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0 pointsslacka2y ago0 comments

Absolutely. For the first startup that I worked for, I earned a position with budgeting authority. Once we achieved profitably, I added donations to the open source tools we relied upon. I received some pushback and defended it. Looking back, I am proud of that choice. I encourage you all to do the same.

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justsomehnguy2y ago

Can you share what you chose as your points and what convinced them at the end?

slackaOP2y ago

One argument I made was sponsoring a project, especially buys you support / developer relations. For example, we replaced a commercial PKZIP license with 7-zip. Was able to use the fact that one of the project we donated to, 7-zip, implemented a feature request that helped in this transition. That combined with the fact that these donations relative to our proprietary software costs were insignificant, made it an easy sell to my boss.

justsomehnguy2y ago

Thanks forr the reply.

When you have a direct involevment in the project it surely helps.

And thanks for supporting 7z, from a guy who use it dayly! *cheers*

hutzlibu2y ago

What likely works better in conservative environments, are not donations, but (generous) support contracts. This is something buisness people can understand.

Drakim2y ago

While I'm sure you are right, I can't help but to be irked by this strange environment we live in where we have to treat business people like infants who need things mashed and mushed into something they can digest and understand.

Nobody had to explain to me the concept of donating to support somebody working on something my business relies on, it's just common sense.

If I was really reliant on books documenting tolls and laws in regards to international trades, and you wanted to give a donation to support this work, I wouldn't be all "me no understand, please explain it in programmer-speak for me".

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justsomehnguy2y ago

Oh, this goes w/o question, but not all F/OSS projects are incorporated and/or can provide a contract. Even more trouble if the entities are in yhe different countries.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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justsomehnguy2y ago

Can you share what you chose as your points and what convinced them at the end?

slackaOP2y ago

justsomehnguy2y ago

Thanks forr the reply.

When you have a direct involevment in the project it surely helps.

And thanks for supporting 7z, from a guy who use it dayly! *cheers*

hutzlibu2y ago

What likely works better in conservative environments, are not donations, but (generous) support contracts. This is something buisness people can understand.

Drakim2y ago

Nobody had to explain to me the concept of donating to support somebody working on something my business relies on, it's just common sense.

2 more replies

justsomehnguy2y ago

Oh, this goes w/o question, but not all F/OSS projects are incorporated and/or can provide a contract. Even more trouble if the entities are in yhe different countries.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse