As a german freelancer and long-time software dev with hundreds of releases of tens of apps/libraries, open source, under my belt, i can only say:<p>This project is misguided.<p>They want only "new" stuff. You may come in with something that already exists, but even then you need to prove how you're creating a "new" feature <i>on top of that</i>.<p>However funding that is pointless. People do that ALL the time. I have tons of such prototypes i have made myself, over the years and i know thousands of those among OSS dev friends. They are typically works of passion and happen regardless of any other circumstances.<p>Meanwhile the real problem is maintenance of existing software to combat bit rot. It usually requires experienced people who need to separate time from their already full schedules, but is largely ignored. See PGP.
I feel like there ought to be a way to publicly fund FOSS developers full-time because they often produce software used by everybody and therefore a product for the common good, just like someone working at an NGO. You may laugh and say it's a stretch to compare it to working with disadvantaged people or similar work, but software is used everywhere and we rely it on it in all kinds of situations now. So, why shouldn't there be a FOSS org that collects donations to compensate maintainers of projects? Right now, this exists as fundraisers on a project basis and therefore only a couple high profile projects manage to a few of their developers to focus on it more than just on weekends.<p>One might argue this should be supported at least financially or with a do-not-starve stipend by the government, but this may again be controversial. The government could start by making taxation easier for people who could get donations or many small one-time payments aka nano-contracting (prioritized bug fix for pay). In most countries the tax code is not on the side of a hobby programmer who would accept many small payments but isn't already a freelancer.
Basically, the project team for this (which is a German non-profit) wants to make the case that public funding of F/OSS can spawn cool tech that might eventually turn into startups.<p>The idea is to create a buffer between government (grant) bureaucracy and individual developers so that they have the least possible amount of forms and applications to deal with -- just fill out a few basic questions, and a panel of pretty cool judges gets to make the grants.<p>German residents only, for the moment.
Who can apply?
Self-employed and independent developers who live in Germany can apply for funding.<p>Support:
Each project is backed with a maximum of 30,000€, coaching from experienced mentors, and collaboration with an exciting network.<p>Time frame:
You have 6 months to implement your idea from the first concept to a prototype. There will be four rounds of funding between 2016 and 2019. About 10 projects can be funded each round.<p>Open Source:
Your results must be made publicly available under an open source license.
Additional details: <a href="https://okfn.de/en/projekte/prototypefund/" rel="nofollow">https://okfn.de/en/projekte/prototypefund/</a><p>It has support from the BMBF (Federal Ministry for Education and Research)
It is a good opportunity but I could not find answers for these questions:<p>- Is it permitted to use these 30k to pay for hosting/cloud or they do not limit the use of the grant?<p>- Is a person eligible if he is employed but works also on some other projects (startup, open source).<p>- Do they fund teams? For example, can two persons apply for the grant? For example, one person is employed and works part-time while the other developer works full-time.
that's very nice for german developers. 30k for six months is not too bad for anyone but the most senior developers and you get to work on your own thing. I don't think comparing this with typical freelancing rates is completely fair because you are assured of work for six months.
Blog post with rationale (German): <a href="http://codefor.de/blog/prototype-fund" rel="nofollow">http://codefor.de/blog/prototype-fund</a>
If you're interested in working on open source permanently consider applying at our open core company GitLab Inc. 80% of what we do is released as open source. Vacancies are at <a href="https://about.gitlab.com/jobs/" rel="nofollow">https://about.gitlab.com/jobs/</a> and we hire everywhere <a href="https://about.gitlab.com/team/" rel="nofollow">https://about.gitlab.com/team/</a>
talking about funding<p>100.000 Euro funding available (total €5.5 million) for opendata startups & SMEs <a href="https://opendataincubator.eu/apply" rel="nofollow">https://opendataincubator.eu/apply</a> deadline by 30.08.2016
This OSS initiative is open only for "Self-employed and independent developers who live in Germany". So that there is no love for the open source projects people do after their daily work in Iowa?
I would like to see more such models in the future, because two world seem to intersect here: open source projects and the public domain.<p>Open source projects can have such a huge leverage, that the cost reductions in comparison to commercial offerings could be enormous. On the other hand, open source projects will gather people, who at least care about the specific domain (this does not mean, there is no politics). Treating software as public infrastructure could be a huge step forward.
For comparison, the EXIST Business Start-up Grant from BMWI (Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy) provides 2500 EUR/month = 30k€/year.<p><a href="http://www.exist.de/EN/Programme/EXIST-Business-Startup-Grant/content.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.exist.de/EN/Programme/EXIST-Business-Startup-Gran...</a><p>So PrototypeFund (BMBF) pays twice as much for open source project development as EXIST for founding a startup. Yet, startups in EXIST get also something for equipment, marketing, coaching etc. Also, they probably will be taxed differently.
Any hints why this is only for self-employed people? I think there are lots of OSS developers with very interesting/largely used projects which do this besides their normal job...
Germany is so far ahead in their understanding of the common good. Recall too that they single-handedly jump started the modern solar industry with their feed-in tariff scheme.
It sounds like a good idea in a vacuum. However I'm a bit worried that this might be in direct violation of some studies from psychology that basically say "as soon as you get money for something you do as a passion project you will stop doing it once the money stream ceases". Can't find the paper right now but the famous one involved kids painting things iirc.<p>I feel like there needs to be a very good integration plan for the time once the funding ends (which I think is lacking).
<a href="https://prototypefund.de/?lang=en" rel="nofollow">https://prototypefund.de/?lang=en</a> does not work for me.<p><a href="https://prototypefund.de/" rel="nofollow">https://prototypefund.de/</a> does work for me.
Here is a project list:<p><a href="https://okfn.de/en/projekte/" rel="nofollow">https://okfn.de/en/projekte/</a><p>Looks like you can implement citizen/government related websites for a very low salary.<p>Using the term OSS seems like a stretch.
That homepage animation is eating up the damn frames and flickers the page in mobile.
Maybe the first job in the contract should be to remove the heavy animations.;)
> With a grant of up to €30,000, software developers [...] can write code and develop open source prototypes over a period of six months.<p>> You have 6 months to implement your idea from the first concept to a prototype.<p>Oh, it wants to fund new stuff and not fund a Firefox, Gimp, Linux kernel, whatever dev to work for 6 months.
they ought to clean their own house:<p>not hosted in germany? it's for germans only<p>could not afford a <i>fresh</i> ip for this project?<p>wired combination of www- and plain domains in ssl-cert<p>mixed ssl and plaintext<p>css-animation drives (my) firefox to a grinding halt