Slashdot Mirror
Negotiating Pay for Open Source Work?
OpenSourceforMoney asks: "For about nine months now I've been working on an Open Source software project; the first release was five months ago. It's reasonably popular given its age -- several hundred users at least (users, not downloads) -- but despite my best attempts, I've been unable to get even a few dollars in donations to help support this (and being a student, I really need to get some money from somewhere). Now suddenly I've been approached by a company which wants to pay me to continue working on this project. How should I handle this? Should I ask for an hourly rate, or should I come up with specific targets and attach prices to each? How much money is it reasonable to ask for, for doing work which I'd end up doing (albeit more slowly) even if I wasn't getting paid? How have Slashdot readers handled the transition from working on a project for fun to being paid to work on it?"
$25 an hour and they provide the hardware. flex time. try and get benefits too.
25$ ??? Where do you live? Venezuela? Seriously, if that is your project, don't settle for entry level.
A couple things to consider. Do you want to maintain control of the project? If so negotiate to sell them support but keep development seperate. If I hire you to develop, the goals I give you ARE your goals and the project direction can be wrestled from you. Use your skills to find work but keep your baby as your own.
Hourly rate if you can. Projects ALWAYS take long than you think. Fixed price negotiations are generally bad news for "small shops" and individuals. I've got 22 years under my belt, and this is my experience.
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If you ask for a rate that low to start, you'll be insulting them, and yourself. Asking for a higher rate in the software/design/etc. world shows the customer that you know what you're doing, and you should be treated with respect. If you ask for $25/hr you're admitting that you're a college kid with some spare time, and they will continue to treat you as such, asking for more $50+/hr will command some respect. You can always come down, or negotiate from there, but never ever start for a low rate thinking you'll price yourself out of a job. They want to work with you, so the likelyhood of them walking away without making a counter-offer is almost nil. I'd ask for at least $50/hr, especially if it's going to be a part time thing, no benefits, and no long term plan for what they want to give you. Selling yourself short for technical work is shooting yourself in the foot, in every way!
My sig is blank, I typed this by hand.
I have a similar project (DataVision, many hundreds of users, 7 languages, over 30 countries). Two different people have paid me $1K each to implement major features.
Transcript show: self sigs atRandom.
> sub-contract it to india for 1/5
Been there. Done that.
Ended up with horrible code that didn't work and if by some miracle it did work, it didn't do what we wanted anyway.
Reviews and changes were like pulling teeth.
Communication was nearly impossible.
We all seemed to be speaking the same language. We'd get lots of "yes yes we understand perfectly". But nothing we ever said seemed to make it into the code in any recognizable fashion.
I'll stick with paying U.S. rates, rather than pay 20%, lose the customer, never collect the money, and ruin my reputation.
I'll never outsource overseas again.
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat