• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
programming forums Java Mobile Certification Databases Caching Books Engineering Micro Controllers OS Languages Paradigms IDEs Build Tools Frameworks Application Servers Open Source This Site Careers Other Pie Elite all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
Marshals:
  • Campbell Ritchie
  • Jeanne Boyarsky
  • Ron McLeod
  • Paul Clapham
  • Liutauras Vilda
Sheriffs:
  • paul wheaton
  • Rob Spoor
  • Devaka Cooray
Saloon Keepers:
  • Stephan van Hulst
  • Tim Holloway
  • Carey Brown
  • Frits Walraven
  • Tim Moores
Bartenders:
  • Mikalai Zaikin

how to get a sponsor for an open source project

 
Ranch Hand
Posts: 102
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
How would you go about looking for a sponsor for an open source project dealing with J2ME?
 
Greenhorn
Posts: 28
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
what would this sponsor does? fund the project?? I don't know why would a company does that unless there is some business advantage to them. and in that case, i guess you just sell your open source project as if you sell a product...
ben
 
serge masse
Ranch Hand
Posts: 102
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Hi Ben,
The main idea of *sponsoring* is that the sponsor uses the object being sponsored as a vehicule for advertising itself, the sponsor.
For example, FreeBSD is *sponsored* by many commercial companies. see http://www.freebsd.org/commercial/commercial.html although they don't call it sponsoring in the traditional sense.
Two other examples:
Vodafone sponsors http://www.shannondolphins.ie/
NTT sponsors http://www.orca-live.com/
although the above two are not open-source projects.
Any more ideas out there?
serge
 
Ranch Hand
Posts: 346
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Serge,I do not have an immediate answer.
However for my ShiftFP2D j2me lgpl library I am using Sourceforge's new donation/sponsor program when I release the library in jan 2004.
 
serge masse
Ranch Hand
Posts: 102
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Thanks a lot Fred, I do appreciate your post.
One of my 3 open source projects is hosted at SourceForge and I just read about their new donation program yesterday. It looks great and I hope that java.net also sets up such a feature of their web portal.
With the new SourceForge on-line donation features using PayPal, it looks like all one has to do now is advertise one's project everywhere one can. I believe that one feature of the SF donation functions is to show the names of the donors so this provides good publicity for donors.
my project on sf is http://sf.net/projects/c2h/
now I have to update my web pages and documentation. For the latest release of LeafySeadragon application, please download it from http://leafy.dev.java.net/
Leafy is the generic API and it also offers LeafySeadragon has a client app.
LeafySeadragon is produced by project c2h and is a Cetacean-Human Network.
I will visit your ShiftFP2D project hopefully today, Fred. SF is down for maintenance at this time.
tx
 
serge masse
Ranch Hand
Posts: 102
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Does anyone knows if it is ok to sell on eBay sponsorship for a project?
 
author
Posts: 1436
6
Python TypeScript Java
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I doubt whether you can get enough money to pay your bills from the "donation" model. All the software I wrote are open source but I am in it for the fun and for the fame, not for the money.
I think it is a good idea to find some corporate sponsor for your project. But you would have to prove the value of your project by gathering a critical mass in the market first. That requires you to absorb the inital risks.
 
serge masse
Ranch Hand
Posts: 102
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I wish to thank the hands who gave me clear advice: Ben, Fred, and Michael. Thanks men.
I was busy with my latest release and now I can participate again in this discussion.
This brief but informative thread was instrumental in improving my decisions for my strategy for Leafy and LeafySeadragon. Here's a summary of my current strategy:
- keep the software free or almost free: the MIDlet may be sold for a low price, between $1 and $10, in order to pay for the rest of the software, the non-mobile backbone. The MIDlet requires a backbone to be of any use. Partners may share a portion of the income from the sales of the MIDlet.
- keep my day job: independent Java consultant.
- start an active marketing campaign: send emails daily to potential partners and sponsor. The partners are for hosting a backbone network, testing, and maybe coding, and the sponsor is for making sure that version 1.0 will be released as soon as possible (I'm getting impatient). I think that version 0.4 of the demo is good enough to show to the big guys.
- continue to improve the code. Priorities: nail those concurrency issues (use JSR 166, adapt some to J2ME if needed); try to integrate socket-Jxta; improve the simulation features to make a backbone demo more attractive.
How does that look? Cooments are more than welcome.
thanks
I'll buy you a drink at the saloon,
[ December 23, 2003: Message edited by: serge masse ]
 
If you want to look young and thin, hang around old, fat people. Or this tiny ad:
a bit of art, as a gift, that will fit in a stocking
https://gardener-gift.com
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic