A way to encourage Magento developement in the UK?
Hi all,
This was originally posted on the Protx blog, but I thought it would get more traffic here…
Just an idea-maybe a way we could start things off is for everybody that is interested in UK specific extensions/integrations to donate some money to a developer fund which is managed by somebody on the board (just using Paypal perhaps?) (maybe the official moderator?).
Then to propose the development/extensions needed on a programmer/developers site such as http://www.scriptlance.com/ to see what the response is like.
If the extension/integration is developed then subsequent Magento users could download the extension for a small donation to further the development fund for other extensions.
What do you all think?
I do understand that this is Open Source and maybe the above suggestion is not in keeping with the ethos of Open Source. It may even be against the Magento Licensing?
I’m thinking of it as a co-operative, non-profit development fund.
Maybe a way for some hosting company to feature well on Magento based keywords if they organised it? Or any other developers?
This is just a concept I haven’t thought beyond the initial idea, so please “don’t shoot the messenger!”
All constructive feedback welcome? Pros/cons, non-starter, problems etc.
Cheers
Nick
1nublue posted Mon, April 7, 2008
I like the idea, and even though it is slightly against the open source ‘grain’ so to speak, I believe that if UK retailers want new features on Magento quickly the best way is to encourage development is through finanial contributions.
I think you may however get a conflict of interests, as if I donate £1,000 to the fund and I have my own prioirity as to what extension we should develop then I would be a bit upset if someone who donated £200 to the fund ended up having their extension made first! But maybe there is a way around this?
For that reason I think I may be slightly hesitant to donate, but I would be very willing to make a development server available for this project if their was enough community interest.
Cheers
Michael
2adimagento posted Mon, April 7, 2008
UK developers who contribute UK specific extensions can always recover their time/cost by posting their extensions as commercial in Magento Connect. Then UK store owners will pay for only the extensions they absolutely need and developers will be compensated for their efforts according to demand. Just a suggestion.