Re: [libreplanet-discuss] Solving the prisoner's dilemma in crowdfunding

[Aaron Wolf]

On 02/21/2016 08:19 AM, Fabio Pesari wrote:
> On 02/19/2016 06:36 PM, Aaron Wolf wrote:
>>
>> Just come help us with the existing effort!
>>
>> I and a few dozen other people have already been working hard for a long
>> time (and making great progress lately) on creating an entire holistic
>> platform to address all these issues. Please come join us.
>>
>> The site is: https://snowdrift.coop
> 
> Hello Aaron,
> 
> I've known about Snowdrift for a long time, so long I've actually come
> to think of it as vaporware - I hope you will forgive me for that, since
> I'm sure you are working hard on it. Still, how long before launch? Is
> there something in particular you are missing?
> 

It's not crazy to think that something that's a long time coming may
never come. But certainly nobody should even consider starting new
initiatives without checking on the status of existing ones,
understanding why they are struggling, learning from their research etc.
Anyone setting out to solve the same issues would likely run into the
same challenges *especially* if they don't absorb all the perspectives
from the history of past efforts.

In short, we never had $200,000 to pay a team to work on this. We had a
few of us part time learning what the heck we were doing. From the
beginning, we've had a strong message of "this is a good idea, this is
how it needs to work, the details aren't set in stone, please come help
us make this real". Thankfully, the team is now larger than ever,
growing, the new web design is major improvement, things are
progressing, we've learned a lot… I simply don't have time hear to
express all the challenges of why it's taken so long to get going, but
please trust me that if you want to learn about it all, you'll get that
it all makes sense. Not that every step has been taken perfectly and
it's just that much work to do. We *have* made some mistakes and then
switched gears to fix the issues. But that's inevitable. It's a learning
process.

> I would very much like to see Snowdrift thrive, and I will give your
> articles a through look (even if I am no economist).
> 
> Meanwhile, as a simple user, there are many things I would like to see
> in practice, a proper implementation of BountySource above all. Would
> that be possible under Snowdrift?
> 

BountySource is never going to be a broad solution. There have literally
been *dozens* of completely operating versions of bounty sites tried
over the past 15 years. It is literally the first thing almost everyone
thinks about when they decide they are going to start a new solution to
fund FLO software. It is not a good model, and history has made this
painfully clear.

Instead of having to do the research yourself, here it is, we did it for
you:
https://snowdrift.coop/p/snowdrift/w/en/status-quo-floss#bounties

We not only understand why that doesn't work well, we understand why it
appeals to people and have plans to incorporate the elements that matter
(feedback from patrons to projects about their priorities) without
making the mistakes that bounty sites always do.

> How does Snowdrift approach projects built from scratch, especially
> those which require a substantial effort to even get started?
> 

We say: we're not trying to focus on that. The top priority for FLO is
to better fund the existing projects. We don't need new projects just to
be new or to have *quantity* of projects. We want *quality*. There are
already kickstarter-style one-time fund-drive things like crazy. We're
not focusing on supporting major initiatives. There's already a crowded
market for ways to do that. We'll just mention that when you *do*
support new startups, please only support FLO ones.

> And do you have a legal team? How is its legal status in countries
> outside the US? There should be a way to pay all the proper regional taxes.
> 

And you were wondering why we aren't launched yet. ;)

Things like legal status as a co-op, handling money, international
stuff. Almost nobody has solved all these things. There's questions
about tax exemption if, for example, we get 501 status in the U.S.

We have a lawyer who is a co-op expert, but she's not pro bono. We have
volunteers researching things and working on this alongside lots of
other questions. We know a lawyer we like for FLO issues, also not pro bono.

If we had $100,000, we could fund all the legal work we need. Instead,
we're doing all we can as volunteers to minimize the costs.


> I also am extremely glad you joined up with the OSI and I hope the FSF
> (and sister organizations, like the FSFE) will also join them as soon as
> possible. This might be a good occasion for reconciliation, since if
> there is a thing the open source people like more than they hate
> idealism, it's money!
> 

Absolutely. And Allison Randall, the OSI president, who is now an
advisor for us is herself an active FSF member and supporter. If you
didn't see it yet, here's our explanation about that whole situation
from our (my) perspective:

https://snowdrift.coop/p/snowdrift/blog/osi-partnership

We just had a meetup here in Portland Friday night where 10 people
showed up (despite a few who didn't make it). We had a booth at SCaLE
where we met lots of new interested volunteers. Our new Community
Director gave a short talk at FOSDEM. We'll have some representatives
attending LibrePlanet and then LinuxFest NW. We're pushing ahead, and I
hope to get more important things done and announced soon. Help and
donations right now will make a difference to us getting launched.

Cheers,
Aaron