Snowdrift.coop incubation

Last modified by Aaron Wolf on 2023/02/17 01:52

Scope

Snowdrift.coop is developing a new sustainable patronage model for Open Source projects. The primary mechanism is "crowdmatching" where patrons pledge to match all the other patrons in order to built more widespread support for projects.

Initial Incubator Project Sponsor (2015): Allison Randal

Later (2020) Sponsor: Elana Hashman

Project contact: Aaron Wolf

Alignment with OSI Mission

Snowdrift.coop is exploring new ways to build a sustainable economy for Open Source, especially for end-user products which often get neglected compared to sometimes-well-funded upstream Open Source.

Incubation period

Snowdrift.coop will graduate from incubation by developing and running a live prototype of crowdmatching, using the site itself as the initial test project.

Requirements to reach full incorporation

  • Build and launch live crowdmatching at Snowdrift.coop
  • Express the concept and UX clearly enough to announce the alpha prototype

Pre-OSI foundations

When first approved in 2015, Snowdrift.coop already had a fake-money prototype website and well-researched notes and writings.

Progress since joining OSI

After joining OSI in summer 2015, new branding and design were developed, and the backend software cleaned up and overhauled. Through OSI as fiscal sponsor, one full-time contractor worked alongside volunteers.

By fall 2016, the main funding source did not continue and the project shifted to an all-volunteer basis.

From 2017 through 2019, progress was inconsistent and no OSI sponsor was assigned to the project. The project moved through several different project-management tools and struggled to organize work among the distributed volunteer team. Nevertheless, the design and governance got refined and simplified and initial alpha testing began.

By March 2021, the platform itself had 137 patrons as the first listed project at https://snowdrift.coop/p/snowdrift

With crowdmatching set to $1 per thousand patrons, 137 patrons makes a monthly donation total of $18.76.
To avoid excessive fees, charges have been delayed until multiple months add up to a few dollars per patron. Also, the full legal and technical process for running the actual charges has not been finalized, though much of it is in place.

Graduation from incubation

Given the live prototype functioning and receiving real-money pledges, the main incubation goals have been accomplished!

we are considering Snowdrift.coop as having graduated as of mid-2021. The core goals of incubation are done. But we want to delay broader announcements until we have the site in a somewhat better state to make the most of potential attention.

To see project status and ongoing work, see https://wiki.snowdrift.coop/planning

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