[Foundation-l] Bounties and expenses

[Kurt Jansson]

I already sent this mail five hours ago, but it seems to have gotten lost somewhere.

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

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