seebs@plethora.net (Peter Seebach)  wrote:
 > What if you could place bounties on given pieces of code?  For instance,
 > I could place a $100 bounty on the LS-120 driver.  (In fact, if one
 > gets added, I will happily pay the contributor $100...)  But, what if,
 > once I announce that, other people could contribute to the bounty, in
 > whatever quantities they feel comfortable with.
 > 
 > write it.  If core accepts the proposed changes, the people who pledged
 > money to that cause send the author the money.  (Alternatively, money
 > is sent to the web page maintainer, who can keep track of who pays and
 > who doesn't, etc.)
 > 
 > Would this work?  Would anyone be interested in using such a system, from
 > either end?

Potential problems:

a) who is going to ensure that the money actually gets paid? Are you
going to send the money to a lawyer to hold in trust until certain
conditions are met by the developer? ie: a contract?

b) under what conditions is the money going to be disbursed? let's
say a significant number of people put up money to see PCMCIA code;
and lets say someone steps up to do the work.  Then after a few months
of hacking away, the result is in and, while it works and works quite
well, it's not architecturally acceptable for inclusion into the
tree... Does the developer get the money? If you argue that 'no, the
code must be architecurally approved' then who's going to go through
the process of spec'ing the work? who's going to pay to have the work
spec'd?

c) are you going to disburse money part-way through as certain 
milestones are met? ie: lets say I undertake to write SMP code because
the pot is suitably large and I think I can do it correctly... However,
I know it's going to take me 6 months of fulltime work to do it.  I
obviously don't have 6 months money squirrelled away in my bank account
to pay my mortgage and buy me food while I'm coding for this great
prize at the end... How do I live?

d) who is going to pay the trustee? is that part of the donation
process as well? 

I'm not disagreeing with the concept.  I think it's a fine concept
that needs some tweaking and organization and up-front money. Who
is going to run such a thing?