Funding Open Source with Donations


Read this post! I’m challenging you to make a difference.

I was part of the Funding Open Source Projects discussion at the ALT.NET conference. Oren has a good summary which can be found here. He mentions that donations sound good, but really don’t work. I think that’s a shame. I have these thoughts that we as a community could do some really cool things if we work together get things done.

I want to try a little experiment using the current buzz around the ALT.NET conference. I challenge 5+ volunteers to donate $$ to their favorite OS project and say that they did so on their blogs and then challenge 5+ more volunteers to do the same. If you don’t have a blog, then post a comment here saying you donated.

I donated to Oren’s Open Source efforts.

Don’t put it off. Do it now. Blog it. Tweet it. Spread the word! Donate!

UPDATE: Donating time to Open Source Projects counts too!

UPDATE: One thing that $$ could help out with is hiring someone to do documentation. Oren said that working on open source projects is his hobby and that’s why he does it. He also said that he doesn’t like to do documentation and that is not his hobby. I don’t know any developers that like to do documentation.

Thanks ALT.NET Seattle