Crowdfunding critical infrastructure

[mel at beckman.org (Mel Beckman)]

Eric,

Not to go too far afield, but Iâ??m also not on anyoneâ??s payroll, so I buy my own individual-plan health insurance. Yes, itâ??s more expensive, but thatâ??s the price of not having just one boss :)

 -mel beckman

> On Jun 27, 2019, at 10:46 AM, Eric S. Raymond <esr at thyrsus.com> wrote:
> 
> Mehmet Akcin <mehmet at akcin.net>:
>>> On Thu, Jun 27, 2019 at 08:41 Eric S. Raymond <esr at thyrsus.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> The members of this list are, I think, much more aware tham most that
>>> a lot of critical Internet software is maintained by unfunded
>>> volunteers, and of the systemic risks that result from this.
>> 
>> Please explain. This is not true.
> 
> Tell it to Dave Taht, who broke his health solving the bufferbloat problem.
> 
> Tell it to Patrick Volkerding, who sweated to created the first Linux
> distribution - inventing a whole tier of infrastructure we now take
> for granted - only to end up in deep financial trouble because other
> people make all the money selling the CDs.
> 
> Tell it to me, leading GIFLIB and GPSD and NTPsec and 48 other
> projects and looking at having my life savings possibly wiped out by a
> relatively low-grade medical problem because I'm not on anyone's
> payroll.
> 
> Tell it to Harlan Stenn, who worked on NTP for over a decade and could
> barely get anyone to kick in enough money to buy coffee.
> 
> If you do not understand the scope of this problem, you are *astoundingly*
> ignorant.  And probably alone on this list.
> 
>> This needs governance and transparency around it. Just launching a page
>> isnâ??t going to get you anywhere â??sustsinableâ??
> 
> Every loadsharer keeps control of their money at all times.  Nobody is
> makng decisions for them; the most the advisers can do is suggest 
> priorities.  Everyting happens in public. How does it get more
> transparent than that?
> -- 
>        <a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/";>Eric S. Raymond</a>
> 
>