Difference between revisions of "Project development and funding"
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== A new approach to funding == | == A new approach to funding == | ||
| − | Our previous approach got us this far, but we found that we often do not work directly on the kinds of milestones that bring us closer to the vision of a unified organisational system and rather get bogged down with details and client-specific work that has little "reuse value" to us. We are now defining a new roadmap and milestones that we want to find direct funding for, because we think that if we can get excited about it we should be able to find funding to work directly on the big picture stuff. We will need to find some visionary investors who just as committed to sustainability as we are and understand that while there is no direct annual financial return on IP developed, there are a range of other benefits to be reaped from this form of investment. | + | Our previous approach got us this far, but we found that we often do not work directly on the kinds of milestones that bring us closer to the vision of a unified organisational system and rather get bogged down with details and client-specific work that has little "reuse value" to us. We are now defining a new roadmap and milestones that we want to find direct funding for, because we think that if we can get excited about it, other people should get excited too and we should be able to find funding to work directly on the big picture stuff. We will need to find some visionary investors who just as committed to sustainability as we are and understand that while there is no direct annual financial return on IP developed, there are a range of other benefits to be reaped from this form of investment. |
== Barriers to investment == | == Barriers to investment == | ||
Revision as of 12:34, 23 June 2009
This page was created to discuss options for funding the work Organic Design does and to clarify investor requirements. Potential investors will know whether we can work together after reading this.
After writing a summary of what we are working on in order to receive funding for our roadmap, potential investors have asked us to explain how the "IP" they would be "investing in" might be protected. This question raises a number of issues and goes to the core of what we believe sustainability is about and therefore deserves a well-considered response.
Our current funding model
First it is important to understand how Organic Design has funded development so far. Organic Design is a group of freelance contractors with skills in IT support, software development and content management with a focus on developing and extending the functionality of MediaWiki software. We have a vision of using Wiki Organisation to completely contain all of the records an organisation needs for operations. Our clients consist of organisations that share that vision and are prepared to pay for the customisation and development of the open source MediaWiki software simply because they see the benefit for their own organisation. This is how a lot of open source software gets developed.
A new approach to funding
Our previous approach got us this far, but we found that we often do not work directly on the kinds of milestones that bring us closer to the vision of a unified organisational system and rather get bogged down with details and client-specific work that has little "reuse value" to us. We are now defining a new roadmap and milestones that we want to find direct funding for, because we think that if we can get excited about it, other people should get excited too and we should be able to find funding to work directly on the big picture stuff. We will need to find some visionary investors who just as committed to sustainability as we are and understand that while there is no direct annual financial return on IP developed, there are a range of other benefits to be reaped from this form of investment.
Barriers to investment
There are two key reasons why investment in the work of Organic Design is not comparable to the classic software investment model. Very loosely summarised, this assumes that the software developed is to be protected intellectual property to be sold at a profit.
- Based on GPL software
- High level concepts not patentable
