actually, tax is a very important issue here... we all take licenses pretty seriously when it comes to software (i'd hope), and getting money for writing open source software should be held to the same standard. that means that anyone who gets money for contributing to open source should declare that money on their taxes... in the end, depending on the countries of the contributors, about 20 to 40% of the donated money is just going to be wasted on taxes.
if we spend it on infrastructure, we probably wouldn't have to waste anything on taxes... but maybe some kind of non-profit organization would have to be founded first, i'm not sure on that... On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 9:45 PM, Steve Strong <[email protected]> wrote: > Personally, I'd be inclined to agree. As soon as we try to split the > cash, it's going to get ever so complex which was kind of the point of my > previous email - if we do want to "pay ourselves" then we're going to have > to deal with all of that and more (don't mention tax, anyone). If we think > there's gonna be enough cash to clear our mortgages then perhaps it's worth > it, but since I suspect it's more likely to be the occasional beer & pizza > I'd rather avoid the overhead. > > Having the cash to fund other things (such as technical writers, software > licences etc.) would be easier to manage and, providing we spend it wisely, > do no end of good to both NH and the community. > > I've dealt with various clubs and organizations before where money was > involved, so understand the complexity that it can lead to. Having said > that, I've never done it on an OSS project, so I'm happy to be convinced in > either direction :) > > > > On 03/02/2010 21:22, Davy Brion wrote: > > personally, i don't think the money should go to the committers... yeah, we > do work on it for free but most of us do it because we _want_ to work on it, > not because it might someday pay some bills > > i would vote for spending the money on infrastructure... a faster jira > server, a faster svn server, things like that... > > On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 9:04 PM, Steve Strong <[email protected]> wrote: > >> I think the idea is a great one, particularly the offer to match donations >> - very kind! I do have a couple of comments - firstly, whenever money gets >> involved, some people have a tendency to loose sight of reality and start >> seeing $$$ signs in front of their eyes. Given that, I would suggest that >> we as a group define the rules for how this works prior to taking donations >> - that way, everyone (us and those donating) understand where the money is >> going and we don't end up in pointless arguments. I suspect the levels of >> money won't be all that high, but you never can tell and knowing how it is >> to be distributed is important. I think we need to answer questions like: >> >> - Who is eligible for the money? Any committer? Only "active" >> committers? What defines "active"? >> - How is the money split? Do all committers (however that's defined) >> get the same amount? Is it split by number of commits? Number of lines >> of >> code changed? >> - Who owns the bank account? Who has visibility of it? Is it >> available for public viewing? >> - Do we have any other needs for money other than just distributing it >> amongst individuals? Should we keep a pot for "NHibernate" activities, >> such >> as perhaps sponsoring the occasional conference? Hell, if there's enough >> cash we could even have an NHibernate stand! NHibernate T-Shirts & Mugs >> anyone?! >> >> Secondly, I don't see why you shouldn't take a share of this Ayende - you >> have made many contributions to the project, and I see NHProf as something >> different. Although your *knowledge* of NH helped you write it, there was >> nothing about being a committer that made it possible. Anyone else *could* >> have written NHProf without being a committer if they'd had both the idea >> and the ambition to take it forward. NHProf will make its own money and has >> its own associated costs. I don't really see the two (your commercial >> activity with NHProf and your altruistic activity with NH) are related. If >> they are, then any one of us that undertakes commercial NH consultancy or >> writes or contributes to an NH book etc. would also have to come under the >> same rules. >> >> Any thoughts? >> >> Cheers, >> >> Steve >> >> >> >> On 03/02/2010 17:23, Ayende Rahien wrote: >> >> Guys, >> >> I am setting up a donation campaign for NHibernate. As part of that >> campaign, my company will donate 5,000$ for the project. >> >> Below is the text of the blog post that I intend to post. I would like to >> get your comments and any suggestions on how to make this better. >> >> >> NHibernate is the most popular Open Source Object Relational Mapper in >> the .NET framework. As an Open Source project, all the work done on it is >> done for free. We would like to be able to dedicate more time to >> NHibernate, but even as a labor of love, the amount of time that we can >> spend on a free project is limited. >> >> In order to facilitate that, we opened a donation >> campaign<http://pledgie.com/campaigns/8615>that will allow you to donate >> money to the project. >> >> [image: Click here to lend your support to: NHibernate and make a donation >> at www.pledgie.com !] <http://www.pledgie.com/campaigns/8615> >> >> *What is this money going to be used for?* >> >> This money will go directly to NHibernate committers, in order to sponsor >> the development of NHibernate itself. >> >> As one caveat of that, none of that money is going to go to me personally. >> As you are probably aware, I have my own commercial interest in NHibernate >> (NHibernate >> Profiler <http://nhprof.com/>), so I don’t feel I should benefit from the >> donations. >> >> *Donation Matching* >> >> Moreover, my company, Hibernating Rhinos <http://hibernatingrhinos.com/>, >> is going to *match any donation *to this campaign (to a total limit of >> 5,000$), as a way to give back to the NHibernate project for the excellent >> software it produced. >> >> *Why should you donate?* >> >> If you are a user of NHibernate, you gained a lot from build on such a >> solid foundation. We ask to you to donate so that we can make the project >> even better. If your company uses NHibernate, ask it to donate to this >> campaign. >> >> >
