Affero's Hack-a-Thon

Henri Poole writes "I've got friends who ride their bikes for a week and get me and others to donate $100 to their cause. Spending more time on lists then roads, we've set up an analogous service for Free Software and Open Source projects. Substitute the physical sweat with a good hack, and you'll see the match. After you save your next newbie from tech-hell, just ask them to help your cause. In Lessig's blog, he writes "If there's one thing I've learned from watching, and tinkering, in this web-log space, it is that the many tiny brushstrokes of thousands paints more and more powerfully than the blast of even the most important and powerful papers...As I indicate on my Affero page, I count FSF and EFF as the two key players to support." And if you don't think you can make a difference, do this math: A $1 donation to the FSF for every user of GNU/Linux would increase their budget by 30 fold."

Comments

It just seems unlikely to me...

[Soulfader]

...that your average Joe is going to respect your wishes to make a micropayment to an organization he's never heard of.

User: "So what do you want for this?"
Tech: "If you find my service useful, please consider contributing $25 to blah blah blah" (at this point user has tuned tech out)
User: (Internal monologue) "He doesn't want my money, apparently. Very well. I shall buy bread and circuses. Huzzah!"

Maybe it would be better just to take their money and donate it for them. =)