El dom, 14-02-2016 a las 18:35 -0200, Diogo Campos escribió:

In money, each supporter would need to invest a measly USD 0.50 per month for it to become reality. This way each 1,000 people would raise USD 500 per month, which is enough to pay USD 440 (2 times the minimum wage in Brazil) for each professional, and still pay the costs of operation and maintenance of the project itself.

Very ambitious. Well, if you think you can raise that amount, and you think developers will want to work for that amount... best of luck with this. We in GNOME are spread too thin right now, and +10 paid developers would be a huge help.

## About the workers and the softwares

Having getting the money, the current strategy would be as follows, in summary:

1. Developer (OSTree).
2. Developer (xdg-app).
3. Developer (GNOME Shell).
4. Developer (GTK).
5. UI Designer (Shell, GTK, Web, Core Apps).
6. Developer (GNOME Web).
7. Developer (GNOME Core Apps - Documents, Music, Videos & Photos).
8. ?????.
9. Translator.
10. Marketing person.

OSTree seems relatively mature, but isn't really being used on the desktop, except by Endless; not sure that should be a priority. xdg-app is important; it needs help in the sandboxing department, and work on porting existing GNOME apps to xdg-app, but this is a priority for Red Hat so not sure it should be for Autonomia. GNOME Shell has a huge Bugzilla queue, but I don't normally notice bugs and we've intentionally stopped with the UI changes as the design has matured, so not sure that should be a priority. GTK+ already has lots of experienced developers and doesn't need more help. Designers are really important, but the ones we already have are generating top-notch designs faster than we can implement, so I wouldn't invest there.

Brazilian Portuguese has 98% translation coverage of GNOME 3.18 and 96% of GNOME 3.20; you could close the gap, but probably that won't be a full-time job?

I would focus more effort on the GNOME core apps and less on the other areas. Music and Web from your list could use one dedicated developer apiece, for example, and I have a sizable list of other promising apps that could as well: Chat and News immediately spring to mind. I think right now our apps story is where we're weakest; since most of the apps are not so important for enterprise customers, Red Hat doesn't seem to care about them as much.

Michael Catanzaro probably remember me, for my last contribution attempt (a bunch of designs for GNOME Web).

Of course, you were very helpful. :)

Wishing you the best with Autonomia,

Michael

Diogo Campos píše v Ne 14. 02. 2016 v 18:35 -0200:

## About the thing

I am organizing a (potentially big) user-funding campaign for Free Software in Brazil.

In retrospect, last week I launched the Autonomia[1], an association of independent professionals (self-employed, freelancers) that is free, open, fair and transparent.

This project, in a week, matured so well, received so much positive feedback, and so many potential customers came, that I felt strongly motivated to try together an old idea of mine, which is a closely related project:

Make the users themselves directly (and massively) finance Free Software (more precisely the GNU/Linux desktop).

## About the numbers

In Brazil, there are 100,000,000 internet users.

Since the current metrics point to 1% of GNU/Linux users, there are, therefore, 1,000,000 of Free Software users in Brazil.

Even if we reduce this number by 1% again (to be "realistic" as possible), we still have a number of 10,000 people with full potential to finance the project.

And this is the focus of the "first phase" of the project: to make 10,000 Brazilians pay for 10 Brazilians to work full-time and every month in Free Software.

In money, each supporter would need to invest a measly USD 0.50 per month for it to become reality. This way each 1,000 people would raise USD 500 per month, which is enough to pay USD 440 (2 times the minimum wage in Brazil) for each professional, and still pay the costs of operation and maintenance of the project itself.

## About the workers and the softwares

Having getting the money, the current strategy would be as follows, in summary:

1. Developer (OSTree).
2. Developer (xdg-app).
3. Developer (GNOME Shell).
4. Developer (GTK).
5. UI Designer (Shell, GTK, Web, Core Apps).
6. Developer (GNOME Web).
7. Developer (GNOME Core Apps - Documents, Music, Videos & Photos).
8. ?????.
9. Translator.
10. Marketing person.

Who will search, hire and manage these professionals will be the above-mentioned association, the Autonomia. Because it is an association of independent professionals, non-profit, where everyone is payed the same value per hour and where revenues and expenses are public and transparent.

## About me

I'm Diogo Campos[2], a self-taught web developer, and self-employed, who lives in Brazil (Florianópolis, Santa Catarina).

I've tried to contribute to Free Software (and Free Culture in general) several times, but always give up because of my (really) bad financial situation until now.

Michael Catanzaro probably remember me, for my last contribution attempt (a bunch of designs for GNOME Web). Perhaps Allan Day remember me too. And if I'm not mistaken, someone who works in the GNOME Maps lives right next to me (must confirm, however).

I am first gathering information from the active community to, then, seek the support of all the specialized media, related communities, and interested institutions and individuals to do, together, a large, surprise and massive social event, both on Brazil and outside of it. Probably on day 22, and probably through Patreon. Still working on the details.

I am also already creating textual/informational material for the campaign. I am thinking in focusing the term "Linux" to take the risk of the campaign "leaking" to the mainstream media.

Also, a friend which is a Graphic Designer will build graphic material for the campaign for free.

## About you

What do you think about the project?

What do you think of the positions and the benefited softwares?

Would you help to spread the campaign? If not, why?

Who do you recommend to contact and seek support (internationally)?

I thought about Linux Action Show, Bad Voltage, Brian Lunduke, Fedora Magazine, People from GNOME Planet and Fedora Planet, GNOME Foundation, Free Software Foundation, EFF, Richard Stallman, Wogue and Phoronix.

Some more? Or some of these should I not?

If you are Brazilian, who should I contact? I thought only about BR- Linux until now. Some more? Or someone who should I not?

For now, that's it. I will keep you updated.

Hi, it's indeed an ambitious plan, I can't really evaluate the feasibility of crowdsourcing because I'm not from Brazil, but I suppose it will be pretty challenging considering the economic difficulties the country is experiencing nowadays. Where the calculation fails IHMO is the salary of developers. From what I heard from my Brazilian colleagues, there is no way to hire a full- time developer for $440. To get at least a bit experienced software developer, I think you need at least $2000 even in Brazil. Note that the total cost is not only the net salary, but it also includes taxes, social, health insurance and other employee-related expenses. In most countries, the company's direct costs on an employee are at least twice as much as what they receive in the end.

Jiri