Linked by David Adams on Mon 16th Aug 2004 17:44 UTC
I read something in one of the comments for an OSNews posting a couple weeks ago that sent me thinking. It wasn't an original or profound thought. In fact, it's a rather commonly-held opinion that happens to be quite misguided. It's an opinion summed up by the "open source = communist" meme that gets thrown around in thousands of flamewars all over the internet. In this essay, I will explore why this idea is wrong and demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of economics.
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This is slightly off topic but...
One thing that's bugged me about donating money to smaller open source projects is the lack of information you get back.
I've donated money to a number of projects and get an email back saying 'thanks' about 20% of the time. And that's it.
You cannot get information about how much money others have donated, about how the money is being spent (living costs or materials/time etc), how it's being invested etc.
It's important to me that I get some feedback, for purely selfish reasons. I would like to invest in the one that has the most investor interest so the cumulative money is more likely to guarantee the continued interest of the developers. Often there are a number of projects with the same focus, and it really does not matter to me which succeeds, I only want a good result. And while money alone cannot create good software, a little research shows that it is a potent motivator for OSS programmers.
Most private companies will provide much more information on their finances than any sourceforge project. I appreciate that most projects will not have an accountant, but I would still appreciate *some* information.