Post A9IAQMPIEMcq7tFjLU by wyatwerp@fsmi.social
(DIR) More posts by wyatwerp@fsmi.social
(DIR) Post #A8xl1SbjejgI6Ou6xU by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2021-07-05T01:14:11Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
I've been doing some back-of-the-envelope calculations. I wanted to know how much it might cost us - the beneficiaries of thousands of works of free code software - to fund salaries for developers working fulltime on free code. If we fund 5000 salaries at100,000 credits a year (dollars, euros, whatever), that works out at about a million credits a week. So let's imagine some people were willing to put 5 credits a week into this fund. We'd need 200,000 subscribers to fund 5000 fulltimers.
(DIR) Post #A8xlxy5EmtNcWDbNzs by theblacksquid@todon.nl
2021-07-05T01:24:44Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey 5 creds per.... Month? Quarter?
(DIR) Post #A8xmBNKuD4g8bSK8I4 by icedquinn@blob.cat
2021-07-05T01:27:25.207699Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey the trick is getting places to stop paying corporate vigs and spend it on public works instead.the original engineering of the work costs more, but there is a breakover where there is little to do but maintenence. for stuff like Adobe, that point was reached years ago.
(DIR) Post #A8xmIsZWTTfLVRjs8G by drwho@hackers.town
2021-07-05T01:28:30Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey This sounds like a thing I could do.
(DIR) Post #A8y1Zz531nHNvY6BeK by carl_klitscher@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2021-07-05T04:19:39Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey I've been working on something similar to address the alleged 'skills shortage' NZ Govt and businesses continue to moan about... Always looking for feedback to refine it.https://nzoss.nz/NZ-Govt-FOSS-capability-proposal
(DIR) Post #A8y5VQrSiB0ESNpT2u by wyatwerp@fsmi.social
2021-07-05T04:51:12.055615Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey where I live, that is 10 times the price of a newspaper subscription, 15 times the price of an Amazon Prime subscription.If I think about it, Google and smartphone and smart TV manufacturers should be paying a big(ger) multiple of those credits.I would unquestioningly pay LineageOS or PostmarketOS if they transparently take a cut and pass on a healthy chunk to upstream projects. valueflo.ws ?
(DIR) Post #A8zqq8O1UATYF8OOeG by nicol@social.coop
2021-07-06T01:28:42Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey @CaitlinWaddick or five billionaires who built their riches from free software, putting 200,000 credits a week in? Without BASIC, JS, HTML, PHP & Linux, where would Gates, Bezos, Page, Brin and Zuckerberg be?
(DIR) Post #A982qXulKHaM8DLea0 by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2021-07-10T00:19:45Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@JohanEmpaTo which number?
(DIR) Post #A983rCS2iA0loAn4gi by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2021-07-10T00:32:22Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@nicol What if one of the billionaires changes their mind and stops paying though? What I was trying to quantify is how many people would be needed if the contribution was an amount anyone can theoretically afford, spreading the cost as widely as possible. Obviously anyone who wanted to put in more than the minimum would be welcome to do so.@CaitlinWaddick
(DIR) Post #A9846zA9swPVECx7EO by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2021-07-10T00:34:27Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@nicol @wyatwerp What if one of the billionaires or corporations changes their mind and stops paying though? What I was trying to quantify is how many people would be needed if the contribution was an amount anyone can theoretically afford, spreading the cost as widely as possible. Obviously any person or company who wanted to put in more than the minimum would be welcome to do so 😉@CaitlinWaddick
(DIR) Post #A98HLvYorKpzntwV5E by nicol@social.coop
2021-07-10T03:03:31Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey @wyatwerp @CaitlinWaddick sure..both sounds good! Struck me as maybe easier to guilt trip five billionaires into giving back to the free software ecosystems they built their fortune with (ok maybe not Gates) than persuade 200,000 people.
(DIR) Post #A98YYWs7f1yODcZAg4 by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2021-07-10T06:16:23Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@nicolThe main problem with guilt tripping predatory tech billionaires is that it doesn't create a new system to replace the one that produces more tech billionaires. It keeps the funding system critically dependent on the goodwill of a handful of capitalists, instead of democratizing both the sources and spending of the funding. Then there's the fact that psychopaths like ZuckerBorg and Bezos don't feel guilt. If they did they would already be contributing. @wyatwerp @CaitlinWaddick
(DIR) Post #A98iNaNHIUotRCYkHQ by nicol@social.coop
2021-07-10T08:06:07Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey maybe if it became 'a thing', that people who made their living in some way from free software donated a 1% tithe to a FOS worker fund, it might trickle up from the $5/week for the lower paid to $20-30/week for AWS/FB/Goo heads of department until eventually a CTO would ask one of them why they weren't contributing, & it'd become a thing they had to do. 'give all your wealth away before death' once seemed a wild idea now most of the billionaires are signed up. @wyatwerp @CaitlinWaddick
(DIR) Post #A9CSjriueaOoyt7XDU by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2021-07-12T03:30:00Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@JohanEmpaAh right. Thanks for the correction. So we need closer to 2 million people putting in 5 credits a week to give 5000 developers a 100,000 credit per year salary. So much for my back-of-the-envelope calculations 😄
(DIR) Post #A9CT5Xdk0IqN432NkW by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2021-07-12T03:33:54Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@nicolFair points. I certainly see 5 credits per week as a minimum and would encourage those who make a good living to put in more, especially when they're using free code to make that living.@wyatwerp @CaitlinWaddick
(DIR) Post #A9GXzNIeoOUrf1tV8S by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2021-07-14T02:47:39Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@JohanEmpaThat's the bad news. The good news is that 2 billion people could fund good salaries for 5 million fulltime developers, by putting in a weekly amount that even someone on welfare can afford. You're right that organizing the pooling and fair disbursement of such hypothetical funds is a huge challenge. I don't think any one giant funding org could achieve it. But it's encouraging to me that a fairly modest subscription level could, in theory, support so many paid workers.
(DIR) Post #A9HBcJSCwPxNErv3j6 by nly@lor.sh
2021-07-14T10:11:56Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey crikey, i got all of it for free tho :)We missed the tuesday date 😬
(DIR) Post #A9IAQMPIEMcq7tFjLU by wyatwerp@fsmi.social
2021-07-14T09:06:32.125999Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypeyAt this scale, government funding of all free/libre/open software should work.@JohanEmpa
(DIR) Post #A9IAQMpWepbpRFWgEa by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2021-07-14T21:33:03Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@wyatwerpI'm certainly an advocate for this. I recently sent a link to Nadia Egbel's Roads and Bridges report to all political parties with MPs in the NZ Parliament. A lot of the tech that underpins the modern digital infrastructure was developed in publicly-funded labs, universities etc. But the anarchist in me believes we can achieve the same thing in a decentralized way, eg proliferation of platform co-ops.#NadiaEgbel #PublicFunding #PlatformCooperatives@JohanEmpa
(DIR) Post #A9Ihgiw1XMXx7FyMc4 by wyatwerp@fsmi.social
2021-07-15T03:16:10.847656Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypeyCo-ops are a great idea, I guess you mean contributors from across the globe are each members of multiple co-ops for free/libre/open software development.Government funding is tempting, in that tax money can be put to good use. I guess co-op members won't get a tax exemption for the money they pay towards their memberships?@JohanEmpa
(DIR) Post #A9IhgjOjobW0YJPIMy by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2021-07-15T03:45:49Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@wyatwerp The important thing for me is finding ways for people to be securely employed, and thus able to make ongoing contributions. There are multiple ways co-ops could help. I like the idea of multi-service community hosts like RiseUp, Framasoft, or Disroot, structured as co-ops. Either sending a portion of their revenue upstream to the developers of software they use, or employing some developers to customize things for them and contribute back to the upstream projects. @JohanEmpa
(DIR) Post #A9IiBIHqfCypRhl3Ds by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2021-07-15T03:51:18Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@wyatwerp> Government funding is tempting, in that tax money can be put to good use.For sure. But tax-funded jobs are vulnerable to the vagaries of political fashion. Not so much with co-ops. The two approaches aren't mutually exclusive. I try to find ways to support both. > I guess co-op members won't get a tax exemption for the money they pay towards their memberships?True. But most projects don't have a charitable umbrella org that make direct donations tax deductible.@JohanEmpa