[OpenIndiana-discuss] Possible to sponsor a code bounty?

[Austin Kim]

On May 26, 2021, at 9:09 AM, Bob Friesenhahn <bfriesen at simple.dallas.tx.us> wrote:
> 
> On Wed, 26 May 2021, Mike Carroll wrote:
> 
>> Ok. Just curious. I landed on OI after dealing with Linux and BSDs (though I find the illumos variants and BSDs to be more stable) and thought it would be a good way to give back to the community.
> 
> If someone is interested in donating money to the few volunteers who do most of the work, a foundation is not necessary in order for this to be possible.
> 
> It might not always be obvious who is doing most of the work.
> 
> Bob
> 
>> ________________________________
>> From: Andreas Wacknitz <A.Wacknitz at gmx.de>
>> Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2021 11:27 PM
>> To: openindiana-discuss at openindiana.org <openindiana-discuss at openindiana.org>
>> Subject: Re: [OpenIndiana-discuss] Possible to sponsor a code bounty?
>> 
>> Am 25.05.21 um 20:46 schrieb Mike Carroll:
>>> I was wondering if OpenIndiana was open to code bounties to support development.
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> openindiana-discuss mailing list
>>> openindiana-discuss at openindiana.org
>>> https://openindiana.org/mailman/listinfo/openindiana-discuss
>> To my knowledge we aren't, because we don't have a legal entity (eg. a
>> foundation) behind us.
>> As far as I remember there were some discussions about different
>> possibilities in the past but nothing evolved from it yet.
>> Furthermore, there haven't been many offers in the past (none to my
>> knowledge).
>> 
>> Regards,
>> Andreas

I’m not an OI developer (just a mere mortal user), so what do I know, but a non-profit foundation supporting the Project à la the FreeBSD Foundation vis-à-vis the FreeBSD Project is a great idea and will likely happen one day eventually, but I expect it would evolve organically in response to the need of a critical mass of developers for a legal and organizational infrastructure to receive and disburse financial contributions to the Project and handle transnational tax reporting, etc., in a manner proportionate to extent of contribution, rather than the other way around.  Maybe one day some generous donor or inspired company out there will step up to offer a substantive amount of financial sponsorship to make setting up such a foundation necessary?  There are far more pointless things to spend money on(, Jeff Bezos/Larry Ellison:)

“We are responsible for actions performed in response to circumstances for which we are not responsible.”  —Allan Massie, _A Question of Loyalties_, 1989