[kwlug disc.] Proposal: Free Software Buying Club

[Chris Bruner]

I think that Richards idea of a valentine card is good, although I do 
think it should be a monthly thing.  Everyone does like to be 
recognized.  So to give an example. Some guy has worked on a really neat 
OS project and we feel he should be recognized. How do we send a card? 
What's his address?

I also know that Canadian dollars are unusual in the states and probably 
other parts of the world as well :)  They are so colourful! So here's a 
thought. Assuming we can get an address, how about we just put the money 
inside the valentines card. If the developer likes it he converts it to 
the currency he can use.  If not he can show his friends and families 
etc that Canadians value his work. We can also politely request that he 
send us a postcard or picture via email letting us know he received it.  
Keeping it informal will work best.

I also think Paul is right in thinking that this might be an idea that 
takes off with other lugs, as long as we have a system that works for 
us, I can see it getting publicity.

Chris

Paul Nijjar wrote:
> On Wed, 1 Nov 2006, Unsolicited at gto.net wrote:
>
>   
>> First - why would we, as a small LUG, for all the reasons Paul and Richard
>> point out, be doing this?
>>     
> 	Precisely because we are a small, local organization. We can do
> grassroots outreach about this issue using infrastructre that people
> already make use of -- namely our website and our mailing lists.
>
> 	In some way, it's the same reason we bother asking questions on
> the KWLUG list instead of all signing up for LinuxQuestions and just
> asking there.
>
> 	On that note, maybe I can comment on the difference I see between
> Glenn's vision and my proposal. I do think that the idea of regular PayPal
> withdrawals might work as a payment plan. However, it sounds as if Glenn
> is thinking on a much bigger scale than I am. Having hundreds of projects
> and spreading contributions across them all only results in $10-20 per
> project if there are thousands of contributors. I am thinking of this on a
> much, much smaller level, where maybe 5-10 people give money in a
> particular month, and the project in question gets something on the order
> of $50-100.
> 	That is another reason I prefer picking a small number of projects
> (like one a month) and focussing on it -- it allows us to concentrate our
> energies as a LUG. That means lots of worthy projects will fall through
> the cracks, but I don't think we can avoid that.
>
> 	Having said that, I do think that Glenn's idea has merit, and it
> might be worth pursuing. But I wouldn't want to do it as a KWLUG activity.
> It sounds more like its own nonprofit organization, and in that sense it
> might be worth hooking up with another organization (such as the EFF, FSF,
> or OSI).
>
>   
>> Surely CLUG, EFF, SourceForge, and others, are
>> more appropriately sized to handle all the logistic and monetary issues
>> already raised. Moreover, surely all of the things Paul talks about is
>> already being done elsewhere?
>>     
>
> 	Maybe. I know that Sourceforge lets projects solicit money. Beyond
> that I did not bother to look. I have seen bounty sites but I don't
> remember them. I do remember KWLUG because every month some guy sends me a
> snarky meeting announcement. That's local infrastructure at work.
>
>   
>> Following in Richard's excellent comments and card suggestions, would it not
>> be reasonable to start charging admission to each meeting - the price being
>> a can of food for the food bank, or something?
>>     
>
> 	I think charging anything -- even a can of food -- for the LUG is
> a terrible idea. This is getting at the "money is icky" thing: our job as
> a LUG is to reach out to the broader community and spread the good news of
> Open Source. Anything that raises the barrier to participation in the LUG
> harms our ability to do that job (after all, cans of food cost money).
> Keeping everything as gratis as possible means that the maximum number of
> people can participate without feeling bad.
>
> 	To that end, we have to tread carefully with any action we take.
> If people feel obligations to do anything (even sign a Valentine's card to
> Larry Wall[0]) then LUG participation will go down and we will be weaker.
> That's why I would oppose any kind of membership fee and why I am glad
> Richard is advocating that money is icky -- I agree with him totally.
>
> 	With respect to Richard's suggestions: I think that writing
> Valentine's Day cards is an amazing idea. The idea of postage comes into
> play a bit, as does coercion. But Richard is correct that everybody likes
> to be acknowledged, and we can do that in cheap ways. We might do this
> every month (have a "card of the month") or have special meetings devoted
> to the topic.
>
> 	One big question is whether we can give money to projects without
> getting mired in the cosigning privileges, etc. that Unsolicited and
> Richard are bringing up. I do think there is value to us pooling our
> resources together to give regularly as a shared activity, as opposed to
> making individual donations. Can we do so informally and sneakily? What
> kind of trouble will we get into if we casually give money to a LUG
> member, who casually gives money to the project that the LUG has casually
> chosen as the project of the month?
>
> 	Richard also brings up the issue of whether it is worth giving
> money to projects, and that maybe Tim Horton's coffee and greeting cards
> are enough, because software developers just want to be recognised. It's a
> hard question. There is no question in my mind that lots of people do
> develop free software out of love, and I want to encourage that.
>
> 	It is also true that not everybody wants to go through the hassle
> of getting financial donations. That's completely legitimate, in my view,
> and it is why one of the conditions for suggesting a project for
> "contribution of the month" was that the proposer give evidence of some
> way for the project to receive money.
>
> 	The hard thing for me is that some people clearly want to make
> money developing great software, and free software makes that hard. I am
> not pretending that we can pay anybody's salary. But is it worthwhile for
> us as a LUG to address this problem by changing the culture of free
> software, so that it becomes routine for people to give money to
> developers of some of the free software they use? Paying money to buy a
> distribution is one way of doing this, but that only financially rewards
> the developers who are lucky enough to be employed by a distro. I think it
> might be neat and useful to be more direct, if we can figure out how to do
> it without destroying the effectiveness of the LUG in the process.
>
> 	As far as selection of projects goes, I agree with Chris: giving
> money to projects we feature in LUG meetings makes sense. I was thinking
> of putting this in the proposal, but I think that might be too strong a
> constraint.
>
>   
>> Does it make any sense to create a 'sub-LUG' /
>> associated LUG / {something} that fully participates and contributes to the
>> current LUG, such that the casual observer would continue to be unable to
>> detect that a line exists, yet such money related issues are also
>> facilitated? [I have no clue as to the corporeal form of such a beastie.]
>>     
>
> 	I think this already exists, as do our "corporate" sponsorships.
> Many companies have done nice things for the LUG -- certainly Netdirect
> and CCj/Clearline, but others as well. They contribute all kinds of things
> to the LUG so that we don't have to raise money.
>
> - Paul
>
> [0] Larry Wall is the most inoffensive, likable person I can think of in
> the open source movement. Everybody likes Larry Wall. Even people who hate
> Perl like Larry Wall.
>
> _______________________________________________
> KWLUG-Disc mailing list
> KWLUG-Disc at kwlug.org
> http://listserv.kwlug.org/mailman/listinfo/kwlug-disc
>
>   
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://listserv.ccjclearline.com/pipermail/kwlug-disc/attachments/20061101/fb3f7c58/attachment.htm