[Random-bits] Eckersley on Ransom Model of development, and Bellagio Matching Funds proposal for development

[James Love]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Random-bits] Ransom Model  of development, and Bellagio 
Matching Funds proposal for development
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 02:38:22 +1100
From: Peter Eckersley <pde@cs.mu.OZ.AU>
To: James Love <james.love@cptech.org>
References: <3DE0D48D.8090403@cptech.org>

Hi Jamie,

I looked into this a while back (you might want to pass some of this on to 
random bits).

It's a rather promising idea has been kicking around in various forms for 
quite a while.  Notable writeups include Kelsey & Schneiers' article on the 
"street performer protocol" 
(http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue4_6/kelsey/), which also about 
writing, music, etc; and Rasch's article, which covers a variant which is 
particularly suited to free software 
(http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue6_6/rasch/).

There have been a number of apparently (sometimes) successful small-scale 
efforts to implement this sort of thing (see 
http://www.ms.lt/en/workingopenly/markets.html).  Currently, the largest 
example appears to be "Google Answers" (http://answers.google.com), which 
again doesn't cover software development.

Funding free software development this way is possible, and may become very 
important in the future, but the infrastructure is quite hard to create (you 
need to be tax deductible in as many places as possible; you need to have a 
trustworthy way to hold cash in escrow; you need to co-ordinate lots of work 
in terms of certifying and verifying project specifications and completions).

Definitely worth keeping an eye on, though.

 >
 > http://developers.slashdot.org/developers/02/11/23/2313213.shtml?tid=98
 >
 >     Software For Ransom
 > The Almighty BuckPosted by timothy on Saturday November 23, @07:17PM
 > from the plain-unmarked-bills-and-no-funny-stuff dept.
 > rbp writes "I just received a message from Adam Theo on the Jabber
 > Developers Mailing List about what he calls "The Ransom Model" for software
 > publishing. The principle, according to the above linked site, is that the
 > "rights to the source code remain restricted until a set amount of money is
 > collected or a set date passes, at which point the code is freed". Seems
 > like a very interesting way to make money and produce free software. I think
 > it's worth discussion. Take a look at the Ransom Model webpage and join the
 > Ransom mailing list! (You might also be interested in recent news about
 > Blender)" Reader Apreche adds a link to a Freshmeat editorial piece which
 > draws on Theo's idea, writing "This has some obvious problems, but it is
 > worth discussing. The biggest problem I see is where vaporware fits into the
 > equation."
 >
 >
 > --
 > ------
 > James Love, Consumer Project on Technology
 > http://www.cptech.org, mailto:love@cptech.org
 > voice: 1.202.387.8030; mobile 1.202.361.3040
 >
 >
 > _______________________________________________
 > Random-bits mailing list
 > Random-bits@lists.essential.org
 > http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/random-bits


On Sun, Nov 24, 2002 at 08:30:53AM -0500, James Love wrote:
 > Development Idea:
 >
 > In a meeting in Bellagio Italy, there was a proposal this week to create a
 > mechanism to facilitate the funding of works that would be donated to the
 > public, a sort of ebay meets the nature conservatory, where donors, large or
 > small, could organize to buy or fund works, or sellers could offer to sell
 > works, with everything based upon the donors raising a sufficient amount to
 > pay for the work, and the work being made available to the public (public
 > domain, GPL, share-alike, etc).
 >
 > http://www.cptech.org/slides/MatchingFunds.ppt
 >
 > Then today Slashdot has a quite similiar idea, at least on the supply side,
 > called the "ransom" model.
 >
 > Jamie
 >

-- 
Peter Eckersley
Department of Computer Science   &                  mailto:pde@cs.mu.oz.au
IP Research Institute of Australia             http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~pde
The University of Melbourne



-- 
------
James Love, Consumer Project on Technology
http://www.cptech.org, mailto:love@cptech.org
voice: 1.202.387.8030; mobile 1.202.361.3040