So the last few months have been quite educative and has almost made me a better person, Well i say almost cos i dont really believe in progress cause meanings constantly change which eventually means the two steps we took forward sometime ago might actually turn out to be two steps backward in the present context. Erm…Ok, enough of useless rant. Lets me get on with the idea.
My recent experiences have conclusively proved that there is a market out there for people who are experts in FOSS software (doh, like thats not known) but anyway, the problem is the market is uncertain and one cannot survive easily as a freelancer. Lets for once forget all the companies hiring foss developers (see how i did not use hacker), this is not about that. This is for individuals who work on foss related stuff or non foss stuff for a living and contribute on someother project in their spare time.
Ummm… so you say? My point is, if someone in this world is willing to pay for their work then why not use it?
Erm… they have day jobs, they cant work for money. Fair enough, so lets look at it some other way, Lets start an organization of foss developers who work on projects but dont get paid money!!!
Woah, you numb skull they dont want cattle, you say ?
Well no, I mean why not use that money to travel to conferences, i mean i didnt go to guadec this time cos i did not have enough money and having been in Novell for most part of last year, i did not feel good enough about asking for funds from gnome.
So here is the idea (phew)
A group of developers who work in their spare time on foss projects which customers want and the money which we get in return goes to a travel fund. The travel fund is then used by developers to attend conferences and so, Ofcourse there is this small problem of deciding who gets to go, when etc etc etc. We can work that out, use your expertise to go to conferences.
Ofcourse if someone is open to the idea of “nobody has any problems if i make money (i am a freelancer), then i have no issues. The structure is whats important. We need a organisation with well stated expertise and we should be well known. If you cant use money then you can travel with it”
What say lazy web?