Re:An Open Licensing Organization for Open Source Software
by zrail on Tuesday June 05, 2018 @03:11PM
(#17240993)
I agree with your problem statement. I just don't agree with your approach. OSCC wouldn't be a grant making organization and it doesn't need professional accountants (although that would be helpful). It would be a licensing and revenue sharing pass through. Someone wants to use Axiom in a commercial context? Great! Tell them to buy a OSCC subscription. The revenue will flow to you, but you don't have to handle accounting or applying for grants or any other crap.
Re:An Open Licensing Organization for Open Source Software
by zokier on Tuesday June 05, 2018 @04:51PM
(#17241910)
> They cannot give grants to open source work because it requires financial tracking.
There is nothing special in open source work that would preclude financial tracking. Sure it takes effort, and there are costs related to getting all the paperwork done so you need to think twice if it is worth it. But still, its just normal part of the business.
Re:An Open Licensing Organization for Open Source Software
by daly on Tuesday June 05, 2018 @08:28PM
(#17243407)
Yes, you can set up a business to handle everything. And you can pay an accountant to handle the grant. And you can do all the receipt tracking. And you can get your busiess certified by organizations that issue grants.
All of which means that you don't spend time programming. The fundamental idea is to centralize that "overhead" so that open source programmers can program, not run a business.
We're not trying to make and market a traditional product.
Re:An Open Licensing Organization for Open Source Software
by zrail on Tuesday June 05, 2018 @03:04PM
(#17240940)
I don't understand your objection. Maybe I'm not communicating the idea properly. The Air Force, as an organization, would purchase an OSCC license and use, as you say, Axiom. If that's the only software they used, all of their license fee (minus overhead expenses) would go directly in your pocket.
We're programmers. If you can think of it, we can do it. But it takes someone who has the motivation and the time. Motivation is easy to find but time is not. Because Time is Money (as I'm sure you've heard). So the real issue is open source funding.
I've spent the last 18 years trying to get Axiom funded.
I tried the NSF. They will not fund Axiom because there is a "competing commercial product" (aka Mathematica).
I tried the Air Force (AFOSR). They cannot give grants to open source work because it requires financial tracking. Somebody has to managed the funds and the receipts. When I was at City College I did get a grant but they have a Provost (who took 55% for "support").
In order to handle accounting open source needs an "accounting office" with professional, certified accountants. I approached several companies (e.g. IBM, TI, etc.) with the idea of "donating a certified accountant or two" to an organization that would "manage open source grants" with services like funds management, receipt clearance, taxes, etc. That way an open source project could accept grant money. So far, nobody wants to donate people. I think such an office could completely change the whole open source funding issue.
I've tried setting up donations for Axiom. The idea was not to pay people to work on Axiom, just to support things like setting up a conference or paying to attend a conference. I was the only donor.
Open source is not free. I estimate that I spent about $3000 per year on things like travel to attend a conference and paying for hosting services. I now have the Axiom server under my desk on a $1200 dollar computer. In order to ensure Axiom runs everywhere I have to buy computers like the Apple (used to be a non-Intel processor), the PowerPC, a Windows machine, a Linux machine, etc. It all adds up to a lot of money.... not to mention the cost of books to keep up. Oh, yeah, and my time is written off as "free".