The idea is good indeed, it should encourage people to focus on the most annoying bugs. Though on the other hand it might serve only a few of us who are richer than others (thus diverging from the main track of development). I believe you should somehow limit the fees,this way, demanding more people to participate.
--- Alon Altman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Ha'makor wants to run a "bug bounty" project, where people pay money that accumulates to fund fixing bugs in free software. A suggested mechanism is detailed, followed a call for volunteers for the role of project manager, and a reference to the dedicated mailing list for this project. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi, I think Ha'makor should start a project of "bug bounties". The main idea is that people put money to fix the bugs that most annoy them, and when the bug is fixed, all the accumulated money is given to the person or people who fixed it. 1. SUGGESTED BUG BOUNTY MECHANISM The mechanism I suggest for this bounty system, is that a person buys "bug tokens" for some amount that expire after, say, a year. They can then divide this money between bugs as they see fit, setting an expiration time for each bug. For example, I would pay 50 NIS for fixing bug 12345 until 1/1/2005, but I will pay an additional 50 NIS if it is fixed before 1/9/2004, and also I will pay 100 NIS for fixing but 23456 until 1/4/2005. If the date has passed the person can re-use the token for the same or other bugs, up until the expiration time of the token, when all funds come into the hands of Ha'makor. Instead of (or in conjunction with) expiring tokens, we can also put a, say, 10% levy on all tokens bought that comes into Ha'makor's pockets. The actual tokens could be sold by cheque, using payment slips, given free to members (say, a free 10 NIS 1-year token per year for members), and sold for cash in events such as APIII (you sell a piece of paper with a code for the site). A person who wants to see the bug can see the current total payoff per deadline on the website. For example, bug 12345 can have a bounty of 1200 NIS until 1/9/2004, 750 NIS until 1/1/2005 and 100 NIS until 1/5/2005. When a bug is fixed, a neutral body (Ha'makor board for example) decides if the bug is really fixed, who deserves the payoff, and if and how it should be divided. I suggest we limit payoffs to Israelis, as shipping money overseas may be problematic. This means that if a non-Israeli solves the bug, the money goes to Ha'makor. Any comments/suggestions on the above mechanism are welcome. Please send to the bounty mailing list: bounty AT projects.hamakor.org.il 2. WHAT DO WE NEED To make this dream come true we need someone to devote time and effort to manage and coordinate this project, a programmer or programmers to write the code behind the site, and someone to operate the project. All three could be the same person. Q: What are the tasks of the manager? A: The manager will need to a) Coordinate legal consultaion from our lawyer (Haim Ravia), including drafting the terms and conditions of the system, b) Verify accounting procedure for incoming and outgoing payments from our accountant. c) Find programmers to code the site and/or do it by him/herself. d) Make sure everything works well. Q: Who can be a manager? A: Anybody who thinks he or she can and has time to spend on running this project. Preferrably a member or friend of Ha'makor, and with some technical background. Should be enthusiastic about the idea, but otherwise why apply ;)? Q: How do I become a manager? A: E-mail the board of Ha'makor at board AT hamakor.org.il with your name, expertise, and amount of free time ;)... To make things clear, we are looking for volunteers, and we do not intend to pay any money to the manager(s) and maintainer(s) of this project. 3. MORE INFORMATION If you wish to further discuss the bounty project, please subscribe to the bounty project mailing list at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thank you, Alon -- This message was sent by Alon Altman ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ICQ:1366540 GPG public key at http://alon.wox.org/pubkey.txt Key fingerprint = A670 6C81 19D3 3773 3627 DE14 B44A 50A3 FE06 7F24 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- -=[ Random Fortune ]=- ... with liberty and justice for all ... who can afford it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Haifa Linux Club Mailing List (http://www.haifux.org) To unsub send an empty message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] _____________________________________________________________ ÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃ ÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃ ÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃ ÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃ ÃÃÃÃÃ [EMAIL PROTECTED] ÃÃ ÃÃÃÃÃ <a href="http://www.armenia.ru">"ÃÃÃÃÃÃÃ ÃÃÃÃÃ ÃÃ"</a> - ÃÃÃÃÃÃÃ ÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃÃ ÃÃÃÃÃÃ Ã ÃÃÃÃÃÃ. http://www.armenia.ru ================================================================To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]