Open source bounty projects

[Belathor]

Hi,

I am not a programmer but I'd like to see if anything like this has ever been proposed:

A website where open-source bounties are listed in an ebay-esque manner. By this, I envision a list of open-source bounties and a current running total of how much the bounty is worth. It would be easy to add, say, $20 to the bounty and have the running total increase.

This way, non-programmers can facilitate the development of open-source applications that fit thier needs in a way that would give monitary feedback to developers as to which features and applications are most desired by users.

Thanks for listening!

[kingmonkey]

Set the website up. Patent the idea. Charge 5% comission on all transactions and be rich. ;)

[skymt]

Set the website up. Patent the idea. Charge 5% comission on all transactions and be rich. ;)
He'd have to be a programmer to do that, wouldn't he? ;)

(Or hire one.)

[yaaarrrgg]

that's a great idea... should be a bounty on that! :)

really, the only tricky thing would be figuring out a good security model (so crackers don't try to exploit it). i suppose:

1. you'd have to require real identification from programmers (verified bank account, mailing address, ...)

2. all code would need to be open for public scrutiny.

[Belathor]

that's a great idea... should be a bounty on that! :)

really, the only tricky thing would be figuring out a good security model (so crackers don't try to exploit it). i suppose:

1. you'd have to require real identification from programmers (verified bank account, mailing address, ...)

2. all code would need to be open for public scrutiny.

Absolutely! :-D

[orlox]

I think you're idea was already taken:

http://www.ubuntu.com/developers/bounties?highlight=%28bounty%29

[yaaarrrgg]

yeah...but i'm not sure that is exactly like what he is suggesting.

this site is probably a closer match:

https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+bounties

but still not sure it is as easy to use as ebay. I think he means it would be somewhat like a dutch auction, but you are "bidding" on software that is not yet complete. I couldn't find any easy way to add money to the bounties ...

[Belathor]

yeah...but i'm not sure that is exactly like what he is suggesting.

this site is probably a closer match:

https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+bounties

but still not sure it is as easy to use as ebay. I think he means it would be somewhat like a dutch auction, but you are "bidding" on software that is not yet complete. I couldn't find any easy way to add money to the bounties ...

I wouldn't say Dutch Auction is the right term (http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery;jsessionid=64ck8nfjd34ga?tname=auction-1&sbid=lc07a).But yes, an auction style bounty system is what I have in mind. My hope is that such a system would increase the amount of free lance development in linux by offering more high paying bounties on desired features.

There are a few applications in Windows that don't have open-source equivalents. Take autocad for example. Sure, there is QCad, but a serious engineer will want her autocad because of all the features it has. If all the linux users who wanted an opensource clone of autocad (say 2500) started a bounty and each pitched in $50 (a lot less than a few thousand) to the bounty for the program, thats $125,000 more incentive to develop it. It's like commercial software in the sense that the programmers get paid by users who offer the bounty, but the source code remains open for further development.

Anyway, I just thought that this would make it a little easier for non-programmers to help encourage development of better and better open source software!

EDIT: Codeweavers pledge system is kind of a good example of what I'd like to see in the open source community.

[Kvark]

Yes, great vision!

There are several bounty sites already but they are all too small for hordes of average users to invade them like on ebay. Right now it isn't an issue since almost all average users are on Windows. But if Linux would gain a significant portion of the desktop market then bounties would become a big market. Just picture 100 million average ex Windows-users who want all kinds of new features that doesn't exist yet but don't know how to program. The only way they can get the features they want is to pay someone else to do it for them.

I doubt any of the existing bounty sites could handle that market. This would require a really big and easy bounty site, so big and easy that average users know about it and use it like with ebay. I think it would take someone like the company behind sourceforge to make a bounty site that can handle many millions of average desktop users if/when they switch to Linux.

[sorin7486]

hello ppl....

I don't know if anybody is still watching this but here I go:

have you seen https://blueprints.launchpad.net/launchpad/+spec/bountypledges

????????????
I think we should support this feature in launchpad ... if nothing else just subscribe to it to show developers you are interested...

[lnostdal]

I have also been thinking about this before ( http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/msg/3342eb8729e9d936 ).

Is anyone working on this? If not, I am seriously considering setting up a code-repo and start implementing this.

[sorin7486]

Hey,

I have already set up a project un SF for this ... but sadly I didn't really had the time to work on it(school and the job...). It's a web application in JSF(that's what I do at my job so I thought I could us it for this as well).. Even got a thumbs up from one of the myfaces developers. But the problem is that for what I wanted to do I need more than just a site... I don't want it to be just another place for people to discuss nice to have features for ever... I want it to look more like a donation for prise service that any project could use... And for this I need people like package maintainers to get involved and integration with different sites. Launchpad already has that so it would be nice to do it there.. I know it's not an open source project but I'm not interested in the code as much as I am in the service, for I am a user and a developer at the same time..

[sorin7486]

ps: please subscribe to this feature, and maybe put your thoughts in.. I am trying to attract attention on this thing. https://blueprints.launchpad.net/launchpad/+spec/bountypledges

[jvc26]

I think thats such a quality idea - is anyone starting this beyond the initial mention on SF?
Il

[pmasiar]

There are several bounty sites already but they are all too small for hordes of average users (...) Just picture 100 million average ex Windows-users (...)I doubt any of the existing bounty sites could handle that market.

I would not worry about those hordes. Maybe 1% of users will bother contributing, and maybe 1% of them will find your website and try to contribute - there are many other ways to contribute. It might be good news (even simple website can handle it) or bad news (less money pledged).

Once your pledge website is up and running and popular, you may start worrying about handling the traffic :-) Lots of traffic is the problem most websites would love to have.


I have already set up a project un SF for this (...) I don't want it to be just another place for people to discuss nice to have features for ever... I want it to look more like a donation for prise service that any project could use... And for this I need people like package maintainers to get involved and integration with different sites.

There is much work to integrate with project sites which already have some way to collect bounties, and some (like putty) are not interested in money donations at all.

Maybe good start would be a wiki with projects (categorized by some means) where you can find links to project what accept donations, and places to start pledges. But again, there are dozens of different pledges sites...


It's a web application in JSF (...) Launchpad already has that so it would be nice to do it there.. I know it's not an open source project but I'm not interested in the code as much as I am in the service, for I am a user and a developer at the same time...

That's another problem: which technology to use? Launchpad is in Python... Many open source developers use for "fun projects" fun languages (Python/Ruby: you can create app faster and have more fun) and not the "enterprisey" languages they have to use at work.

Maybe best start would be to find 3-4 projects what do not accept donations currently, but would like to, and figure how to solve that.

Maybe easiest way is to contact webmaster of project's website, suggest you create a donation page for them, and learn how to set up contributions.

There is also financial side to contributions: in most countries, donation is income and someone needs to pay taxes from it, or nonprofit organization needs be founded and properly registered.

Maybe some existing nonprofit would be willing to create subaccounts for projects - so your contribution would be "know-how" know how to create sub-account, and contacting each project and connect developers+webmaster+pledgepage+subaccount. See, thats project management, not coding - anyone can do that.

Yeah, looks like everything may exist and we need just connect the dots. That's exactly what I found in free software: if something is a good idea, someone already had it and created project to solve it, and you can either try to join that project, or create yet another competing project like that. Joining makes more sense to me....

But you wanted to code, and create yet another website. Oh well ....

[lnostdal]

some (like putty) are not interested in money donations at all.

but maybe they are interested in patches (instead of money) from third parties - and they do not care if someone somehow paid the person(s) providing those patches

if not, one can always fork - or if possible provide the extra fixes/features as a plugin .. but this is just one way of finding a way to give users what they want .. details .. :)

[ZylGadis]

Lazy payment is a great idea, Lars, and I have been thinking about something similar for quite some time. Here are my thoughts:

1. If there are just pledges (which most, if not all of the current systems use), there is no guarantee to the developer that the people will fulfil their pledge once the software is completed. I would not spend time on developing software with such a meager incentive to back me up. (Of course, if there are other incentives, e.g. I like that particular software, that is different.)

2. If there is "lazy payment" from the users, another big problem surfaces. First, for the purposes of clarity, I consider the "lazy payment" scheme to consist of this:

- Users send payments - actual payments, not just pledges - to an organization with the hope that the payments will be a sufficient incentive for a developer to complete the requested feature.
- Said organization collects the payments and puts them into feature buckets, so that multiple payments for a single feature accumulate.
- A developer, or multiple developers, complete the feature.
- The organization evaluates the developers' work and decides whether they should receive the money for the feature.

Barring the obvious problems of trust with the organization and so on (multiple schemes of evaluating software should exist, etc), the one problem that can't be solved by enthusiasts with this scheme is: the organization will collect the money and hold it for some time. This simply means that the organization becomes a bank, will get taxed and audited accordingly, etc. In short, we need capitalists for this plan to succeed, and I personally detest depending on capitalists, and will never trust one.

[sorin7486]

@ pmasiar:

I started with java because I already have the base form other projects and I can get the site up very fast... I just mentioned this because I know there aren't many people out there that are interested in such a thing and I don't want to get everybody's hopes high.

And you are wrong ... most sites don't offer bounties ... some of them offer a way to make pledges or donations but that's not what I am talking about... When I say integration I mean for example with the SF bugtracker...

@ ZylGadis

lazy payments was just what I was thinking about .... The thing is: If I make a site that allows people to make bounties for a project.. let's say ubuntu.. then I must keep in touch with someone from ubuntu(like a maintainer) to validate the patch... and just after that I will give the money to the developer... plus It would be nice to integrate for example with launchpad... so that when someone asks for a feature the people from ubuntu can review it first and say that already exists.. it's in work ... or maybe we just don't want it... and after the review if the feature is useful you can start putting money on it... I don't think people should spend time and money on a feature that has no chance of being included in a project because the developers don't like it.

an example of what I have in mind is this:
https://www.bountysource.com/

The only difference is that I want it to be as a service for other projects... not a clone of sourceforge. And I don't want it to look as an enterprise solution either... I think community is the key word here...

[pmasiar]

most sites don't offer bounties ... some of them offer a way to make pledges or donations but that's not what I am talking about... When I say integration I mean for example with the SF bugtracker(...)
plus It would be nice to integrate for example with launchpad... so that when someone asks for a feature the people from ubuntu can review it first and say that already exists.. it's in work ... or maybe we just don't want it... and after the review if the feature is useful you can start putting money on it... I don't think people should spend time and money on a feature that has no chance of being included in a project because the developers don't like it.(...)
The only difference is that I want it to be as a service for other projects... not a clone of sourceforge. And I don't want it to look as an enterprise solution either... I think community is the key word here...

Exactly. Many (most) projects accept donations, and all projects have user mailing list, so individual users can suggest feature and pledge to finance it. Maybe the simplest solution would be to ask developers for the feature, and trust them to use money you contributed to the best of the project.

If you want to go further, to provide web interface to pledge money from multiple users for one feature, it is much harder for you: do you want to provide also escrow service which will take money from users and release them after completion? People will vote on features? Developers will have one more place to discuss pro and cons of proposed features? People are usually reluctant to learn using one more tool without clear benefits - and you are aware that amount users will pledge is peanuts compared with amount of time developers need for the feature.

It looks to me that you have a solution in your mind but you do not have users - projects willing to use it.

Maybe you should start from the projects - as what would be good solution for them, and implement it, instead of creating a solution *you* think is good enough, and then looking for projects willing to use it.

Maybe good start could be very flexible and very popular bug tracking system Trac (http://trac.edgewall.org/) which integrates wiki - so it will be almost trivial to link bug with wiki page for pledges (with no escrow).

Do the simplest thing which can possibly be useful, and start from there. It is better to have something simple, which us usefull to couple projects, than something with complicated design, but no users.

IMHO, YMMV. Of course you can do whatever you want to do in your free time, and I may be wrong. Good luck.

[sorin7486]

You don't read everything in my posts do you ? ...

Yes I want to provide escrow for the funds... thats what lazy payment means ... It's not going to be easy... I'll have to start a foundation or NGO to be able to do this but I know a few people than can help me with the knowledge at least.

I do have at least one project that is interested in this kind of feature.... It's not in the linux realm sadly...

And I want to integrate it with the existing bugtracking and project planning tools just because I don't want it to be just another place where users bother developers with crazy ideas that nobody wants to support other than a bunch of dreamers...

It is a simple idea ... and not so hard to implement... I think It would be really easy to do in Launchpad because it suits the aim of the project and it would fit really nicely. And it would be useful for us, the ubuntu users, don't you think ? That's the reason I am posting here: I am trying to find interest in the community so that Canonical would at least consider implementing it in their product. If that doesn't happen I'll be on my way :).

Please don't be so negative and try throwing in some ideas... not just the reasons why I shouldn't do it because I, for one, am not interested in those. I understand your position and I want to thank you for the input. Feedback is always useful.

[sorin7486]

Here is a possible situation for you:

Let's say there's an idea floating around for a feature that users really want, but developer don't care about... I mean, they just don't see it as interesting enough to bother. So the developers put it up for a bounty... meaning that if someone implements it, they will integrate it. So the users can start and chip in a few bucks at a time... It might take a long time but sooner or later the bounty might reach critical mass... that means that enough money could be raised to become interesting to somebody.

If you're a developer you have the certainty you will get paid(because the money is already in the pot) and if you are a user you will have the opportunity to do more than just talk about it and make pledges... it can be very frustrating to talk forever about nice things... at least this way you can put the money where your mouth is...

Just a vision for now :P ....

[pmasiar]

I am not negative IMHO - I am just in architecture design mode, trying to find obstacles before your implementation hits them. If you know about problems and are ready to handle them, even better - you obviously put more time into thinking about this project... But you did not mentioned that you know about obstacles, and my ESP is cloudy today... :-)

Yes I want to provide escrow for the funds... thats what lazy payment means ... It's not going to be easy... I'll have to start a foundation or NGO

You did not explained what "lazy payment" means. Standard term for it is "escrow" AFAICT. Starting NGO is not easy, and *gaining trust* so people will send you money is even harder. I assumed you will work with some existing trusted NGO instead of creating your own. Up to you.


I do have at least one project that is interested in this kind of feature.... It's not in the linux realm sadly...

Is it free software? If yes, it might be a start. If not, I don't see how it is relevant.


And I want to integrate it with the existing bugtracking and project planning tools (...) really easy to do in Launchpad

IFAIK Launchpad is proprietary closed-source Canonical software, so I don't see how you can integrate with that. That's why I suggested Trac - do you read my posts? :-)


I am trying to find interest in the community so that Canonical would at least consider implementing it in their product. If that doesn't happen I'll be on my way :).

I do think it will be extremely hard (even for whole Ubuntu community) to force Canonical to implement anyone's suggestions for (their own proprietary) Launchpad. It is not negativity - this is explaining you the obvious facts, which you for some reason seems not understand. Canonical owns code, and implements features they need. Once (if) they release sources, we can play with it, but not before.


Please don't be so negative and try throwing in some ideas... not just the reasons why I shouldn't do it because I, for one, am not interested in those.

Well I did throw some ideas - much simpler ideas how to realize something similar to your goal with only 10% of the features you propose, but which might be used by someone. My suggestion is to start with something simple which works for one project.

You seems to assume that coding the website is the hard part. I disagree - IMHO hard part is
(1) gaining trust of people so they deposit money to escrow,
(2) gaining trust of project developers that you are not yet another wannabe suggesting features and promising money
(3) finding some missing feature of some project and enough users interesting in it so you can deliver your first result - to prove you are talking business.

I would start with (2) and (3) - talk to developers about missing feature. You want to start coding - no problem, go start writing code. Good luck!

[sorin7486]

I don't assume coding is the hard part... I told you I can put up a site really quick ... in JSF :) ...

I didn't mean that the ubuntu community should force canonical to implement this... It's just that they seem to be quite opened, for a company, and I figured maybe if we show some interest they might pick it up (considering there's already a proposal for this feature on Launchpad)... It would be allot easier for them to do it anyways since they have all the pieces... But if they decide to pass there's nothing I can do about it..

There are allot of open source projects like Launchpad(although not many that aim as high) that I can integrate this feature in... some even in java :)

And here is another thought... If I find the time and get really serious on this project it will be for the java open source community... That's just because I can get the support I need there.. And the interesting thing is the java open source community is a whole different world from the linux one.. Most of the java developers don't even use linux... So if canonical implements this feature in Launchpad, it would do no good to the java community because they wouldn't care... (as you said Launchpad is written in python and most java developers have little respect for anything that's not pure java :P). But it would be a very god example and motivation to attract people... I mean... it would be like: "look guys what the rest of the world is doing .... let's have this cool little thing in pure java style :P who's with me :D"... just a nice easy sell...

[slowwalk]

Deleted. OFF topic.

[sorin7486]

man ... I'm confused ... how come your on this forum then ??? and hy would you make a thing like the one that was just discussed here if it's not for open source (rhetorical).....


I am sorry to hear that linux isn't working for you... for me it works just fine.. I use it at home and at work... the boss was initially skeptical but I think the advantage of having someone with this set of skills is far greater than any small problems I had, and have along the way... And if you think about moving to germany, I have to warn you... they are crazy about open source :P

Anyways good luck to you and if you manage to get the thing going don't forget to let us know

[slowwalk]

deleted. OFF topic.

[Wybiral]

Sorry for not being clear.
* First point: I like forums to bring up ideas and know about other people working on them but I prefer natural speech conversations. My words should be interpreted in the following sense: "anyone wants to meet and talk about this?", because basically I'd like to go out today, and I don't want to spend my saturday night in front of the computer if I can have a good conversation with somebody else.

* I WON'T DISCUSS if Linux is appropiate or not. It simply doesn't work for me, in my context. Right now I'm running linux because I'm just surfing the web, listening to music and looking my email but I'll reboot in windows to build a VST plugin because I'm working in a effects plugin and to practice using Band-in-a-box. You can do some research about ways to replace this programs in linux (I did) but, trust me, don't waste your time. I'm happy that it works for you. I'd be happy if it worked for me. I like having control on the things I depend on. I like changing them, I like freedom. BUT, people are competitive and sometimes I have to choose the devil to keep alive and have a decent life. I don't like to be a martyr.

* Finally, I want to work in this bounty system to be able to create programs that are open source (of course!) but not using the traditional "donation" or "purely altruistic" system. BUT I STILL LOVE OPEN SOURCE! (*when it works*) (I'm editing my previous post right now to avoid more misunderstandings, "opensource crisis" seems a better way to explain what I feel).

Linux doesn't work for you because it lacks one program?

BTW, wait for ubuntu studio to come out... It will soon!

http://ubuntustudio.org/

Have you checked out audiere?

[Tomosaur]

This is too slow, people will have fun discouraging you and somebody else will steal your nicest ideas without even telling you.

That's a pretty bleak outlook. You sound like you've made your mind up to do something anyway, and you're not really looking for feedback or help at all. If you just want a bunch of yes-men telling you your idea is great, then clearly, this isn't the right place for you. I don't think anyone here is going to sink so low as to 'steal' your ideas - and that whole concept is pretty alien to FOSS developers anyway. You can't 'steal' an idea - it is not a tangible object. It sucks when someone doesn't credit you, yes, but if you're too lazy or incompetent to implement a great idea yourself, then you have no reason to complain. Put up or shut up is the order of the day, I'm afraid. The only way to protect your 'ideas' is to never speak to any human being at all.

[slowwalk]

Linux doesn't work for you because it lacks one program?

BTW, wait for ubuntu studio to come out... It will soon!

http://ubuntustudio.org/

Have you checked out audiere?

I know it. Paul, jack, ardour.org guys rock. I wish them the best luck and this ubuntu project is giving everybody the opportunity to try their software and other excellent available apps. But it's still not enough for me; I don't like it for some reasons that developers already know and they can't fix because they aren't paid enough money....

I'll stop criticizing open source projects and I'll work on my own and show you my results after this summer OK? If you can do better, do it, and show me your results. I promise that when I finish programming the website, I will make all those ideas public.

[sorin7486]

ok guys... let's keep this thread about bounties :) ... i don't want to wonder off too much ...

slowwalk .. I was just making conversation man ... and showing off because I have a bit more freedom at work than most :P... Just don't forget to keep us posted when you launch.. I think ubuntu is one of the best candidates for this kind of a site because of the huge number of users that have nothing to do with programming...

now go out and have some phun... i've gon an exam tomorow and gotta stick around :P


so .. anybody else has something to say about this idea ?

[Tomosaur]

I know it. Paul, jack, ardour.org guys rock. I wish them the best luck and this ubuntu project is giving everybody the opportunity to try their software and other excellent available apps. But it's still not enough for me; I don't like it for some reasons that developers already know and they can't fix because they aren't paid enough money....

To the last poster: Ok, I apologize. This wasn't politically correct. I'll stop criticizing open source projects and I'll work on my own and show you my results after this summer OK? You have the right to hate me. Life is hard and I do what I can, trust me. Not sharing ideas isn't a wonderful idea, but we're still in capitalism and when I go buy food they ask me money, and they don't care whether I am nice guy or not.
If you can do better, do it, and show me your results.

Finally, obviously I'm not asking to people that say yes to all my ideas, but I want to keep this discussion private. Hope that this explains my attitude, even if you all hate it. I promise that when I finish programming the website, I will make all those ideas public.

All the best to all of you, I'm not posting anymore, I think now I said all I had to say...

I don't hate you :O

You have as much right to post here as anyone else, I welcome you defending your position and discussing ideas and such. It's called debate. We have differing opinions - if people didn't put their views forward then we'd live in a very boring world indeed.

[pmasiar]

slowwalk seems to me a rather confused young man - confused about sharing ideas.

If you have idea and I have idea, and we share, both of us have two ideas, and fact that you have my idea does not diminish my own idea.

Most ideas are not worth stealing. You are lucky if people will accept your idea for free - sometimes you need to force it down their throats to get it accepted :-)



(linux) simply doesn't work for me, in my context.

I'm happy that it works for you. I'd be happy if it worked for me. I like having control on the things I depend on. I like changing them, I like freedom. BUT, people are competitive and sometimes I have to choose the devil to keep alive and have a decent life. I don't like to be a martyr.


But it's still not enough for me; I don't like it for some reasons that developers already know and they can't fix because they aren't paid enough money.....

There is nothing in Linux what is supposed to "work for him". Free software is build by it's users, who "scratch their own itch" and then from pure generosity share results with others, for free. And if you, slowwalk, have some very special itch which nobody scratched yet, you have (also for free) all the tools to solve your itch. It is up to you share results or not - developers are so generous that you can use tools for free even if you do not wan to share results back.

But nobody owes you, slowwalk, a solution of your problems for free - just the opposite is true - many people (like me) feel that we obtained a lot for free and want to return the favor, give back - and if we cannot (yet) return favor in code, we are helping others to use results (created by others), like helping people in this forum. You feel it is waste of time - so I am wasting time on you, hoping that other reading this may "see the ligth". Maybe even you. Maybe. I do not hold my breath.

I have no problem you want to make living by programming. Many people (including me) do, even using free software: you can give avay software for free and charge for services. Or you may want keep your idea - and if your idea is any good, somebody will reimplement it, and share, and improve.

You sound like (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leech) a leech (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leech_%28computing%29), slowwalk, and I am not sure I would want to go to a project with you. It is not only politically incorrect - it is dishonest. You want your good life and don't want be a martyr - so you want developers to work in their own free time (while you are at the party) to solve problems you have and those developers don't? And then give it to you, free, and thank you for taking it?

If Linux works for someone, great. If something is missing in Linux, nobody needs to apologize - tools are free, anyone can either fix it or hire someone to fix it. Add then give it away free - or even sell fix to others. This is not socialism - this is capitalistic freedom.

Sorry for hijacking thread a little, but after someone apologized that "linux does not work for him" I felt really strong urge to explainhow I feel about sharing ideas.

Now, back to regular programming... :-)

[Wybiral]

If some free software project doesn't have an adequate feature, request it. Or, better yet... Implement it yourself!

Besides, that's what this thread was about... With a bounty, the feature you want is more likely to get implemented.

[sorin7486]

Now I totally understand why Linus doesn't like to get too much involved in the political struggle... It's just not practical... I think I might start a new thread on advocacy strategies, does and don't s ...

[slowwalk]

I deleted all my posts because I don't want to generate more controversy. I'm really sorry for this, Sorin. (moderator>) If you want to delete my messages and those that are related, feel free to do it. I learned the lesson.


If some free software project doesn't have an adequate feature, request it. Or, better yet... Implement it yourself!
Besides, that's what this thread was about... With a bounty, the feature you want is more likely to get implemented.

Exactly! But people should be paid for their work otherwise it's unfair to ask them to be responsible for it. And the subject of this thread is how to make bounties more effective to be able to finance open source projects in a proper way...

[Yfrwlf]

Hi,

I am not a programmer but I'd like to see if anything like this has ever been proposed:

A website where open-source bounties are listed in an ebay-esque manner. By this, I envision a list of open-source bounties and a current running total of how much the bounty is worth. It would be easy to add, say, $20 to the bounty and have the running total increase.

This way, non-programmers can facilitate the development of open-source applications that fit thier needs in a way that would give monitary feedback to developers as to which features and applications are most desired by users.

Thanks for listening!

Hi Belathor, I'm currently working on such a project except instead of offering bounties, end-users will make their needs known, and developers will form project proposals including the cost to develop such a program to fulfill the need. The project can be given votes of interest, and the payments can be taken. I'm considering a point system where points are purchased and can be committed to projects. Things are still up in the air a bit, and I'm looking for others who are interested in such a project. The site isn't user-friendly yet, which is the next step for the Open Development Network (http://www.opendevelopmentnetwork.org) <--link. I agree with you that end-users who can't develop need a way to contribute, and if that means paying for software that is fine. This solution, a bounty, or donations are some ways to accomplish this. With ODN though, it provides some transparency to make sure you don't get scammed from donations (hate to mention that, but it could happen, some churches do it after all). I hope it will provide a "one-stop shop" for basically buying open source software. Lofty goals, yes, but I'm determined to try for it as I believe it's needed.

[jeremyh]

I'm a PHP programmer and would definitely be interested in working on something like this. If we could get a couple developers together, find some one to host it, this could work.

You have to maintain some sort of escrow account, otherwise you wouldn't be able to guarantee the people that offered money would pay up. Thats the hardest part IMO, mostly because you need to be able to trust the people holding your money, and be able to refund if the bounty wasn't claimed in a X period of time. It'd be great if you could find a third-party that would manage that (someone like Canonical), but that'd be hard.

[jeremyh]

You would also have to come up with a way of generating revenue. Not that it would need a ton, just to cover hosting fees. You could do something like take X percentage of the bounty up to a X amount (something like $5 for example), that way the developer gets most of the money with a small amount taken for hosting bills. Donations may even work so that 100% goes to the developer.

[Yfrwlf]

I'm a PHP programmer and would definitely be interested in working on something like this. If we could get a couple developers together, find some one to host it, this could work.

You have to maintain some sort of escrow account, otherwise you wouldn't be able to guarantee the people that offered money would pay up. Thats the hardest part IMO, mostly because you need to be able to trust the people holding your money, and be able to refund if the bounty wasn't claimed in a X period of time. It'd be great if you could find a third-party that would manage that (someone like Canonical), but that'd be hard.

You would also have to come up with a way of generating revenue. Not that it would need a ton, just to cover hosting fees. You could do something like take X percentage of the bounty up to a X amount (something like $5 for example), that way the developer gets most of the money with a small amount taken for hosting bills. Donations may even work so that 100% goes to the developer.

If you had users purchase "points", or a voucher for the software, you could avoid needing an escrow service. So far our ODN project hasn't gained much attention, though maybe I'm telling the wrong groups about it. We're looking at having someone completely redo the site and make it fully operational using PHP and such, and would love help and ideas. Maybe after we get it fully functional it will start getting attention, but we'll see. It's also hard to get attention if there are no projects on it of course, but hopefully we can get enough people with requests for software that it will attract developers. That's the plan so far. :)