<span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">N</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">o</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">n</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">-</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">P</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">r</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">o</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">f</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">i</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">t</span><span class="latin" style="display:block;width:19px;height:19px;"> </span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">I</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">n</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">f</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">r</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">a</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">s</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">t</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">r</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">u</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">c</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">t</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">u</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">r</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">e</span><span class="latin" style="display:block;width:19px;height:19px;"> </span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">f</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">o</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">r</span><span class="latin" style="display:block;width:19px;height:19px;"> </span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">S</span></span><span class="tktr-gyo" style="height:640px;margin:0 0 180px 22px;font-size:19px;_width:19px;/width:19px;"><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">o</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">f</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">t</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">w</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">a</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">r</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">e</span><span class="latin" style="display:block;width:19px;height:19px;"> </span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">F</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">r</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">e</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">e</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">d</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">o</span><span class="latin" style="width:19px;height:19px;">m</span>
Saturday 26 March 2011
Non-Profit Infrastructure for Software Freedom
Non-Profit Infrastructure for Software Freedom
Bradley M. Kuhn
Saturday 26 March 2011
Who Am I?
●Two official roles:
●On Board of Directors of Free Software Foundation.
●President of Software Freedom Conservancy.
●Much of my views are influenced by these roles.
Why Did People Write Free Software?
Consider GNU project.
Founded on idealism.
Recruited volunteers.
Those projects remain community-oriented.
The Danger of Our Success
Open Source is a corporate fad now.
●VC’s use Open Source manipulatively
●proprietary relicensing
●proprietary add-ons
●Companies employ developers …
●… maybe to work on Free Software.
●… but companies control employee’s time in their interest.
Where Things Are Heading
FLOSS slowly goes toward for-profit corporate interest.
●Or, it’s purely thrown over the wall.
●At corporate whim
●cf: Android delayed release
Project decisions are made by companies.
Software Freedom Governance?
Corporate sponsorship are common.
For-profit control of projects can be dangerous.
Fedora vs. Ubuntu as Coke vs. Pepsi
Danger of For-Profits
For-profits act in interest in shareholders.
Those who care most about software are usually not shareholders.
Interests only align sometimes with community.
Non-Profits are Different
501(c)(3) Non-profits act in interest of the public good.
Software freedom is best when in public good.
Non-profit orgs (NPOs) are best place for software freedom.
What Can NPOs Do?
●Collect (USA-tax-deductible) donations for a project.
●both individual and corporate.
Distribute that money to advance project (and public good).
Make sure project isn’t controlled by for-profit interests.
Help leadership with non-technical decisions.
Neutral ground when corporations sponsor.
Organization Proliferation
Too many NPOs will confuse donors.
Need a board of directors, incorporation, meetings, IRS filings.
Hackers end up doing work they hate.
Less Free Software gets written.
Aggregating Under Umbrella
Conservancy is designed as one organization.
Composed of many different projects.
Each has its own funds.
One board of directors, one non-technical governance structure.
Funding Through Conservancy
Travel to conferences.
Handling Google SoC and other philanthropy programs.
Conference invoicing and contracts.
Stipends and paid development contracts for developers.
Fiscal oversight.
How to Join?
Looking for established projects.
Relatively informal process.
Email info@sfconservancy.org
6–8 month signup lead time.
More Info?
http://sfconservancy.org
My personal blog: ebb.org/bkuhn/blog
Personal Identica: @bkuhn
Conservancy Identica: !conservancy, @conservancy
This talk and the slides are: Copyright 息 2010, 2011 Bradley M. Kuhn.
This presentation and these slides are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.