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Finding Sponsors for an Open Source Project?
vertigo72 asks: "What's the best way to find sponsors for an open source project? Is there some people or foundations that give grants for the development of free software? We develop an open source (GPL) box office software: phpMyTicket. At our knowledge at the moment this is the only open source software of this kind. The program is in advanced beta stage and was already used in production environment by us and by other people. The program is rather complex and big: we support online ticket shop, box office with thermal printer and control at doors with barcode scanner. Smarty, PDF and email template engines are used. Paypal and some other gateways are supported. Now we want to continue and to add more professional features, but alas this requires more funding."
"We tried to finance our development ourselves, but that didn't work. We tried support, installation and customization, and also a commercial license, but there are just not enough requests. We also had few donations (to the tune of around $50) via Sourceforge. Now, we searching for alternative solutions like sponsoring. Is there someone out there who can help us to keep the software free?"
I'll go ahead and ask the MBA question. What's the competing commercial product? How much does it cost per year? How much will a theater chain save with your solution? Quantiffy those answers into a simple NPV model and pitch it to execs at theater chains.
If your project is worthwhile enough that a lot of people use it, it will generate some revenue, but open source software only generates large amounts of money for the big guys like Gnome, KDE, Mozilla, etc. Of course, you could just post on Slashdot and the money could come pouring in ... if you have a worthwhile project I state again. Instead, I would recommend going to the companies or individuals that use your program & ask them for donations.
"(...) Now we want to continue and to add more professional features, but alas this requires more funding. (...) Now, we searching for alternative solutions like sponsoring. Is there someone out there who can help us to keep the software free?"
...there's no commercial value in the project, but you still want to add features just for the hell of it? That's cool, but don't expect to get paid for it. What's the future of the project if you do not recieve funding? Abandon it so others can pick it up if they want to? Close the source (assuming you have all the copyrights)?
I'm sorry, but if you're looking to get paid for it, you need a project someone is willing to pay *for*. If there was such a sponsoring foundation, I would suggest they use it to replace some central software many people use, like IE/Outlook/Office/Photoshop etc. I would consider spending it on such a niche system like tickets to be a very strange choice.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
...of cheap, commercial solutions/services out there for this, but I do think some organizations would want to have this in-house, on their own servers, branded with their look and feel.
I did a lot of ticket solution searching for a non-profit arts organization and never ran across this. Some higher visibility search engine and code repository (hotscripts, etc) entries would help visibility. Visibility will increase the chances of financial assistance.
So, what do you mean by "sponsoring"? what does the person/company get in return? Or, by "sponsor", do you just mean "gullible person with extra money who has no interest in seeing and kind of return on it"?
I don't respond to AC's.
"Hey, can you help me find someone who will give us money to give free help to people charging admission to shows?"
Running a movie theatre is a low-margin business -- typically one loses money on the tickets and needs to make it up elsewhere (concession stand, ads, etc). If one can get the software to run the business (ie. by paying an open source project to add the features needed to make it adequate for one's needs) for less than the cost of comparable commercial solutions -- well, then you're ahead.
It makes sense, then, that someone with a vested interest in not giving money to the commercial vendors of such software will find such a project as this interesting, and potentially a worthy recipient of (some level of) funding. Ideally, you'd want to target folks who are heavily hit by the pricing model of the commercial competitors -- say, those who own a number of theatres, or those whose theatres have multiple entrances or ticket booths if that's how the commercial software is priced -- or those who need features the commercial competitors don't currently provide.
Ask yourself, why should you get the money over another OSS project? Who will benefit from your work, who will want to use it? Why should they pay you to do it?
Work out who, when and why. Then focus on the "data" you pick up. Ring round and ask what the companies themselvs "want" from software and get it done ASAP so you can go "oh yes we have that, we're looking for funding and will offer support to anyone who donates x amount of money (say $500, it's nothing to a company) for 6 months. After that we're unsure of what we'll charge but it's unlikely to be much more. But obviously discounts for any who supported us in the early days".
I like muppets.
By open-sourcing it, you've opened the floodgates. On of the big companies is going to take your code, add a bunch of features,
Troll or not, I'm going to use it as an opportunity to say this:-
If you own the entire copyright to GPLed code, you can do what the heck you like with it, including releasing it under a non-GPL license.
Of course, you can't stop people distributing and expanding the original code under the GPL. And unless you can get the permission of all contributors, you can't "un-GPL" new versions derived from your original base. (This will never happen with Linux because there are too many contributors to make it practical).
But if you (or all the copyright holders on a piece of GPLed code) want to release your original code under a GPL license, you can.
More importantly (this is the point), in such cases, you can add new code, and release that with a *non-GPL* license only.
If you have the original copyright, you can do this. So, if the software is at an early developmental stage, it's not necessarily that big a deal that it's been GPLed. Provided, that is, you have a close-knit group of developers who *all* agree to non-GPL distribution/modification of their code.
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take a look at the source code of Gallery 2 http://gallery.sf.net/ read the coding guidelines, patterns etc. and then come back and report if you'd still say that it's php and not the coder that is the origin of all these php prejudices.
there are other reasons why most php scripts end up being spaghetti code.
Some of my post may have sounded harsh, however I wrote it to help you. I am a senior programmer for a fortune 500, multi-billion dollar company. I have pulled more hair out then you can imagine on the type of software that our PHB's have purchased. It _all_ comes down to PRESENTATION. Some of the "packages" that our PHB's have purchased have been total crap. One of our PHB's spent over $10,000 on a few little Flash demo's (less than 60 seconds each) about how to do basic computer tasks like using a mouse, keyboard, etc! Any graphics dude with about 1-2 months of Flash could have done it. However, the company that sold this "solution" has some business-style and didn't really sell a product, instead they learned what this PHB wanted and made him think he got it!
Learn from this. Make your product as modular as possible. Drop the stupid geek name. What the hell is "phpMyTicket"? Come up with a name that will make some PHB think they are getting a total "ticketing solution". Even if your product is not there yet, make the PHB think it is. Ask the PHB what he is looking for and assure him that your product will deliver (even if it currently does not). This way you get a software sale as well as a consulting sale to "customize" the software for this business.
Good luck!
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land,
it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. -James Madison
At the end of the day, people don't pay for what they value. They pay for what they have to pay for.
Exactly.. and with OSS, what people sometimes have to pay for is the labor to initially create it. That may come indirectly through support contracts or directly through development contracts. At the end of the day, you go with what does the job for the lowest cost. If a proprietary package will cost your business $80,000 to license but it will only cost $40,000 to contract required development of a mature OSS project, which is a better deal? And what happens when dozens of similar businesses are able to pool resources to make features happen? (This is why I have always advocated that most OSS should be professionally and commercially backed.. it allows for ad-hoc business alliances and incredible economies of scale)
Every single business would go for the $80,000 propriety package. Firstly, businesses buy from other businesses, not from college students programming in their spare time, none of who want to have responsibility and their ass on the line. Secondly, no business cares that 12 people 'could' pool their resources together a year from now. They care about what WILL happen, and put that into a license and buy from a company whose whole job it is to support the product. Thirdly, businesses expect tech support and future existence. Fourth, a company with employees sure shows more dedication to the product than a sourceforge archive. Finally, no business does things for the lower cost, they do things for the best impact for the business at that time. I think you're confusing capitalism, with the the idea that govenment agencies are required to take the contractor with the lowest bid. Businesses do not operate on such a stupid premise.
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