kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Dick Hollenbeck <dick@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 03/16/2013 07:52 AM, Vesa Solonen wrote:
> Because development of KiCad is based on donations of time, skill and
> effort, there are some will and resources that can not be used for
> development under the current development model. That will and resources
> come from the users of KiCad who don't have time, skill or other
> opportunity to put direct effort in the development.
>
> Fortunately the system of exchange economy was devised to solve the
> exchange of time, skill, effort and other resources. A common exchange
> item called money made this even more efficient. Crowdsourcing is going
> to be the next step in the exchange economy where the producer and
> consumer parts get interwined. KiCad is an example of that.
>
> So what about opening a feature bounty system for KiCad? On Kickstarter
> or something. For me it would be easiest if an euro area company could
> invoice for patches. I haven't done any tax related investigation
> regarding funding free software, but as the results of funding will be
> available for everyone there must be some way of taking it in account.
>
> My reasoning for funding free software development is that I get better
> return of investment than from paying proprietary software license. When
> I'm paying proprietary license cost I don't get anything but a right to
> use the provided binary. My investment will benefit the future customers
> and the maker of the software. I most probably don't get any benefit
> from the future customers benefiting from my investment. I'll be
> benefiting from the customers before my time, but I have no assurance of
> any kind that my investment will benefit anyone. The company may close
> it's operations next day and all I got was a buggy binary that I can not
> rely on for any amount of time. Free software changes all that. That's
> why I choose free software even if it costs money.
>
> To put my idea in real world terms, I'm willing to put 500€ on the table
> for:
>
> * Differential netclass rules (potential classes)
> * Differential line support
> [* Finishing up KiCad-gal]
>
> I see that the amount offered is not enough to pay ones salary (in
> Finland) for the job, but I'm not demanding the copyright either. I'm
> neither expecting to fund all of it myself, but the above would be my
> part of the investment.
>
> Best regards,
> -Vesa

I wonder if a written specification of the work (resultant features)
might allow it to be measured by candidate developer(s) sufficiently
well to actually bid on it.

Although there may be a temptation to simply say something like "just
like Altium", that may not be familiar to somebody.