I think the people who put some money down should have more of a say than those who do not. You want to influence the future direction of software development for the platform then you need to put your money where you mouth is. If you're willing to spend money on a vote then you are the most likely to spend money on the software and therefore you are the target audience. IMHO There are too many fence-sitters in the community right now, and a lot of people with vague notions of what is going on. And, I'm not saying I'm not one of them.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. There needs to be more incentives for people to contribute financially to software development.

The problem I see in the community is that there is a lack of communication between the developers and the community. We're all so starved of information....At least that's the way I feel. There needs to be more status updates, or even daily/weekly blogs, so that we can feel good that there is progress for the platform. This would effectively lead to a feedback loop that would generate buzz for the platform and perhaps even entice new developers. Everyone would want to join the action.

I suggest that monetary contributions are sorta like subscriptions to private forums or blogs(not mailing lists) on the progress of the software in question. Only the subscribers who donate to the particular software project can access the status updates and the status updates should be under a non-formalised NDA with the premise being, that if you wanna know, then you pay. The subscribers, themselves, would want to entice others to subscribe as well to their chosen products, giving them positive PR, so they wont spill too many beans. We're all so starved for info, and that is a big reason why AW is so popular. 'Info' itself would be something worth paying for. The status updates or blogs don't have to be lengthy, even a todo list would suffice most of the time. Constant updates, at least lets people know that the project is alive and kicking. And of course, it's done when it's done. Perhaps there could be a central site to coordinate this.

I would also recommend that if the votes are assigned by a donation amount that the donation amount be as small as possible so people can allocate amounts to many projects. This would enable less popular software than say Mozilla to see some money.

Incidentally, if Hyperion, did something similar to what I am suggesting they'd see instant income equalling that of OS4 in the first place. I don't see why they don't and what they've got to lose. MorphOS isn't really serious competition any more is it? Feature sets are generally known, so why not allow people to pay or subscribe for detailed status reports updated daily or weekly. They'd see my money right now...and I don't even have an A1.

Incidentally, what I am suggesting is not mailing lists used by the FOSS community or closed development teams, but a centralised place for obtaining info on a variety of projects subscibed to by monetary support for a particular project. Confidential information could be omitted. The site would take your donation and give you access to project info for a set number of months determined by the donation/subscription amount. If project updates are infrequent, then perhaps the subsciber might cease their subscription and assign future funds elsewhere. Subscription money could be assigned to devs on a monthly basis dependent on how they meet an agreed apon status update schedule. Perhaps the subscriptions could be a uniform amount for all projects that everyone would be willing to pay for the information and your subscription supports development for that particular project. Or perhaps the more subscribers there are the higher the subscription costs become increasing their value. Get in first, and subscribe for a number of months at a low cost, perhaps to save some money on the info.

I hope that made sense. Perhaps a small fraction of the donations could support the centralised website's upkeep.

Thoughts?

Ok. Going back to my happy place now.

_________________
Leo Nigro, CTO Commodore USA, LLC
Opinions expressed are my own and not those of C= USA.
Commodore/AMIGA "Beautiful, High-Performance, Home Computers for Creativity and Entertainment."