I can't think of a better reply (from Gittip's point of view) to yesterday's "Money and Open Source": https://medium.com/open-source-life/d44a1953749c. Thank you, jeresig and Khan Academy, for the huge vote of confidence, investing in open-source via Gittip! :D
Gittip at Khan Academy
11–20 of 69 posts
Re: Gittip at Khan Academy
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
Depends on the developer, but in the case of jashkenas we're trying to give him $15.50/week, which is $806 per year - certainly nothing to sneeze at! That's almost a new Macbook Air! Or, if he's so inclined, a large yearly donation to the charity of his choice. There is definitely a snowball effect though. Once I signed up for Gittip people started to give me tiny amounts (like $0.25/week). It built up-and-up over ti…
This kind of supports parent's point. If the creator of CoffeeScript, Backbone.js and Underscore.js only gets 806$/year, us unknown developers will probably get the equivalent of a cup of coffee per year. That being said, I do hope Gittip becomes more popular.
Hundreds (thousands?) of companies use jashkenas's work -- if each gave anywhere ~$1k/year then it'd easily pay for a full-time salary for him. Less prolific developers will obviously receive less, but still a significant amount, especially if many companies pitch in.
Re: Gittip at Khan Academy
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
Depends on the developer, but in the case of jashkenas we're trying to give him $15.50/week, which is $806 per year - certainly nothing to sneeze at! That's almost a new Macbook Air! Or, if he's so inclined, a large yearly donation to the charity of his choice. There is definitely a snowball effect though. Once I signed up for Gittip people started to give me tiny amounts (like $0.25/week). It built up-and-up over ti…
This kind of supports parent's point. If the creator of CoffeeScript, Backbone.js and Underscore.js only gets 806$/year, us unknown developers will probably get the equivalent of a cup of coffee per year. That being said, I do hope Gittip becomes more popular.
That's true - although that should be an incentive to write and release good Open Source code! Even if a single person gives you $0.25/week (the minimum amount) you'll get $13/year. We're attempting to give most developers at least $1/week - and I should emphasize that this is only from Khan Academy. Just because we're giving this amount it doesn't mean that these devs won't get money from other sources. I, personally, receive donations from a couple dozen users on Gittip with a wide variety of amounts (most being in the $0.25 range).
It's very defeatist to give up before even trying ("only" a cup of coffee). Why not aspire to more?
Re: Gittip at Khan Academy
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
Depends on the developer, but in the case of jashkenas we're trying to give him $15.50/week, which is $806 per year - certainly nothing to sneeze at! That's almost a new Macbook Air! Or, if he's so inclined, a large yearly donation to the charity of his choice. There is definitely a snowball effect though. Once I signed up for Gittip people started to give me tiny amounts (like $0.25/week). It built up-and-up over ti…
This kind of supports parent's point. If the creator of CoffeeScript, Backbone.js and Underscore.js only gets 806$/year, us unknown developers will probably get the equivalent of a cup of coffee per year. That being said, I do hope Gittip becomes more popular.
Totally agree. Another thing is people like jashkenas don't even need that kind of money while regular open source devs working on smaller project might but they only get a few cents which makes the system mostly useless for everyone. As a dev myself of a few moderately successful open source projects, I don't even bother with gittip. I just do it for me and fun and that's it.
Re: Gittip at Khan Academy
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
This kind of supports parent's point. If the creator of CoffeeScript, Backbone.js and Underscore.js only gets 806$/year, us unknown developers will probably get the equivalent of a cup of coffee per year. That being said, I do hope Gittip becomes more popular.
Totally agree. Another thing is people like jashkenas don't even need that kind of money while regular open source devs working on smaller project might but they only get a few cents which makes the system mostly useless for everyone. As a dev myself of a few moderately successful open source projects, I don't even bother with gittip. I just do it for me and fun and that's it.
Imagine if something like this allowed them to quit their jobs, so that they did need this money, and work on open source projects full time. That's the goal.
Re: Gittip at Khan Academy
#16I've long felt conflicted about accepting tips through Gittip, but John's nice argumentation here persuaded me to give it a try.
On the one hand, working on open source software (especially many years after the original projects have shipped, and you've moved on to other things) is really about the love -- a hobbyist's satisfaction of polishing a well-honed tool.
But on the other hand, when so many successful businesses are able to use that open-source tool to great effect, it can create a bit of a financial dissonance.
I'm not sure if I'll keep the account open for very long -- for one thing, if I end up back at the NYT towards the end of the year, I'll probably have to close it -- but until then, let's see how it goes. Maybe it'll feel good in a kind of dirty-capitalist-but-gift-economy kinda way.
Re: Gittip at Khan Academy
#17The granting employees the $5 tip a week idea is pretty good. There are a lot of businesses out there that see the value of open source but don't currently fund development. There are certainly companies out there where the reason for not funding is more logistical than financial. Giving employees the ability to send money to where they see it can do the most good would be a great way to target worthy projects. With…
This seems like something Gittip.com could offer as a feature: employees can log in and pick who to contribute to, and the company account they're associated with automatically makes the payment.
Reduce that logistical hurdle to a signup. :)
Re: Gittip at Khan Academy
#18I think there are a few things that are awesome about the Gittip model and a few things that are flawed: Awesome things (1) fills a huge need (2) we should be in the habit of giving back (3) promotes long-term thinking Bad things (1) dependent on CC processing (2) weekly only (3) A bit too much Github lockin.
what payment method besides CC would you like to see? Bitcoin? ACH?
Re: Gittip at Khan Academy
#19I've long felt conflicted about accepting tips through Gittip, but John's nice argumentation here persuaded me to give it a try. On the one hand, working on open source software (especially many years after the original projects have shipped, and you've moved on to other things) is really about the love -- a hobbyist's satisfaction of polishing a well-honed tool. But on the other hand, when so many successful busines…
Does NYT have a policy about taking on outside work or accepting money from outside sources? If NYT means New York Times, is this something to do with journalistic integrity? I liked the author's suggestion about donating unwanted tips to charity or turning them back around into tips.
Re: Gittip at Khan Academy
#20I've long felt conflicted about accepting tips through Gittip, but John's nice argumentation here persuaded me to give it a try. On the one hand, working on open source software (especially many years after the original projects have shipped, and you've moved on to other things) is really about the love -- a hobbyist's satisfaction of polishing a well-honed tool. But on the other hand, when so many successful busines…
I'm really happy that you've signed up!
Amusingly I'm in a very similar boat to you. I'm fairly certain that almost all the money that I'm receiving on Gittip is due to my work on jQuery - which I haven't actively worked in quite a few years.
One way in which Chad explained it to me, that resonated, was that Gittip can be better thought of as a "genius grant". People are giving you money not to support a specific thing (otherwise Gittip would be project-centric, not person-centric) but to support YOU and the things you want to do.
It's kind of crazy because I'm fairly certain that I'm getting donations because of my work on jQuery and not for my current side-project research into Japanese woodblock printing - but people don't seem to mind! (And I've made it clear on my profile what it is, exactly, that I'm working on right now and what I'm using the money for.)
I have a full-time job at Khan Academy and I'm well paid so I don't need the extra money - but it is appreciated. I'm re-donating a portion of the money that I get. Additionally it's paying for my extra server costs for my side projects and it's probably even paying for a good chunk of my monthly utility bill. I've been trying to think of other ways in which I can use the money that'll have a more obvious "money in -> using money -> output" pipeline but I'm not sure what that is, yet.
Let's hope you'll be able to keep your account open and find good uses for the money!