It’s incredible to think just how much the traditional business model has changed over the last 20 years. Instead of having an idea, putting up collateral for a loan, then launching a business, things have evolved quite a bit. While the traditional route still works for many businesses, the options available to businesses—in fact, to many different organizations—are numerous.
The rise of the internet introduced a new role that had rarely been seen before: the capable caretaker. Instead of building a business that is meant for profit, the capable caretaker sees something that needs to be done and has the skills to make it happen. Some of these “public good” projects (bridges, dams, roads, etc.) are usually completed by government projects. However, the government has never considered software projects a “public good”.
Thankfully, there are individuals and teams of very talented developers who work hard to create FOSS: Free and Open-Source Software. A few of the most well known examples of FOSS are Linux and Python. While these originate from a group, the goal for many FOSS projects is for the software to eventually be collectively shared and improved by a passionate community.
While FOSS are, by definition, free to use, this doesn’t mean they are cost-free. It takes, time, talent, and resources to build these very necessary platforms, and most have to reach a stable level of maturity before they can be fully released into the wild. Where do teams get the funding to spend months, sometimes years dedicated to a FOSS project? While some groups have simply spent their nights and weekends working on a FOSS passion project, not everyone can operate that way, and many important software tools will never see the light of day unless there is some way to fund the team bringing it from conception to production.
Crowdfunding platforms are an ideal way to fund many creative-type projects. Art projects, from music to painting to movies, have all successfully been completed thanks to crowdfunding. Products have been designed and built, though some percentage of crowdfunding projects still fail. There have been some software projects funded (especially games), but crowdfunding a FOSS project can be a bit more complex. Let’s look at some of the more popular crowdfunding platforms to see where they shine, but also show that there are specific needs to successfully crowdfund a FOSS.
Kickstarter: General purpose crowdsourcing
Kickstarter is one of the first well-known crowdfunding platforms available to a wide audience. With an emphasis on creative projects, the platform still has a wide range of proposals working to get funded by their respective communities. Categories of projects range from art, comics, fashion, games, photography, technology, and even food. The high level setup follows similar steps for each project: the project is announced with details of what will be created if it receives the desired funding. There can be many different tiers that offer rewards for giving different amounts (this is where projects can really shine, giving valuable and creative rewards to funders). After a certain time period, the clock runs down and if the project receives its minimum funding, those backing the project are charged and the project is funded. The project team begins and, ideally, provides regular updates to their community, gives rewards, and successfully completes the project. Kickstarter focuses on discrete campaigns where funds are raised once. This is the “loan from the bank” equivalent, giving the project what it needs to finish in the case of an artistic endeavor, or enough funding to get into production for actual products. In either case, Kickstarter is poorly suited to support all but the most concrete development efforts. Software platforms that will evolve, are open source, or need regular maintenance don’t really have a home at Kickstarter because it wasn’t designed for that type of project.
Github Sponsors: Focusing on developers and projects
Github, the software development infrastructure platform, knows all about the complexities of software development. It knows how messy, iterative, and unpredictable creating software usually is, and provides excellent tools for developers to host, use, and share their progress in a low-barrier way. To aid in software developers and their projects, Github created a funding platform called Github Sponsors. The platform makes it easier for fans of specific developers, or supporters of specific projects hosted on Github, to provide one-time or regular support in the form of funding. Unlike Kickstarter, supporting software development doesn’t rely on reward tiers or meeting a minimum goal amount to receive the funding. Developers work on their projects, and their communities support to the extent they are willing. This might be a small supplement, but could also help drive the project to completion and release. Alternatively, the support could be directed at a particular developer, with those sending funds seemingly wanting the developer to keep producing more of their quality content.
Drips: Continuous dependency funding
While the Github Sponsors model is much better suited for software development, it is still missing a crucial piece that the Drips platform focuses on. The fact is, very few FOSS projects are built in a vacuum. Serious FOSS projects are usually developed to solve a common problem, and most problems to be solved are highly interconnected. FOSS projects rely on using what building blocks they can to more quickly and effectively develop their overall architecture. They often use code and tools from other FOSS projects and build on those foundations, which allows the projects to accelerate their builds while using tried and true software blocks. The Drips platform was designed for this expansion of support in the form of a Drip List. To utilize the list, a software developer will create a list showing the other developers or projects they actively rely on to build up their own platform. Essentially, without these other developers, their own project would either be impossible, or they would have to build up that functionality from scratch. To keep the other developers supported, the Drip List will allocate percentages of the support a project would like to send to the other developers/projects they depend on. Supporters can publicly view the list, read about how each partner supports the project, and they can help to fund the Drip List as well. The funds are split according to the percentages on the list, and each partner gets a share in order to fund their continuous efforts. In this way the FOSS projects—not just a single project, but a network of software development projects and teams—are funded in a way that best reflects how they operate.
Final thoughts
As software development continues to evolve, so too will the need for funding mechanisms need to keep up. While many projects focus on commercial viability, there is still a critical need for FOSS projects in order to keep the internet fully functioning. The Drips manifesto says it best when it comes to supporting critical software projects: “We live in a time when the original promise of the internet has failed us. Our online activity is owned by a few large corporations, and a large part of open-source collaboration is locked in for-profit products. What used to be an open and decentralized process is now controlled by a few major players. The reason is that OSS is no longer just about the code — it’s about much more today, including distribution, hosting, collaboration and financing, and these requirements were only able to be met by centralized for-profit organizations. It’s not about the project with FOSS; it’s about the ecosystem.”
Featured image credit: Drips / Canva
