Slashdot Mirror
Is Diaspora the Future of Free Software Funding?
Glyn Moody writes "Diaspora, the free software project to create a distributed version of Facebook, has been much in the news recently — not least because it has raised $170,000 in just a few weeks. But what's also interesting is the way they've raised that money: through a series of graded rewards for pledges of financial support. This is an approach adopted by some forward-thinking musicians: for example, Jill Sobule funded her last album in the same way, garnering $75,000 in pledges from fans. Is this a model that could be applied to other free software projects, or is it just a one-off?"
How is this different from the model used for NPR pledge drives? Its just another thing you can get for free, but that if you feel has value to you, you can/should help fund so it doesn't go away... and you get prizes at various levels of contribution. It's been working since the 70s for NPR, it should work here, too, assuming the people involved in using the software aren't the same people who don't contribute to their local NPR/PBS station.
I'll get excited about Diaspora when they actually start putting out code...
IIRC, it's source code was purchased from the license holders and made open-source thanks to this same sort of thing.
In general people only are interested in joining the most popular network sites where their friends are also joining. So this means there can only be one or two leaders and a tremendous amount of inertia to change. Giants like MicroSoft and Google tried and failed several times. So reading articles like these are much like reading the weekly "next dethroning of Moore's law" articles: usually the first and last and last time they'll make the news.
I realize that this article isn't really about diaspora itself, but I feel it's an obligation to point out that there are other, more promising and further along (nearly finished), projects out there, such as Appleseed, that have the same goal, and aren't being run by people with almost no experience.
The problem comes in when the project get very successful and starts needed professional management. Now people are not paying to directly create product, but for support and management services. I may be willing to donate $20 so that some coder buy food while writing a device driver, or some artist can rent studio space to record and album, but I am willing to donate that money for an administrative assistant? I don't know.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/05/facebook-open-alternative/
they haven't started programming it!
"hey, i got a cool idea, wanna give me $115K?
holy the awesome power of media coverage batman
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Interesting the way their donations are structured:
Pledge $10 or more
Get a CD, note, and a bunch of cool diaspora stickers
Pledge $25 or more
Get a CD, note, and a bunch of cool diaspora stickers, and a awesome diaspora t-shirt!
Pledge $50 or more
Get all the above stuff, plus 1 month free of our turnkey hosted service (when it becomes available), or free phone support for 1 month if you host your own.
Pledge $100 or more
Get all the above stuff, plus 3 month free of our turnkey hosted service (when it becomes available), or free phone support for 3 months if you host your own.
Pledge $350 or more
Get all the above stuff, plus 1 year free of our turnkey hosted service (when it becomes available), and free phone support for 1 year if you host your own.
Pledge $1,000 or more [5 only]
Get all of the above stuff, plus access to the nightly build server for Diaspora, so you can check out our progress all summer!
Pledge $2,000 or more [4 only]
Get everything above, plus we will send you a brand new computer fully configured so you can host your own Diaspora seed from right under your bed!
The actual physical goodies stop at $25, and every level after that is soft goods. When you have to send out a t-shirt at the $25 level and they're on the hook for international shipping costs, how much is actually left over for development?
I would have structured things a bit differently. Of course, this is with 20/20 hindsight with the knowledge that their project would get viral media coverage and the fundraising would exceed expectations.
Pledge $10 or more
Get an official sponsor certificate from the developers [really a PDF over email, no mailing expenses]
Pledge $25 or more
Get an official sponsor certificate, and a bunch of cool diaspora stickers
Pledge $50 or more
Get all the above stuff, plus an awesome diaspora coffee mug!
Pledge $100 or more
Get all the above stuff, plus a cool diaspora polo shirt!
Pledge $350 or more
Get all the above stuff, plus a rocking diaspora laptop courier bag!
Pledge $1,000 or more
[Something along the lines of what they did, but something tangible as well. I also would have upped the slots. Instead of 5 only, make it 50.]
Pledge $2,000 or more
[Something along the lines of what they did, but something tangible other than the computer. I also would have upped the slots. Instead of 4 only, make it 20.]
Pledge $10,000 or more
[Why not? Something special as a silver level sponsor.]
Pledge $25,000 or more
[Something special as a gold level sponsor.]
Pledge $50,000 or more
[Something special as a platinum level sponsor... possibly credit on the site?]
Pledge $100,000 or more
[Hey, why stop now? Appeal to peoples' greed. 1% founders shares or something along those lines. This puts a $10M valuation on the company which is amazing for something that's 4 guys and an idea of cloning the 800lb market-leading gorilla.]
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
Glad someone brought this up already. Yes, diaspora primarily refers to the Jewish dispersal across the globe as a result of the Roman occupation and destruction of the Jewish commonwealth in the land of Israel. Diaspora literally means dispersion, and while it can refer to dispersals of other groups of people, the primary denotation of the term refers to the exile of the Jewish people. If others want to contest that, check out the definitions on m-w.com.
Why the project creators used this term for distributed funding of software and other projects is somewhat beyond me. They want to use an unconventional term for dispersal, but diaspora has a unique meaning and isn't really a term with a positive connotation.
Part of the hardcore faithful who believed in Apple long before it was cool again to do so
It was actually more like one year, although I was silently committing to the svn without doing much promotion for the year before that. We just couldn't get momentum going, so at some point, jobs and personal lives took over.
This time around, it's different, though. I have to thank the Diaspora* folks, even if they don't end up coding anything, they've really gotten people to start thinking about open source, distributed social networking. And that's a positive for everyone.
We're trying to raise money the same way Diaspora* did, using a similar website. I don't expect to get as much as they did, but I think it's definitely possible to meet the goal.
http://indiegogo.com/The-Appleseed-Project