Awesome. If the $20,000 quote on electricity costs is accurate, hopefully this will last them another five years or so.
OpenBSD has more expenses than just an electricity bill.
OpenBSD receives approximately $100,000 in donations
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Re: OpenBSD receives approximately $100,000 in donations
#22"We would also like to thank the many smaller donors too numerous to list here for their contributons to the foundation." If you go to the openbsd.org page, it does list the people who have given directly. I would like to see the foundation continue this tradition[1]. It's good to give first credit to the big donors, but it is kind of sad not to give credit to those paying every month[2]. It made me feel pretty good…
Hm. I just realized that, while systems like this often display monthly donators, I've never seen one that showed the total donated by a monthly donator. If you've stuck with a monthly donation to X for a couple years, you could easily be in the hundreds, usually reserved for a relative few. It seems like this could be a good reward/incentive for monthly donors (which are probably worth more than one-timers anyway).
The developers of Dwarf Fortress (Bay 12 Games) do a financial/game report every month (though I'm unsure if you are not talking about disclosing what each monthly donor give):
Re: OpenBSD receives approximately $100,000 in donations
#23I know OpenBSD sells books and install media, but could they possibly sell other "swag" to help bring in stable money? I'm sure they could partner with one of the dozens of nerd shops (This is why i'm broke, thinkgeek, etc.) and sell $7 shirts with an OpenBSD logo on it for $12 + shipping. The partner shop takes $1 for overhead, OpenBSD takes $4.
In fact, I wonder if this could be a feasible startup? Selling FOSS swag with the principal of ~90% of all proceeds given directly to the defined organization... I'm sure it's been tried, but how unsuccessful have they been?
Re: OpenBSD receives approximately $100,000 in donations
#24I know OpenBSD sells books and install media, but could they possibly sell other "swag" to help bring in stable money? I'm sure they could partner with one of the dozens of nerd shops (This is why i'm broke, thinkgeek, etc.) and sell $7 shirts with an OpenBSD logo on it for $12 + shipping. The partner shop takes $1 for overhead, OpenBSD takes $4. In fact, I wonder if this could be a feasible startup? Selling FOSS swa…
OpenBSD sells this stuff in online stores. But the marketing sucks. You have to find the sorta buried link named 'CDs/Tshirts/Posters' on the main page - no "shop" or "buy" or "order" nearby. Clicking that link gets you a page you have to read to figure out that you still need to pick a store. Then the US store only had the latest three versions on CD. I've got to find another store that'll ship to the US if I want a t-shirt.
OpenBSD swag exists, but you've got to be a determined purchaser to buy it.
Re: OpenBSD receives approximately $100,000 in donations
#25Great. ...if only people wouldn't have made such a fuss about a meagre $100.000 (yeah, it's a lot of money for me too, but these amazing guys are developing an OS , for god's sake, not crafting another "ubercool" webframework-of-the-month) and posted so many "i'd like to see the exact way the money is spent" comments everywhere (transparency is a lot of times the opposite of freedom, you know - once people have prove…
It's a legitimate request, and it shouldn't be even necessary to ask for it, for any project that accept donations or publicly funded. It's annoying, but it's important.
"It's a legitimate request"
I don't think it is personally. Their transparency is in the updates to their software. If you think the updates don't correlate well with the level of contributions, than don't contribute.
Having to justify every expense would be extremely burdensome, and would only detract from running a productive foundation in my opinion. Would we ask Microsoft how it spends all the money we give it in exchange for a copy of Windows?
I think maybe if this was a cancer foundation, it would make sense. The results are harder to see, so you might legitimately be interested in seeing where the money goes.
Re: OpenBSD receives approximately $100,000 in donations
#26I know OpenBSD sells books and install media, but could they possibly sell other "swag" to help bring in stable money? I'm sure they could partner with one of the dozens of nerd shops (This is why i'm broke, thinkgeek, etc.) and sell $7 shirts with an OpenBSD logo on it for $12 + shipping. The partner shop takes $1 for overhead, OpenBSD takes $4. In fact, I wonder if this could be a feasible startup? Selling FOSS swa…
OpenBSD sells this stuff in online stores. But the marketing sucks. You have to find the sorta buried link named 'CDs/Tshirts/Posters' on the main page - no "shop" or "buy" or "order" nearby. Clicking that link gets you a page you have to read to figure out that you still need to pick a store. Then the US store only had the latest three versions on CD. I've got to find another store that'll ship to the US if I want a…
Yeah, I was able to find that, too. There wasn't an easy way to purchase things on most of those sites. It seemed like half didn't incorporate an online shopping cart/ecommerce solution at all, and would rather you contact them via email or phone to make a purchase. This seems really backwards.
And while OpenBSD may list them as a preferred vendor (or whatever nomenclature they used) how can I be assured the bulk of the proceeds from that sale will go to OpenBSD? I didn't find much (if any) indication that any amount of money was given back...
Re: OpenBSD receives approximately $100,000 in donations
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a legitimate request, and it shouldn't be even necessary to ask for it, for any project that accept donations or publicly funded. It's annoying, but it's important.
"It's a legitimate request" I don't think it is personally. Their transparency is in the updates to their software. If you think the updates don't correlate well with the level of contributions, than don't contribute. Having to justify every expense would be extremely burdensome, and would only detract from running a productive foundation in my opinion. Would we ask Microsoft how it spends all the money we give it in…
In my experience it's not so much a matter of "legitimacy" or "transparency" so much as pragmatism; charities believe that "$10 buys and delivers an anti-malaria net" makes more than "$10 supports our work in various ways"
Whether OpenBSD believe transparency would increase donations enough to be worth the bother is of course another matter. And if they to and forego some donations that's up to them.
Re: OpenBSD receives approximately $100,000 in donations
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find it equally annoying to request for money, but not be transparent about it. Equally annoying is that when a request is made, you're considered an annoyance. Deliver an OS has no relation to financial capabilities.
What would you do with the information? I think the OpenBSD foundation is transparent enough with their "Activities" page ( http://openbsdfoundation.org/activities.html ). What level of details would you like in a finacial statement from the OpenBSD project? Keeping it pretty broad seems like the right solution. Given all the unsolicited "advice" they got just regarding their power bill, posting every expenditure wou…
A standard "Statement of Activities" and "Financial Position" (the nonprofit equivalents of a Profit and Loss statement and Balance Sheet) would be nice.
These don't include every expenditure in detail, just the totals in broad categories. Yes, even that might generate some debate but when you're asking for donations you should not be offended if your benefactors would like at least some high-level insight into how their donations are being used.
Re: OpenBSD receives approximately $100,000 in donations
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find it equally annoying to request for money, but not be transparent about it. Equally annoying is that when a request is made, you're considered an annoyance. Deliver an OS has no relation to financial capabilities.
What would you do with the information? I think the OpenBSD foundation is transparent enough with their "Activities" page ( http://openbsdfoundation.org/activities.html ). What level of details would you like in a finacial statement from the OpenBSD project? Keeping it pretty broad seems like the right solution. Given all the unsolicited "advice" they got just regarding their power bill, posting every expenditure wou…
Within GNOME there is pretty complete financial transparency. There only a few who go over the numbers. I believe in "trust, but verify", though I don't check anything at all. I do see one or two people checking the financial figures. I really appreciate them taking the time to do that.
I agree with you that very likely anyone requesting this is not going to really donate. But at the same time I think the people who do verify the financial figures (independently) should be applauded.
I have seen other examples (not GNOME) where the lack of transparency caused things to happen that should not have. Sometimes even with the best intentions actually.
So regarding: what would I like to see? Nothing :-P I'm ok with a "not going to do that", as long as you don't dismiss that financial transparency (or an audit) does have its benefits.