Discussed page

May be it's useful to copy the replied to points to this page.

Problems and Strategies in Financing Voluntary Free Software Projects

What Mako calls *voluntary Free Software projects* largely matches the term Doubly Free Software projects as it is used in the Oekonux project. -- StefanMerten 2006-06-08 16:52:22

Introduction

Benefits of Volunteerism

• Major benefit of voluntary labor: Institutional independence

  • Users and developers determine the way of the project

    In Oekonux terms I'd day: Those exclusively interested in the use value of the product. -- StefanMerten 2006-06-08 16:52:22

  • Institutional independence attracts (paid labor from)

    corporations

    Reminds me of the role the state plays in capitalism. However, there are differences because the state has other functions as well which can be the target of - with respect to the project - alienated actions. -- StefanMerten 2006-06-08 16:52:22

Problems with Funding Volunteerism

• Payment can help meeting deadlines and accomplish given goals

  This is the effect of using the structural force of money to get people do what you want. -- StefanMerten 2006-06-08 16:52:22

• Voluntary and paid labor are mutual exclusive

  • May be because motivation to voluntary work drops if others are paid for the same task

    The overwhelming use of the Non-Commercial building block of the CreativeCommons license seems to point in the same direction. -- StefanMerten 2006-06-08 16:52:22

Creative Solutions

One of the strongest messages to me seems to be that funding the core labor is the most risky attempt. I'd agree and I think this risk exactly marks the difference between alienated, paid for labor and labor based on Selbstentfaltung. -- StefanMerten 2006-06-08 16:52:22