Erik Moeller schrieb:
Again, we could use a certain amount of money from the Prix Ars Electronica funds for a first test drive (I'd suggest $2000). If it turns out that such a bounty system does more harm than good, we can always stop doing it. It is unlikely that a single experiment will have devastating effects, but it is quite possible that it will lead the way toward a complementary development process.
Before starting a test drive we need a way to measure the harm done. The problem is that the psychological effects might take time. Maybe it'll take half a year before we realize that most programmers are waiting for new bounties before starting the dirty programming work, and only very few are still working for free, but only because they need this or that feature for their own wiki installation.
I'm not against a bounty system, just a bit skeptic. I fear that after the first test drive the people in favor of it will point to the tasks done and the skeptics will just have their premonition but no way to prove it.
Kurt