Proposed Open Source Software / Hardware Professional Organization

OpenSourceOrganization.md

Mision

To promote the professional development of open source software and hardware through financial and professional services support.

Charter

• Ongoing funding of established projects as selected by organization / members
• Incubate new projects via grant process
• Provided professional services to members
  • Mentoring
  • Legal
  • Etc.

Values

• Organization of Peers
• Profesionalism
• Transparency
• Platform/Language/Industry/Idea Agnostic
• Many more as defined by community...

Funding Sources

• Individual Member Dues
• Organization Member Dues
• Donations
• Federal/State/Local Grants
• Collect Underpants

Basic Math

Below is a high level SWAG of how the organization could be funded within 1-2 years of inception.

Assumptions

• Individual Member Dues @ $100 / year * 100,000 members = $10,000,000
• Average Organization Member Dues @ ~$20,000 / year * 1,000 members = $20,000,000
• Grants = ~$5,000,000
• Donations = ~$5,000,000
• Organizational Overhead @ ~10%

Investment / Year in Community = $36,000,000

Misc. Thoughts

• Values and actions will be such that Membership will be a badge of honor for individuals and organizations alike
• Friendly to both the root values of open source and an organizations desire to use open source to enhance their revenue stream

Inspired by threads spawning from @izs article/tweet here: https://twitter.com/izs/status/356796701501173761