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

[Aaron Wolf]

On 02/22/2016 02:36 PM, Fabio Pesari wrote:
> On 02/21/2016 06:31 PM, Aaron Wolf wrote:
>>
>> 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
> 
> Thank you. I've found your research satisfying, and I trust you even
> more to do a better job than the aforementioned sites.
> 
>> 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.
> 
> I suppose feedback would be sufficient if it allows user voting.
> 
>> 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 (and I would suppose others) haven't heard about this goal.
> 

Oh, I wasn't stating a particular $100,000 goal, I was just saying we're
basically running on volunteers and tiny donations because, ironically,
there's nothing like Snowdrift.coop to fund us yet.

A little over a year ago, we ran a one-off campaign. We got about
$20,000. Now, I still need to do extra work sending off stickers and
shirts etc. We paid for some legal fees that helped make progress and
covered some development expenses.

If you want to know all the accounting, we're totally transparent:
https://snowdrift.coop/p/snowdrift/w/en/accounting

> I really hope the FSF partners with you, so that they can promote your
> fundraiser on their blogs and hopefully bring in more donations.
> 

We're now in a position where we have to be thoughtful about how much
work we do promoting donations (it's work itself, and it's ironic and
awkward to ask for funding for a funding system, but it's what it is).
So, certainly we'd promote if we run a very specific fund-raiser again,
but right now we're just trying to focus on our limited resources and
attention on getting launched.

We will and should look for grants and such too. But again, it's ironic.
At any rate, we do have our page https://snowdrift.coop/donate

>> 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
> 
> Interesting. I agree with the sentiment, and it might be worth saying
> that there are other people associated with the OSI that support the
> free software philosophy (like Bruce Perens).
> 

I'd go further and say that most of the original anti-Free-Software OSI
people, basically the Eric Raymond sort, they are mostly all gone from
the OSI. They certainly still exist. You can go meet them at OSCON
(although you'll also meet some software freedom people there too).
Still, the OSI happily promotes all use of free/libre/open software,
even when it's by companies that put out non-free stuff for the general
public. But the OSI no longer shies away from promoting software
freedom, and most of the people involved are great folks. You can look
at the board there: https://opensource.org/docs/board-annotated there's
even several direct references to the term "free software" there.

> My only real gripe with the "open source" people is not their
> terminology but rather their insistence on promoting permissive
> licenses. They do not help our cause at all, and I really hope Snowdrift
> will attract more copyleft projects because if the only way to get any
> funding for free software has to be adopting permissive licenses (like
> it is now, in most cases), free programs can never be practically better
> than their proprietary competitors, and things like DRM will keep existing.
> 

Yeah. I'd be curious your thoughts about our page discussing licensing
issues:
https://snowdrift.coop/p/snowdrift/w/en/licenses

Cheers,
Aaron