedx http://github.com/openedx 2. http://axim.org http://axim.org TL;DR: Start off as a nonprofit, build a valuable product, sell the product, and then use the money to continue the nonprofit. YMMV ;) EDIT: Probably obvious, but I should note that this didn't all just "happen"--there were (and are) extremely passionate people on both sides of the sale and in the project's open source community who worked hard & advocated loudly for years, ensuring that both the nonprofit built a compelling product and the open source project thrived. Both of those were critical ingredients in the project getting to its current well-funded state.