Individual Donations:
OSDC will spawn and maintain new open source projects when its stakeholders have a need not adequately met by existing open source projects
OSDC will provide financial and human resources to existing well-maintained open source projects when they meet the needs of our stakeholders
OSDC pursues a virtual collaborative work model and employs or contracts talented suppliers of needed skills wherever in the world they reside as long as they have reliable and unrestricted connectivity to OSDC information, can communicate well in English and can receive income from a US based company. Cultural diversity, variegated perspectives and geographic dispersion are viewed as a boon to creativity and productivity when harnessed properly. Talent is typically compensated at better than local market labor rates in order to attract above average talent and encourage adherence to OSDC standards of professionalism.
The overriding value proposition for the software consumer is the availability of the software they use to generate value. If the software enables or enhances the business process, it has value. The challenge is to allocate it a meaningful and consistent value which can be budgeted and distributed to the project team on a reliable basis. To this end, OSDC provides three levels of valuation to accommodate variations in the consumer's needs and commitment to a project, namely non-members, Product Line Members and Underwriting Members.
Payment of the value may be made in either financial or human resources. Financial resources provide the greatest flexibility and the least opportunity for potential conflict. Nonetheless, human resources are particularly important in those regions where capital is scarce and skilled labor abundant. For example, it is probably more advantageous to purchase memberships with dollars in major developed nations. However, the cost may be prohibitive for organizations in the developing world; they may find it advantageous to purchase memberships with human resources. This mechanism is described in the QFTE document.
The funding for development and maintenance is provided through a combination of subscriptions and memberships. Subscriptions purchase support and only support for one product and are available to non-members. Members have access to subscriptions at heavily discounted prices, prioritized support and prioritized input into the development process. They are also the mainstay of the financial viability of the OSDC business model. Refer to the Subscriptions and Memberships document for the details.