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Who Should Help LinuxFund Distribute $126,155.29?
Roblimo writes "The LinuxFund Web site was down for several months, and the project has essentially been out of business since last year. But MBNA kept the LinuxFund MasterCard going, and kept depositing money in LinuxFund's account -- to the tune of $126,155.29 when NewsForge reporter Jay Lyman finally caught up with the current and former project leaders and found out what was going on -- namely nothing. So does anyone have an idea what to do with this money? Want to suggest an individual or group to take over LinuxFund and run it right?"
They could give the money back, but it would probably take days to locate individual donors. Because no one would get reimbursed for the time it takes to locate donors (if they can be found at all), the volunteers would essentially be working against the original intent for which the money was given.
Perhaps the money could be used to set up a trust for a scholarship fund. If the trust was set up properly, with the appropriate oversight, it could be a perpetual source of fund for students entering the computer science field.
Now who wants more computer scientists?
Anyone?
"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
Oddly, neither the website or the news story goes into any detail of what LinuxFund *is*. i.e. I assume the money comes from special credit card programs, but the site doesn't seem to explain how it's used. Is the money put toward internal developers on the project or is it used to provide grant money to OSS projects? Can anyone fill in the details?
:-)
IHMO, the best organization for something like this is for LinuxFunds to be an administrative entity only. Proposals for Open Source software and funding requirements could then be submitted to the project for review and potential approval. Selected OSS projects would receive the funding they requested according to the payment schedule that was approved. This payment schedule would allow LinuxFunds to track the progress of a given project, and make adjustments as necessary. (Potentially even cutting off funding if the project is not viable.)
Such an organization would require only a few knowledgable employees to make the decisions and administrate the funds. With funds transfers being what they are today, much of the grunt work (transfer, accounting, etc.) could be done automatically. Since this is a publicly supported organization, it should publish a detailed accounting of its usage of the money.
To put things in perspective, the current funds of $126k work out to about 5,250 man hours of work at ~$24/hr (~$50,000/yr).
That's my thoughts anyway.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Let me start out with the obvious, how about the FSF? Maybe see if one of their lawyers could be a trustee?
~Rebecca
Anyone but Stallman, please!
Boy it sucks to see how poorly this was run. :(
"Nothing has come out of these accounts for months, save about $250/mo auto deducted for telecommunications expenses," Collord wrote. "I went off payroll in June of 2004 when I stopped working full time on this project and haven't incurred any expenses since. I was paid a salary of I believe like $28k per year. I haven't read my LinuxFund email since about January I believe."
$28k/yr. $14/hr. I'd say that's about the quality level the fund
administration appears to have received.
"I'm certainly negligent," he said. "The short story is: the scale at which the business model seems to work is not commensurate with the overhead required to run a nonprofit well. Everyone that's been involved has been lackluster given the range of requisite skills -- technical and administrative and business development in total -- and ultimately burnt out."
Try hiring a good business person. I'll bet you won't even need him/her full-time. In fact, you might be able to get somebody from SCORE very cheaply. Get interns with a biz background. You don't
need geeks to administer the fund. You only need them to decide who gets what.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
I see this all the time in my industry -- people want to spend one-time funds on ongoing projects. As soon as that money is spent, people start scrambling for sustainability and complain about inept business practices. If the $126K is spent with this in mind, I am sure it can do wonderful things. If it is spent on a plan that requires future funding, we could have some problems.
Please mod parent up. Projects like NeoOffice/J are making a big difference. A mere $50k a year could potentially mean a world of difference toward the continuation of a project like that
No, mod the grandparent down.
The question is "Who should handle the funds, not who should recieve them."
The best option for handling them is someone who is financially secure, has the proper legal ability to act as trustee, and no personal interest in their own project over another.
~Rebecca
Shouldn't the objective be to get the most bang for the buck? Why not hire 20 Indian programmers at $3/hr for a year instead of 2 Americans?
No shit.
There are more hungry children living under conditions of the most heart-rending, abject poverty in parts of Africa and Asia than this mere $126,155.29 could even begin to properly help.
But it could at least help put some nutritious meals in the bellies or buy medicine for some of them for a little while anyway.
I suggest give it all to some organization like World Vision of one of the other legitimate charities who do the same kinds of things.
A mere $30 could feed a child for a month, or buy enough antibiotics to save the lives of a couple kids with bacterial pneumonia.
Think about it tonight while you stuff your face with pizza sitting in front of your PC playing Warcraft.