Bountysource
| Bountysource | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Web address |
www |
| Commercial? | Yes |
Type of site | crowd funding, bounties |
| Available in | English |
| Launched | 2003, relaunch in 2012 |
Bountysource is a website for open source bounties and since 2012 also for crowdfunding. Users (called "backers") can pledge money for tasks using micropayment services that open source software developers can pick up and solve to earn the money. It also allows large-scale fundraising for big improvements on the project. It integrates with GitHub using its bug tracker to check if the problem is resolved and connect the resolution with GitHub's pull-request system to identify the patch. When the users agree that they are satisfied and the project maintainer merged the proposed changes to the source-code, Bountysource will transfer the money acting as a trustee during the whole process.
History
Bountysource was started in late 2003[1] according to its domain registration data. Bountysource mimicked other free software project management systems like SourceForge or trac at that time. It offered an Apache Subversion code repository to each project. The Content Management system used the textile markup language and a custom wiki-like system to allow for projects to have content displays as they see fit. Each project was given a subdomain on Bountysource, http://projectname.bountysource.com/. Bountysource provided a custom-built task tracker. The tracker allowed developers and project administrators to organize tasks into future release schedules, called roadmaps. Tasks could be assigned to specific developers, as well as have bounties placed on them. On May 8, 2006 Bountysource integrated a new custom-built SVN browser into the system.[2] On May 11, 2006, Bountysource released their SVN browser, titled bsSvnBrowser, under the GNU General Public License.[3] The initial idea was to open-source more portions of Bountysource as time went on and the code matured to be a true Open Source alternative to the proprietary SourceForge.net. The website was originally written in PHP, but as of March 18, 2006 it switched to Ruby on Rails.[4] Development on Bountysource was stopped in March 2008.[5]
It relaunched as a service using the GitHub-API in 2012 to focus solely on being a trustee for reverse bounties (Crowdfunding[6][7]) that are collected through PayPal, Bitcoin, and other methods.
See also
- Kickstarter
- Comparison of crowd funding services
- Business models for open-source software
References
- ↑ Whois Record for Bountysource.com
- ↑ David Rappo (8 May 2006). "New SVN Browser Added". Bounty Source - Development.
- ↑ David Rappo (11 May 2006). "Bounty Source's SVN Browser is now Open Source!". Bounty Source - bsSvnBrowser.
- ↑ David Rappo (18 March 2006). "Welcome to Bounty Source v0.2". Bounty Source - Development.
- ↑ David Rappo (9 March 2008). "So long and thanks for all the fish". Bounty Source - Development.
- ↑ Lunduke, Bryan (2013-08-07). "Open source gets its own crowd-funding site, with bounties included - Bountysource is the crowd-funding site the open source community has been waiting for.". networkworld.com. Retrieved 2013-08-10.
Many open source projects (from phones to programming tools) have taken to crowd-funding sites (such as Kickstarter and indiegogo) in order to raise the cash needed for large-scale development. And, in some cases, this has worked out quite well.
- ↑ "Bountysource Raises $1.1 Million for the First Crowdfunding Platform for Open-Source Software Projects". finance.yahoo.com. 2013-07-16. Retrieved 2013-08-08.