[Ardour-Users] Could this solve Ardour's financial headache?

[John Emmas]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Patrick Shirkey"
Subject: Re: [Ardour-Users] Could this solve Ardour's financial headache?
>
> There is lots of discussion but not much consensus. I definitely get the
> impression that a large number of people don't actually want to see Ardour
> funding succeed.
>
As the person who started off this thread, I'm dismayed by the above
comment - and yet I feel bound to admit that it's exactly the same
conclusion I was coming to myself.  One or two people have posted here
to say they're already contributing financially - but if my observations are
anything to go by, for the majority, the only funding model they want to see
succeed is a model where somebody else ends up paying.

One thing that's becoming clear is that any open source project needs a
critical mass of users below which, it cannot be sustained (financially) by
small, voluntary contributions alone.  This leaves 5 options I think:-

1)  Accept the situation and plough on regardless (i.e. hope that your
     project wlll "grow out of" the problem and achieve critical mass).
2)  Use whatever donations exist to promote market awareness of the
     project in the hope that critical mass will follow.
3)  Find a sponsor (or sponsors) with deep enough pockets to reduce
     the reliance on small, personal donations.
4)  Arrange the project so that at least some element of it is only
     available after payment of a fee.
5)  Charge for some kind of ancillary service, such as technical support
     (IMHO, only viable where the project has corporate clients).

Just out of interest, can anyone point to a small open-source project
(comparable in size with Ardour) that's succeeding in raising funds (i.e.
that ISN'T struggling?)  If anything comparable exists, it might provide us
with some further ideas for ways that could work for Ardour.

John