[okfn-discuss] [ANN] Open-source innovation platform Cofundos.org

Mon Oct 22 11:59:24 UTC 2007

Sören Auer wrote:
> Dear all,
> 
> In the last weeks we [1] were developing a novel platform for spurring
> innovation and development of open-source software, which we think can
> have quite an impact on open-source and web collaboration in general:
> Cofundos.org is about revealing bright ideas regarding the development 
> of open-source software and attracting a critical mass for their 
> realization:
> 
> http://www.cofundos.org
 >
> The main idea of Cofundos.org is to share innovative (open-source)
> ideas, to refine them and to mobilize funding for their realization.
> We would like to invite all of you to register or login using your
> OpenId and to post software ideas, requirements or even bid for the
> realization of existing projects.

This is wonderful Soren. I also wonder if it could be adapted/expanded 
to support what I've jokingly termed: 'Open Offsets' (in analogy with 
'carbon offsets').

The idea here, which came out of discussion around a year ago [1], was 
that many organizations (and individuals) who use open software or open 
knowledge but don't get round to contributing anything back even though 
they might want to.

[1]:http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/okfn-discuss/2006-July/000104.html

It would therefore be useful to set up some kind of fund to which 
orgs/people could just contribute on some regular basis with the fund 
then taking care of 'offsetting' their usage by contributing specific 
communities and projects. For large organizations the contribution could 
even be based on some assessment similar to the way they have an 
assessment of their carbon footprint.

Clearly for this to work one think you'd need is some form of 
trust/board to administer the 'open offsets' fund in an open, 
transparent and accountable manner but I don't think this would be that 
complex to arrange (alternatively one could implement some kind of 
voting system with voting rights proportional to the contribution of the 
fund but with some individuals happy to assign their rights to the 
special board).

~rufus