From: "Xavier Antoviaque" xavier@flouzo.net
Btw, we are working on something very similar for a few months now: Flouzo (http://flouzo.net/). It's not exactly the same, as the scope is broader than Free Software, but it certainly is within our goals, and it came from the Free Software world, in a large part *for* the Free Software world, with a reasoning very similar to what David described in his article.
Interesting. The idea is quite similar, except in the difference of using donations or a contract as such. Personally I think it would be great if free software authors could work under contract from users, not depending on their good will for donations. After all they're creating value and, IMO, they deserved to be compensated, if it can only be arranged.
I've written the proposal and talked it over with a few people, but I don't know what steps I could take to make this crystalize into reality. I think there needs to be enough interest to try to launch something like that, which would require a certain amount of commitment and effort from a few people to make it viable. So, for the time being I am waiting to see if there are people who are interested in making the proposal reality, or not.
--David.