Subject: Funding/Financial support for FreeSoftware
From: Damian Ivereigh (damian@cisco.com)
Date: Tue Dec 18 2001 - 01:19:55 CST
Hi all,
I am investigating the possibilities for funding Free Software such as
Abiword. I am thinking of setting up a system where many people can
contribute small amounts of money to support their favorite Free
Software project. My hope is that this will allow some development work
to be actually funded. This could be done by linking up with
SourceForge, GNU or some other trusted body.
I have outlined a draft (very draft) for the proposal here:
http://www.tpp.org/freesupport/freesupport.html
While there are a bunch of technical and procedural details to be worked
out, I am interested in your comments as developers of Abiword. Would
you be interested in having a popup window as part of Abiword (maybe in
a splash screen) encouraging people to support the work financially and
giving them a quick and easy way to do it. If that is too obtrusive,
then maybe just another link under Help. Or a link on the web page.
How would the money be split among the developers? Would you appoint a
trusted receiver of the money? How would you go about choosing that
person?
My next question would be to the users of Abiword, which would ask if
they would be willing to contribute (and how much - $1, $5, $10?). Would
this be a monthly contribution?
The key thing to grasp is this is about about giving, not paying for.
This is not intended to turn Free Software into ShareWare - there is
nothing demanded or obligatory about this gift.
I am interested in your comments.
Damian
-- Damian Ivereigh CEPS Team Lead http://wwwin-print.cisco.com Desk: +61 2 8446 6344 Mob: +61 418 217 582
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