BountyUp - fund your open source development?
I think BountyUp, might be a very attractive way to fund open source by aggregating demand through crowdsourcing.
Somebody who has:
- a software development team of at least one
- an idea for an open source project
- an idea of the compensation they would require to deliver the project
Could post a bounty promising to deliver the project. Thousands of of people could promise $5 each to fund a feature they would value.
This could also work for commercial software - feature development could be paid for by bounties, and then when the product or upgrade is sold the ongoing sales provide additional revenue to the firm producing the product.
The challenge is that it is still difficult for the crowd to express their demand. Maybe suggestions on software product web sites could be linked to a prize on BountyUp or RentACoder?