
Germany offers up to €30k for 6 months of working on OSS - haraball
http://prototypefund.de/?lang=en
======
Mithaldu
As a german freelancer and long-time software dev with hundreds of releases of
tens of apps/libraries, open source, under my belt, i can only say:

This project is misguided.

They want only "new" stuff. You may come in with something that already
exists, but even then you need to prove how you're creating a "new" feature
_on top of that_.

However funding that is pointless. People do that ALL the time. I have tons of
such prototypes i have made myself, over the years and i know thousands of
those among OSS dev friends. They are typically works of passion and happen
regardless of any other circumstances.

Meanwhile the real problem is maintenance of existing software to combat bit
rot. It usually requires experienced people who need to separate time from
their already full schedules, but is largely ignored. See PGP.

~~~
tomchristie
I think that's a rather negative outlook.

Is the fund applicable to financing ongoing triage for projects? Nope.

Is €30k worth of funding for 40 kicking off individual projects valuable and
worthwhile? Hell, yes.

Might the scope of an endeavor like this evolve in coming years, as they
demonstrate success? Sure.

Government backed funding for OSS projects is a really smart and efficient use
of public money when it comes to investing in digital infrastructure. It
doesn't need to be perfect on launch, and it's far easier to pitch and justify
the value of seed money like this, than it is to make (just as valuable, but
more subtle) wider case for ongoing funding.

Furthermore I'm sure there's plenty of projects that could pitch proposals for
new features that they want to build, while building in the cost of ongoing
triage during those 6 months. (Ie. Make sure that the amount of work your
proposing is viable on the assumption that you'll also have ongoing triage
work to keep on top of at the same time.)

Let's celebrate the OSS funding achievements as they come, rather than
knocking them.

~~~
VLM
Let me propose an alternative way of looking at it, that 30KE for six months
of possible part time funding of new projects is almost perfectly wrong
financially.

Early in a project you want experienced people putting in lots of time (full
time) on architecture and initial design and MVP. Later on, lower paid
programmers can evolve the project part time to add javascript flavor of the
month.

As an alternative financial model, how about 25KE (or more) for two months for
expert level programmers to bootstrap a new project full time only, or 60KE
for a year to evolve features and squash bugs on an existing project perhaps
part time. Or if politics and PR make ongoing support impossible, then only do
the bootstrap phase.

Its possible programmer salaries in .de are much lower than I think they are.
However they can't too much lower, someone there is buying all those BMWs and
VWs.

~~~
bjourne
It's the opposite. Any decent programmer can make a nicely architectured MVP.
It is maintaining the code, refactoring it and implementing new feature
requests not envisioned by the original programmers that takes real skill.

Stupid analogy time: Building a shiny, new house; easy. Retrofitting a 300
year old house with 1000gb ethernet wiring everywhere, while keeping the
original character of the house and with minimal disruption to its
inhabitants; HARD.

~~~
jwebb99
> Stupid analogy time: Building a shiny, new house; easy. Retrofitting a 300
> year old house with 1000gb ethernet wiring everywhere, while keeping the
> original character of the house and with minimal disruption to its
> inhabitants; HARD.

Actually, I thought it was pretty apt.

------
cm3
I feel like there ought to be a way to publicly fund FOSS developers full-time
because they often produce software used by everybody and therefore a product
for the common good, just like someone working at an NGO. You may laugh and
say it's a stretch to compare it to working with disadvantaged people or
similar work, but software is used everywhere and we rely it on it in all
kinds of situations now. So, why shouldn't there be a FOSS org that collects
donations to compensate maintainers of projects? Right now, this exists as
fundraisers on a project basis and therefore only a couple high profile
projects manage to a few of their developers to focus on it more than just on
weekends.

One might argue this should be supported at least financially or with a do-
not-starve stipend by the government, but this may again be controversial. The
government could start by making taxation easier for people who could get
donations or many small one-time payments aka nano-contracting (prioritized
bug fix for pay). In most countries the tax code is not on the side of a hobby
programmer who would accept many small payments but isn't already a
freelancer.

~~~
gaius
_So, why shouldn 't there be a FOSS org that collects donations to compensate
maintainers of projects?_

GNU does this I believe...

~~~
raverbashing
How effective are them at this? Which high importance projects have they
financed?

Legitimate questions, I'm not implying anything here

~~~
danieldk
There are some organisations/groups which seem to be effective in actually
paying people.

There is a group of Debian developers that collect funding and pay Debian
developers/maintainers to maintain LTS for Debian releases:

[https://www.freexian.com/en/services/debian-
lts.html](https://www.freexian.com/en/services/debian-lts.html)

[https://raphaelhertzog.com/tag/Freexian+LTS/](https://raphaelhertzog.com/tag/Freexian+LTS/)

The FreeBSD Foundation also hires developers to do actual work:

[https://www.freebsd.org/news/status/report-2016-04-2016-06.h...](https://www.freebsd.org/news/status/report-2016-04-2016-06.html#The-
FreeBSD-Foundation)

[https://www.freebsdfoundation.org/what-we-
do/projects/#curre...](https://www.freebsdfoundation.org/what-we-
do/projects/#current-projects)

However, I think such initiatives are typically highly underfunded. Like
OpenSSH/{Open,Libre}SSL/GnuPG, everyone uses the software, few
companies/individuals chip in in a significant way.

~~~
snassar
Getting a copy of "The Debian Administrator's Handbook" also helps support
Raphaël Hertzog and Roland Mas keep doing good work.

I purchased a recent copy of the book (covering Debian 8), and while there are
things I'd like more details about, I find it a good resource to have on hand.

------
pudo
Basically, the project team for this (which is a German non-profit) wants to
make the case that public funding of F/OSS can spawn cool tech that might
eventually turn into startups.

The idea is to create a buffer between government (grant) bureaucracy and
individual developers so that they have the least possible amount of forms and
applications to deal with -- just fill out a few basic questions, and a panel
of pretty cool judges gets to make the grants.

German residents only, for the moment.

~~~
josephg
Can non-german residents apply if we're willing & able to move to Germany for
6 months?

~~~
wolfgke
As far as I understand it, you already have to live in Germany when you apply
(so that you don't move to Germany only when your application was successful).
To quote from
[http://prototypefund.de/en/submission/](http://prototypefund.de/en/submission/):

"Ich bin über 18 Jahre alt und mit meinem Hauptwohnsitz in Deutschland
gemeldet."

(roughly "I'm over 18 years old and have my primary residence in Germany"),
which you have to sign. Additionally you have to fill out your application on
[http://prototypefund.de/en/submission/](http://prototypefund.de/en/submission/)
in German. So if your knowledge of the German language is not good enough for
that, you are probably out of luck.

So it seems to me that if you are only willing to relocate to Germany when
your application is successful or if your level of the German language is not
sufficient to apply, the answer is "no". On the other hand: If you aren't a
German citizen, this should be no problem.

------
NKCSS
Who can apply? Self-employed and independent developers who live in Germany
can apply for funding.

Support: Each project is backed with a maximum of 30,000€, coaching from
experienced mentors, and collaboration with an exciting network.

Time frame: You have 6 months to implement your idea from the first concept to
a prototype. There will be four rounds of funding between 2016 and 2019. About
10 projects can be funded each round.

Open Source: Your results must be made publicly available under an open source
license.

------
DanSmooth
Additional details:
[https://okfn.de/en/projekte/prototypefund/](https://okfn.de/en/projekte/prototypefund/)

It has support from the BMBF (Federal Ministry for Education and Research)

------
techno_modus
It is a good opportunity but I could not find answers for these questions:

\- Is it permitted to use these 30k to pay for hosting/cloud or they do not
limit the use of the grant?

\- Is a person eligible if he is employed but works also on some other
projects (startup, open source).

\- Do they fund teams? For example, can two persons apply for the grant? For
example, one person is employed and works part-time while the other developer
works full-time.

~~~
Quanttek
Your questions are partially answered in the FAQ:

\- From the german FAQ (the english is missing a sentence there): "What does
the funding consist of? Each project will be funded for 6 months at most, and
with a maximum amount of 30,000 €. _Your work time on the project will be
primarily funded_. The amount of funding always equates to 60% of the overall
project budget. The remaining 40% is your own contribution – meaning the time
that you spend on pursuing the project." Though the "mainly" implies work time
is not exclusively funded. You should probably contact them here:
info@prototypefund.de

\- You need to be self-employed, but you don't need to work exclusively on
your prototype: "The grant will be paid in instalments based on the work
carried out at the beginning of each new quarter. Example: The eligibility
period starts on 01.03.2017, therefore you can call for funds at the beginning
of the new quarter (in this case, in April) proportionately to the work you
performed."

\- "I am working on my project as part of a team, is there anything I should
be aware of?

As a rule, only individuals are eligible for funding. Whether several persons
can apply for one project, or whether parts of the grant can be transferred,
will be decided in each particular case, e.g. if there if there are distinct
modules in the same project."

[http://prototypefund.de/en/faq/](http://prototypefund.de/en/faq/)

------
timwaagh
that's very nice for german developers. 30k for six months is not too bad for
anyone but the most senior developers and you get to work on your own thing. I
don't think comparing this with typical freelancing rates is completely fair
because you are assured of work for six months.

~~~
k__
Yes, I work at such rates often, if the contract are that long.

------
erlehmann_
Blog post with rationale (German): [http://codefor.de/blog/prototype-
fund](http://codefor.de/blog/prototype-fund)

------
sytse
If you're interested in working on open source permanently consider applying
at our open core company GitLab Inc. 80% of what we do is released as open
source. Vacancies are at
[https://about.gitlab.com/jobs/](https://about.gitlab.com/jobs/) and we hire
everywhere [https://about.gitlab.com/team/](https://about.gitlab.com/team/)

~~~
abetusk
Why is this getting downvoted? It's adding something to the discussion that's
relevant.

Part of the reason for looking at the comments is to find other links to other
initiatives or companies that are helping fund FOSS development.

~~~
cyphar
> Why is this getting downvoted? It's adding something to the discussion
> that's relevant.

Probably because "open core" is a worrying business model for a free software
company. It's better than it being proprietary, but there's a legitimate
concern that GitLab will stunt development in the community edition to upsell
people to the proprietary version. Much of the engineering talent is at
GitLab, unlike most free software projects.

I work at SUSE, and all of my contributions and patches are free software (in
fact, I maintain runC as part of my job which is pretty awesome). This is a
much less worrying model than open core IMO. Enterprise support doesn't have
to be support of proprietary software.

------
vavoida
talking about funding

100.000 Euro funding available (total €5.5 million) for opendata startups &
SMEs [https://opendataincubator.eu/apply](https://opendataincubator.eu/apply)
deadline by 30.08.2016

------
k__
Cool.

I'm a self employed dev from Germany and got free time the next months.

But I got no idea for a project, haha.

~~~
uola
So don't apply, seriously. One problem with these type of initiatives is that
they bring out all the people who don't mind embellishing their ideas to get
access to "free money" at the expense of people who have substantial projects
but stick to the truth.

~~~
k__
Sure, I wouldn't apply with any crap just to get the money.

But if some OSS projects need help and don't have any German devs that could
get funded, it would be good too.

I worked many hours in OSS without getting any money, but if I could do it
full-time for a few months, I'd love too.

------
viach
This OSS initiative is open only for "Self-employed and independent developers
who live in Germany". So that there is no love for the open source projects
people do after their daily work in Iowa?

~~~
pudo
Plenty of love :) Just no legal way for prototypefund to pay them with this
money. Sorry. Trust me, they tried to negotiate.

------
bflesch
Site is down unfortunately. Haven't read about this topic anywhere else yet so
I am a bit sceptical.

~~~
buro9
[https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:protot...](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:prototypefund.de/%3Flang%3Den&num=1&strip=1&vwsrc=0)

Although the FAQ with any info is not in the Google cache, so it's still less
than useful.

~~~
bflesch
Okay thanks. There is also a German-language news article here:
[https://netzpolitik.org/2016/12-millionen-euro-fuer-open-
sou...](https://netzpolitik.org/2016/12-millionen-euro-fuer-open-source-neuer-
prototype-fund-foerdert-gemeinnuetzige-projekte/)

They give you up to 30k for 6 months, and it is funded by the German ministry
of education. Their strive for a very easy application process where you just
need to write an email and send a link of your open source project, and a list
of goals you want to achieve with the money.

So it passes the smell test and seems like a great opportunity for European
oss devs. I couldn't find any info which explicitly states that projects
outside the EU might be funded.

~~~
qznc
"Self-employed and independent developers who live in Germany can apply for
funding."

~~~
bflesch
Thanks :) This should include European citizens who live in Germany.

~~~
sveme
It's not limited to EU citizens, anyone with the right to work and live in
Germany can apply.

------
mtrn
I would like to see more such models in the future, because two world seem to
intersect here: open source projects and the public domain.

Open source projects can have such a huge leverage, that the cost reductions
in comparison to commercial offerings could be enormous. On the other hand,
open source projects will gather people, who at least care about the specific
domain (this does not mean, there is no politics). Treating software as public
infrastructure could be a huge step forward.

------
asavinov
For comparison, the EXIST Business Start-up Grant from BMWI (Federal Ministry
for Economic Affairs and Energy) provides 2500 EUR/month = 30k€/year.

[http://www.exist.de/EN/Programme/EXIST-Business-Startup-
Gran...](http://www.exist.de/EN/Programme/EXIST-Business-Startup-
Grant/content.html)

So PrototypeFund (BMBF) pays twice as much for open source project development
as EXIST for founding a startup. Yet, startups in EXIST get also something for
equipment, marketing, coaching etc. Also, they probably will be taxed
differently.

------
tobilg
Any hints why this is only for self-employed people? I think there are lots of
OSS developers with very interesting/largely used projects which do this
besides their normal job...

~~~
flapperleenie
Under German law you can have part-time self-employed work alongside your
normal job.

~~~
k__
And in fact, many people have.

They need to give you the money somehow, if they don't want to employ you,
that is (as far as I know) the only way.

~~~
tobilg
You're right! But then I'd really wish they'd refine the phrasing of the rule
section.

In fact, if you have a full-time employer, this employer will in most work
contracts reserve the "right" to your full work capacity, and will insist on a
sign-off for other jobs besides the "full-time" one.

~~~
k__
Sure, but the project you want to get fundet doesn't need to be full-time.

I know a bunch of people in full-time employment, who are self-employed on the
side for few hours a week.

Also, some employers would let you reduce to 80% or 50% for a few months, if
they're nice :)

~~~
tobilg
That's true. But I think for people who don't have a self-employment status
yet, this is a big obstacle to even apply.

Maybe it would make sense to open up the application for everybody, but to
connect the grants to the self-employment status (i.e. the applicant get some
timeframe to register the self-employment and if necessary talk to the
employer).

I just think the rules lead to a strong restriction of the applicant pool and
also the possible grant-worthy projects. But this might be intended...

~~~
k__
As far as I can tell, the application doesn't ask for informations on your
self-employment status.

And how long you are self-employed doesn't matter for the payment.

~~~
tobilg
Yes, but my point is that nobody will try to get self-employement status first
if he/she doesn't have it, before even knowing whether the project is
accepted.

This would have implications on the relationship to the full-time employer,
and also from a tax perspective (which is quite a hassle here in Germany,
IMHO...).

~~~
Kliment
You can get self-employment status in Germany for 26€ and about an hour of
waiting. It's a single form to fill in, and doesn't have any tax implications
until you actually start receiving income from it. Your full-time employer
doesn't need to be notified or asked for permission. (your contract may
require notification if you actually perform additional work, but getting the
status itself is extremely low hassle)

------
g8oz
Germany is so far ahead in their understanding of the common good. Recall too
that they single-handedly jump started the modern solar industry with their
feed-in tariff scheme.

------
kriro
It sounds like a good idea in a vacuum. However I'm a bit worried that this
might be in direct violation of some studies from psychology that basically
say "as soon as you get money for something you do as a passion project you
will stop doing it once the money stream ceases". Can't find the paper right
now but the famous one involved kids painting things iirc.

I feel like there needs to be a very good integration plan for the time once
the funding ends (which I think is lacking).

~~~
Toboe
Not the paper, but a wikipedia article on the effect:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overjustification_effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overjustification_effect)

------
erlehmann_
[https://prototypefund.de/?lang=en](https://prototypefund.de/?lang=en) does
not work for me.

[https://prototypefund.de/](https://prototypefund.de/) does work for me.

------
throw129112
Here is a project list:

[https://okfn.de/en/projekte/](https://okfn.de/en/projekte/)

Looks like you can implement citizen/government related websites for a very
low salary.

Using the term OSS seems like a stretch.

~~~
syats
€30K for 6 months is a pretty low salary? Not in Germany. Not anywhere.

~~~
manarth
€30k for 6 months is a low _contracting rate_.

Normalise that to €60k per year. Full-time work in Germany is 231 days (52 *
5, less 29 days legally-mandated holiday).

€60k / 231 = €259.74 per day.

So around €260/$290/£220 per day. This is definitely the low-end of
freelancing/contracting rates in Germany[1]/Western Europe.

[1] Contracting rates in Germany: [http://forums.contractoruk.com/business-
contracts/77870-hour...](http://forums.contractoruk.com/business-
contracts/77870-hourly-rates-germany-age-area.html) (German)

~~~
Xylakant
You math is slightly off, it's 24 days of legally mandated holidays, but those
assume a 6-day workweek (§ 3 BUrlG, see 1). Legally mandated holidays on a 5
days workweek is 20 days only. The actual number of workdays varies slightly
with the location you're in as well. Some states have more federal holidays.
Generally speaking the dominantly catholic part have more, the city of
Augsburg has the most (they have the "Hohes Freiheitsfest", a holiday that is
restricted to the city of Augsburg)
[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augsburger_Hohes_Friedensfest](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augsburger_Hohes_Friedensfest)

[http://www.schulferien.org/Arbeitstage/arbeitstage-2016.html](http://www.schulferien.org/Arbeitstage/arbeitstage-2016.html)

Your general point still stands: 30k is a low contracting rate and in general
untenable for a freelancer. You should be earning at least twice as much.
However, for open source work this is a major step up - you can make a living
off it instead of self-funding your work.

(1)
[https://dejure.org/gesetze/BUrlG/3.html](https://dejure.org/gesetze/BUrlG/3.html)

------
tormeh
I hope someone applies to work on Redox. It's just so cool.

------
tckr
It's back online.

------
andrewvijay
That homepage animation is eating up the damn frames and flickers the page in
mobile. Maybe the first job in the contract should be to remove the heavy
animations.;)

------
J_Darnley
> With a grant of up to €30,000, software developers [...] can write code and
> develop open source prototypes over a period of six months.

> You have 6 months to implement your idea from the first concept to a
> prototype.

Oh, it wants to fund new stuff and not fund a Firefox, Gimp, Linux kernel,
whatever dev to work for 6 months.

~~~
flapperleenie
Any new module for an existing project is eligible as well. It's in the FAQs.

~~~
progx
Hope a new module, that replace an old module (with less functionality) is
accepted too.

------
samoa4
they ought to clean their own house:

not hosted in germany? it's for germans only

could not afford a _fresh_ ip for this project?

wired combination of www- and plain domains in ssl-cert

mixed ssl and plaintext

css-animation drives (my) firefox to a grinding halt

------
nxzero
While this is truly awesome — imagine how much more this would get done if it
was not based on the developers being in Germany.

