
ChatSecure v4.0.9 - Sustainable Open Source Starts with You - chrisballinger
https://chatsecure.org/blog/sustainable-open-source-starts-with-you/
======
fowlslegs
> There’s also the elephant in the room. Although “Internet freedom”
> appropriations may be safe for now, a large chunk of this funding pool could
> also quickly dry up, leaving many projects scrambling to keep the lights on.

I think this an oft-overlooked, yet important point to raise, especially in
the current American political context. We've already seen superficial budget
cuts (or attempts at them) by this administration such as to the NEA.
Especially given the political context in which some of the OTF-funded
applications operate, I think we should be grateful for as long as this
funding stays off the radar, but not rely on it as a long-term funding
solution for "Internet freedom"-type projects.

Too many projects in the not-for-profit tech/Internet freedom/FOSS realm
depend too heavily on grants in general, not just from the government. You
aptly point out some of the problems that creates as far as maintaining an
application over time. We saw recently with Tor a move away from DoD grants
and towards crowd-funding. This is important for the independence,
trustworthiness, and accountability of a project as well.

...

So one more thing I want to touch on about the donation mechanism in general.
I really, really like how easy you've made it to contribute by building the
mechanism into the app and making it an in-app purchase. The biggest barrier
to me donating to most projects is visibility and ease of use of the
mechanism. It's a combination of the out-of-sight-out-of-mind concept and the
fact we're lazy as humans and sometimes just don't want to fill out repetitive
multi-page forms to make a donation. By supporting small-dollar, recurrent
donations and making the mechanism dead-simple, I think you're doing the most
you can ensure the people who care and use the application will donate.

