[josm-dev] JOSM donations?

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

Dirk Stöcker wrote:
> Things for which possible donations could be used:
>  * awards for implementing enhancements, fixing bugs

I'm skeptical of such "bounties". They haven't worked for OSM in the 
past and they seldom work for any open source project (why work for free 
when you can get money).

Also, I expect there to be disagreement over which bits are worth a 
bounty and which aren't.

>  * awards for improving translations

We're an open source project. Translations need to be done by the people 
who want to use them. If those who would like JOSM in Swahili cannot 
muster the manpower to produce it then no money in the world will help - 
it's just like with data imports, you might be able to improve things 
for a moment by paying someone, but every change that is made will 
require new effort, and that only works if there are people who care.

>  * better SSL certificate

Another project has received funding from FOSSGIS for that. I believe we 
could too, or we could ask OSMF.

> Currently my plan would be to implement Flattr and a PayPal donation 
> button (if possible not to prominently on every page, otherwise only on 
> startup page).

I see an accountability issue. One person would have to be the account 
holder for this and nobody would know how much money arrives in that 
account. Even if the account were handled by someone I trust, there 
would be enough others who would not trust that person and express 
suspicion.

And "own server" - you know what I think about JOSM being more and more 
a client to some JOSM server somewhere. I'd like to get rid of the 
server instead of building up even more capacity which will doubtless be 
filled by you with lots of clever Python contraptions that nobody else 
can maintain.

Instead of "collect money then see how we spend it", I'd suggest "define 
what we want, find out what it costs, then ask people to donate to 
OSM/FOSSGIS for that specific cause". - If a cause can be found that is 
worth spending money on, and I'm not convinced yet.


Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"