Re: [HACKERS] Increased company involvement

On Fri, 29 Apr 2005, Andrew Dunstan wrote:

> One thing that might help is a more open sponsorship "clearing house".
> Example (not meant as a bid, but just to illustrate): the JDBC driver
> needs a scanner overhaul - it breaks on dollar quoting and a bunch of
> other stuff. I could do that work (as could others, of course) but I
> don't have time, unless someone buys some of my professional time.
> Someone might want to do just that, but how would they find me?

I don't think this is a big issue. I don't know of any companies who were
desperate for a feature and willing to throw money at the problem who
couldn't find a developer to take them up on it. Right now this seems to
be a kind of behind the scenes operation that relies heavily on knowing
the right people, but I think most of our sponsor contact points are able
to point sponsors to the right people. Could this process be more open?
Depends on how the sponsor wants to handle it, they probably don't just
want to throw the task out there and see who comes calling, they want an
assurance from someone they trust that the chosen developer is capable.

One thing that definitely would be nice would be to be able to combine
funds from various sponsors for various features. Alone a company can't
spring for it, but by pooling resources it could get done. This is a lot
tougher to coordinate and unless there is a complete spec in place
different sponsors will pull in different directions. Other bounty type
schemes don't seem to produce results, largely from a lack of cash.
(Here's $500 for two weeks of work).

Anyone care to shed some light on how it works now?

Kris Jurka