It's an open marketplace. The project still has to have merit to be funded via Kickstarter or similar venues. The best use of this strategy has been integratio

It's an open marketplace. The project still has to have merit to be funded via Kickstarter or similar venues. The best use of this strategy has been integration of South into Django itself. The funding for this went above and beyond what was expected as everyone released the immense value of getting this work done. Also, I don't believe anyone is getting rich doing this. In the case of South, there was a genuine request of "hey, I can do this, but I can't make too much progress in my free time". Using Ruby on Rails is a little disingenuous example too. It's had the backing of its main company (37signals) since its inception. I do believe that these things will self-adjust itself. On face value, DHH makes interesting arguments. But, projects that are getting funding are being done by people that are already intimidate with the project. Also, the rates that are being set for the hours that will be involved are hardly market rate. What I love about this new model, is that it can push projects into the mainstream whereas companies start getting involved and allow their employees to spend time making fixes and improving the projects. Another example of this was Microsoft's financial support for the jquery UI team for building the grid. They funded I believe at least one developer's salary to get the work done. I don't think anyone would argue that this was a bad move as the jquery team was still in control of the project and the timeline (which has definitely been pushed back with regards to the grid).