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I've given a lot of my time to open source projects for the same reasons without getting monetary compensation, however: 1. I don't think that companies will e

I've given a lot of my time to open source projects for the same reasons without getting monetary compensation, however: 1. I don't think that companies will ever give back to a project if there is no "ask". To do this GitHub, etc. could provide an easier way to take gifts. 2. The odds of companies giving gifts would seem to be very low even if there was a big "give" button, because: a. The person that would typically see the value in giving would have to provide a very good reason for the need for that gift to the administration of the company, whose interest is making money, not giving gifts to external entities. And it needs to look good on the books, too, so in my experience they would rather for the development time or just pay for a support license. b. It isn't a gift if you are getting something for it. If it can be proven that you were funding something that was a product/service, you may need to pay VAT, etc. on it. The rules and laws surrounding this vary depending on country and province. c. Could your gift be considered funding to a project you didn't intend to fund without documentation saying explicitly what the gift was to fund (and at that point, if you have that document, then it is no longer a gift- it is payment for a product or service). You don't want to give a gift for X project and then find out that it looks like you gave a gift to someone that also wrote a virus. d. Instead of a gift, if you are taking payment for services to write software, then ownership comes into account. Is it work for hire or not? Who owns the copyright? You may need to have a contract and declare that you are an individual contractor and that the work is not work for hire. But again the rules may differ depending on location of the developer and of the business that wants to "give" to that developer.

ScottBurson 14y ago
I think crowdfunding could offer a solution to these problems. I think there are some special requirements to make this work. First, the companies that want the work done need to commit to pay before it's done, so the developer knows how much they can expect to receive. Second, on the other hand, there needs to be an evaluation step, so the contributors don't have to pay if the work does not live up to their collective expectations. I don't think the Kickstarter-style model, where the developer receives all the money in advance unconditionally, can attract a lot of contributions from businesses. And as you say, companies would need to know exactly what they're buying with this money. Fundamentally, they're buying influence: influence over what project the developer works on, influence over the details of the work, and influence over the evaluation process. All this is a shameless plug for my crowdfunding site: https://bountyoss.com/ https://bountyoss.com/

ScottBurson 14y ago

I think crowdfunding could offer a solution to these problems. I think there are some special requirements to make this work. First, the companies that want the work done need to commit to pay before it's done, so the developer knows how much they can expect to receive. Second, on the other hand, there needs to be an evaluation step, so the contributors don't have to pay if the work does not live up to their collective expectations. I don't think the Kickstarter-style model, where the developer receives all the money in advance unconditionally, can attract a lot of contributions from businesses. And as you say, companies would need to know exactly what they're buying with this money. Fundamentally, they're buying influence: influence over what project the developer works on, influence over the details of the work, and influence over the evaluation process. All this is a shameless plug for my crowdfunding site: https://bountyoss.com/ https://bountyoss.com/