I have no tried to organize the thoughts from this thread on the wiki. It is presumable colored by my personal views, but not on purpose (good suggestion from @CadGiru )
Please start by commenting on the first section on assumptions.
https://wiki.osarch.org/index.php?title=Organization#Assumptions
Found this great resource: https://foss-backstage.de/
The conference on everything related to governance, collaboration, legal and economics within the scope of FOSS.
Join us for three days of discussion and learning about non-technical aspects of open source development. Topics include open source project leadership best practices, community management, open source project metrics, open source strategy for enterprise, adopting open source collaboration in corporations, legal matters when dealing with open source and many more.
... all the sessions are recorded and available https://foss-backstage.de/schedule?day=2021-02-10
Naturally I've signed up for their newsletter
Hi @duncan in a similar vein nten.org provided some helpful resources for a project i was affiliated to some years back. https://www.nten.org/equity-guide-for-nonprofit-technology/funding-for-nonprofit-technology/ as an example
I have created an Team on LiberaPay. Any one who has some fixed expenses please let me know so we can add you to that team. It is for reimbursing costs - not for covering your time. Small steps. I would like to hear from you @dimitar so you can be added.
Feel free to comment on the text and see if it aligns with your vision for OSArch at this stage.
@duncan I like the nice summary, and yes would like to be added. The domain costs 15.54 GBP per year. I haven't gotten domain privacy and i probably should, which would cost extra 21.60 GBP per year
just noticed that the osarch.org link doesn't work on the librepay site
@dimitar said:
@duncan I like the nice summary, and yes would like to be added. The domain costs 15.54 GBP per year. I haven't gotten domain privacy and i probably should, which would cost extra 21.60 GBP per year
The link is fixed, thanks. I've send you a DM on the forum.
@Moult @aothms what are your plans for https://opencollective.com/opensourcebim ? If you're not intending to use it exclusively for IfcOpenShell / BlenderBIM then it would be a useful mechanism for OSArch to begin accepting funds. Of course we could agree on a budget first which earmarks the current donations for your projects.
Actually what about https://github.com/opensourceBIM ? @aothms you've been active there. León is there. Should we investigate bringing new life to that group?
Just putting my cards totally on the table here ... I'd rather we (OSArch) bring our resources into an existing organization than reinvent things.
I have no current plans for the OpenSourceBIM OpenCollective account. I personally think its a great idea to turn it into a funds pool for any and all projects on the software directory. Naturally, we need to agree on a way to distribute funds in a way that we all agree upon (e.g. we don't want project X to be collecting funding through there, then suddenly project Y claims it) but I think we can do this in a relatively informal way to begin with, and slowly formalise it as it matures into a system.
Naturally, this is only my opinion and I am only a recent contributor, so @aothms is really in control of this :)
If OpenSourceBIM is already a registered organisation, then happy for OSArch to be "under" OpenSourceBIM. It's much less work than starting a whole new organisation.
Also pinging @agviegas and @tomvandig who have expressed potential interest in sharing a "legal entity" so we can focus on the code :D
I'm open to any possible way to arrange this.
My only plan for OpenSourceBIM OpenCollective is to help it fund conferences where we and industry can meet. I don't have high hopes to be honest to result in a sustainable income. That's the downside of living in high-income countries. So I think we should use it for incidental things like conferences and meetups and then try to siphon the money to geographic areas where it can make the most impact.
Personally I do notice that my consultancy projects are shifting a bit away from IfcOpenShell to the neighbouring projects, like https://github.com/AECgeeks/ifc-pipeline and https://github.com/opensourceBIM/voxelization_toolkit So that is something we also have to keep in mind. Maybe it's good, but there are also some pretty fundamental huge tasks in IfcOpenShell that need work.
Actually what about https://github.com/opensourceBIM ? @aothms you've been active there. León is there. Should we investigate bringing new life to that group?
That was indeed also part of the plan. Similarly we also own http://opensourcebim.org/
I'd rather we (OSArch) bring our resources into an existing organization than reinvent things.
It's much less work than starting a whole new organisation.
But, but, it wasn't work at all right to set it up?
To me the following two entities still make sense: A narrow focus BIM funding group where we do actual development/projects. And a much broader ARCH group that doesn't do development, but more evangelization and funding others. I think this kind of choice might elicit more donations also net positively, for example a development company that uses one of our software libraries might not be interested in funding general foss advocacy and conversely the osarch message might appeal to a more general group of people more in terms of charitable donations. I think it might be good to keep these separate. This is purely a marketing question and I think the clearer the focus the better. And there can be conversation and funds going back and forth between these two entities.
https://wiki.osarch.org/index.php?title=Funding_sources
I have now made a page dedicated to listing sources of funding. Not individual funding, but grants of different types. I had a long talk with @KasperMiller about this and the problem is not so much if there is funding out there - there is funding. But it takes dedicated work to apply for it and wade through the bureaucracy.
@KasperMiller can you add some sources and examples for the Horizons project (also check the dates for that project). Don't spend years on the page, just quick stuff with links.
@everyone - please add sources of funding you've heard about.
This discussion was created from comments split from: <a href="/discussion/303/funding-free-software-and-osarch/">Funding free software and osarch</a>.
@Moult said:
Also pinging @agviegas and @tomvandig who have expressed potential interest in sharing a "legal entity" so we can focus on the code :D
Yeap, we're up to that. Spending the money for specific events and meetups sounds great. In my opinion, the aim of such collaboration shouldn't be making enough money to pay salaries, but making this whole ecosystem more visible and relevant, thus convincing more people and companies to join us.
Can we make a short list of things we'd like to spend money on if we had the money? Perhaps if we started agreeing on a financial target, we could then use it as a goal and motivation to really start a funding drive, a collective funding platform, etc. Size doesn't matter, it's about agreeing to fund a thing, and achieving it.
Here are some ideas in no particular order or preference:
Fund an annual physical conference (which may include venue, AV equipment, or flights, or accommodation, or catering) - this can range from very cheap to very, very expensive depending on how much is covered.
Fund a distributed physical hackathon (may include catering, to sponsored 1-2 days off work per participant, e.g. for a Thu / Fri / Sat / Sun hackathon) - this could range from 100USD for catering, to 500USD for days off. Perhaps firms could also sponsor a "day of work" for participants.
Fund hardware (including server fees, domain / SaaS fees, developer computers, robotics for CAM dev, Macs for MacOS support) - this could range from 10USD for domains, 50USD monthly for servers, to 1000USD for computers, and higher for robots)
Fund software (proprietary software for testing and integration purposes, not just simpler design software but especially proprietary manufacturing software which is a bit nasty)
Fund merchandise (including promotional T-shirts we can give out and spread the word, mugs, stickers) - this could be a ~300 USD.
Fund developer salaries (may include part time, 1 day a week, up to full time salaries, or partial salaries e.g. Yorik's crowdfunded salary goal)
Fund ads (I guess it's a possibility. But eh.)
Fund bug bounties
Fund our own equivalent of GSoC for students programme (a stipend, basically)
Thoughts? Shall we go for a small thing ~100USD and then work our way up to getting funding for ~1000USD? Are my numbers completely wrong (yes, they are)? Did I miss a bunch of things we could spend funds on? :)
@Moult said:
Can we make a short list of things we'd like to spend money on if we had the money? Perhaps if we started agreeing on a financial target, we could then use it as a goal and motivation to really start a funding drive, a collective funding platform, etc. Size doesn't matter, it's about agreeing to fund a thing, and achieving it.
What about money to offer "bounties" to address specific issues or bugs in FLOSS projects related to AEC. Like ArchWB bug list in the FreeCAD Bugtracker.
Also, funding for students projects related with FLOSS. Like graduation thesis, or a small version of GSoC for CAD projects.
@bitacovir nice - added them to the list.
@Moult Thanks for bringing me and Antonio in to the discussion!
I don't know much of the history here, or what's best for OSARCH, so I can't comment on that. What I can say is what we are looking for with IFC.js: a place to point potential donators to as a means to support AEC FOSS. Right now this potential is wasted, and we have to turn people down, which is incredibly unfortunate. To me, @aothms suggestion:
A narrow focus BIM funding group where we do actual development/projects. And a much broader ARCH group that doesn't do development, but more evangelization and funding others.
makes sense, so that people pointed to the dev. group for donations feel like they're contributing to dev work, not a broader-scoped fund. Eventually we could decide together what to do with the funding, but for now I have no idea how much funding would practically come in, so that's a hard decision we can just postpone, if it were up to me. https://opencollective.com/opensourcebim would work.
Beyond funding, I'd like to place our project under the umbrella of an ARCH group in a way that is visible on the umbrella group and from our project, this can be completely symbolic at the start, see where it goes. Only thing needed here is consistent terminology and imagery, I think?
If this is OK with you, I would be happy putting the logo on our github page/docs (https://community.osarch.org/discussion/310/hunt-for-the-new-osarch-org-logo/p4) with the text "member of OSARCH" or similar, then https://osarch.org/ can include a "members" list linking back to IFC.js. The goal here is just visibility: people on OSARCH can find us, people finding us can find OSARCH, and consistency: what are all these different projects and are they connected somehow? (To my understanding, this does not exist yet, right? At least I don't see references that indicate that BlenderBIM and FreeCad are connected through OSARCH on the respective sites). This membership doesn't have to really mean anything, it can serve just to structure FOSS AEC landscape. We already did this with IFC.js, which exists of the combined projects of me, @agviegas and Harry, but I'd like to take this further. Once again correct me if I'm wrong, and this already exists (for instance the wiki has an overview page).
Let me know what you think, I would rather just do this and worry about the details later, but maybe that's not the way to go.
@tomvandig have a read of the earlier parts of this thread, even a quick read, to get an idea of where this discussion has gone.
Hey all - it's a happy 2022 and I think now is ripe to resurrect this thread.
OSArch, even without being a formal organisation, achieved a lot last year. A total of 26 AEC events were either hosted or advertised by OSArch, including the awesome ongoing OSArch Monthly Meetups organised by @Jesusbill with exposure to important industry bodies like FOSDEM and BILT. 14 news articles were published by OSArch.org. The newly launched OSArch subscription now has 100 subscribers. We migrated to Liberachat and registered a community under Libera, with a regular ~40 nicks. The Wiki is up to 4,500 edits, with 500 of those by @duncan alone. Learn.OSArch.org was also launched last year thanks to @SigmaDimensions . 500 new users joined the OSArch Community, a growth of ~50%, contributing ~5200 posts, a growth of 100%, with a thousand unique visitors every day. We helped create connections between FOSS projects, such as continued collaboration between Homemaker, Topologic and the BlenderBIM Add-on. Similarly, IfcOpenShell joined forces with FreeCAD under the OpenCAx umbrella for GSoC. OSArchOrg on Twitter (started Nov 2020) now has 1,780 followers, and OSArch.org on LinkedIn has 1,529 followers. We are also starting to be recognised as a brand, with our logo on the Speckle event, and consistently advertised as such in presentations / talks.
This has all been made possible by all of us together.
I think now is a great time to consider what we want to achieve in 2022. I was reminded by @SigmaDimensions of the post @duncan made here where he talks about having a temporary steering committee. I'd like to pick up where he left off.
The biggest goal I would personally like to see OSArch achieve, is to start making steps to a sustainable FOSS community. A sustainable FOSS community is one where connections are easy to make between FOSS initiatives. We want to encourage synergy, not duplication. This means building up the Wiki, encouraging casual conversation and meetups, and keeping people posted on updates on projects that might be related. A sustainable FOSS community is one which guides newcomers with various skills to find a place for them to fit in and contribute. This means mentorship, breaking down the geeky coding barriers to non-coders, and training. A sustainable FOSS community is one where contributions are reimbursed financially. We want to provide resources for the people, and we can only do that at scale if we ourselves have the financial means to sponsor development, host events, and create commercial partnerships, of which legal representation makes things easier.
Here's what I'd personally like to see in 2022:
Find a project lead to consistently publish news articles, aiming at about 2 articles per month. I am inspired by the work done by Librearts, and think we can do something similar. I think this is a high value, but currently at-risk initiative due to the lack of contributors, and I'd love to see it back on track.
Nominate a temporary steering committee, based on the guidelines of @duncan's post here and my proposal here. A steering committee can help turn hopeful discussion into realities.
Set up a legal organisation. Anywhere is better than nowhere. If we make mistakes, it can be dissolved and recreated elsewhere in the future. As we've seen so far, a legal organisation is not strictly necessary to have an impact, but having a lightweight one can open up opportunities. With it, I'd like to see preliminary transparent budgeting and accounting, so we can start placing some hard numbers against ambitions for future initiatives.
Create a structured professional training program for OpenBIM and open source. Self-learning and self-discovery does not work for everyone. This should be something someone can get some form of academic recognition or certification from. This can also be an income stream to help sponsor development on FOSS projects.
Host an OSArch Hackathon event. I am inspired by @aothms desire to run AEC events from a FOSS lens. I'd like to propose running our own version of GSoC: a mini-GSoC. Participants (not just students) can propose project ideas on any FOSS AEC project that they can hack on between 1-2 weeks. Just a small feature here, a small feature there. However, we can run it as a formal Hackathon event, with a stipend paid to reimburse participants for their contributions. These stipends may be financed through event sponsors who want to promote investment in FOSS AEC. At the end of it, we can host a shared presentation on what was achieved on each project. I see GSoC as a tried and tested model that is easily communicated to potential financiers and academia. I see the scaled down version of 1-2 weeks and financial stipend to be something achievable (we don't have funds for full time programmers) and a stepping stone towards encouraging all FOSS development to be financially sustainable. If it works out, it may be a regular event.
Reinforce a brand or umbrella of projects that agree and support the values of OSArch. @agviegas and @tomvandig talked about how even symbolically OSArch can be seen as a brand of ideals to stand behind. I'd like to get a number of organisations and some branding guidelines, as well as the OSArch symbol recognised in this way. Similarly, I see this as a way to help connect international communities that might wish to be independent, yet still relate back to OSArch. I'd especially love to see OSArch connections to non-English speaking communities. The tools and ideals we build, after all, are for everyone, and although one-size may not fit all, I see affiliations as a good thing.
I'll stop here, since this is getting a bit long, but I hope I've helped resurrect this thread constructively, and would love to hear your thoughts, and let's make 2022 another awesome year! Happy hacking!
Find a project lead to consistently publish news articles, aiming at about 2 articles per month. I am inspired by the work done by Librearts, and think we can do something similar. I think this is a high value, but currently at-risk initiative due to the lack of contributors, and I'd love to see it back on track.
Unfortunately, I don't think I will be able to be back to this, but as I contributed for a while, I have some comments. I really like the way Librearts organize the posts. The weekly recap (should be monthly in our case?) is useful because you can join several subjects and write a longer and diverse post. One of the things I struggled with was to write a full article about a new software release, because I couldn't find much to say other than the release notes (maybe someone else can do this better). I also like the idea of having other categories of posts, like workflows, tutorials and interviews. It helps to gather more potential subjects to write.
Create a structured professional training program for OpenBIM and open source.
Would that include coding? As an aspiring coder, I would like to see this kind of training and be able to contribute to some projects.
I really like the ideas and hope we can achieve that in 2022!
@bruno_perdigao good idea! Monthly recap posts will be a great idea. Hopefully with minimal overlap with Librearts. News articles may include new releases, new tutorials, new downloadable resources / assets, maybe written interviews of developers, software reviews, and call for paid jobs to do with FOSS AEC.
As for the training program, yes. It should include coding. I am currently toying with the idea of partnering with E-Zigurat, an online university who helped deliver an OpenBIM + Python training course. We can supply the content and live sessions and student support, and they can supply the online course platform, student admin, recordings, and certification. I haven't asked them, but I'm currently doing a course with them now which includes coding and IfcOpenShell training (see the OSArch events calendar) and I think it could be promising to run it regularly, perhaps with a profit sharing scheme to then help sponsor more development on FOSS projects.
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