We Fund Public Interest Tech
prototypefund.de
prototypefund.de
- The Open Tech Fund (US): https://opentech.fund/
- FOSS Host (UK): https://fosshost.org/
- The NL Net Foundation (EU): https://nlnet.nl/
- The Calyx Institute (US): https://calyxinstitute.org/projects/microgrants-and-small-pr...
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Most early tech and prototypes are considered “boondoggles” at first. Some of them are. Some of them not. Some of them may seem so to you, but I can tell that I have used at least a handful of the projects on the list and have personally supported at least one (without knowing that they’re prototype fund funded, or maybe they were not yet, doesn’t matter). And whether the government should have a hand in funding public good software projects - who else should?
> While probably, at least judging by the pictures of the funded projects, engaging in age discrimination.
The age selection could also be just a natural consequence of how the fund is set up. The funding is capped at less than 50 000 EUR, which is a sum that’s less interesting to older people since they’re more likely to have something close to that in the bank. Applying isn’t free - it costs effort, so if you can fund without, it’s attractive to do so. Just alleging age discrimination without a shred of proof isn’t really reflecting good on your arguments.
Yeah and that's insulting. As if they had already been compensated for what features came before.
Why make the funding conditional on new features? When someone has already put in so much unpaid labor. Reward the already-contributed labor!
It’s an innovation fund, not a ‘give away free money to those who deserve it’ fund.
Their aim is to be to use the funding to improve or introduce new software that contributes to the public good, so paying developers for stuff that they already developed doesn’t make direct sense considering their stated goal.
The way they are allocating funding has the added benefit that they can track the impact of the fund, which will help them secure the funding for the whole fund in the long term (I.e. they can list exactly what impact they have made on projects rather than just vaguely state that they have had an impact on some projects by donating to them).
> It’s an [x] fund, not a [y] fund
Yes, that's exactly the problem I objected to -- not something I need to be told.
> Their aim is
Their aim is wrong. It would be much better to pay the back wages than pretend it's jubilee just so they can impose strings.
But I guess it's hard to resist, when you have the money, to exercise the power.
> they can track the impact of the fund
This is the only actual point you made, and it's weak. Who cares? They can't objectively judge the social impact of the software regardless, they can only judge whether the technical goals were accomplished. Useless either way when they're choosing to fund the wrong people for the wrong reasons.
Well why don't they just give the money to water infrastructure in Africa then? Surely that's a more worthy aim if we get to decide what their aim should be for them? Or their aim could be to help teach coding to the young, that's just as valid.
Their aim is to develop new tech, thus asking people to pitch what they would develop if given funding seems like a sensible approach.
This is also funded by money the German Government has allocated for R&D, so it has also been budgeted for 'new tech' rather than just rewarding historical contributors through donations. If the prototype foundation aimed to reward historical contributions, their current funding likely wouldn't exist, and if they don't show how they contribute towards R&D then the funding won't exist in the future.
Besides, Why is their aim wrong? Should there be no funding for people who want to create new public interest tech?
We need more of those too.
We paid out $1m earlier this year in the first round of funding, preparing to do more rounds in the upcoming year: https://vitalik.ca/general/2021/11/16/retro1.html
The point is that there are plenty 'national subventions' one can apply in local European countries. But I have never seen one with rules so 'down to Earth'/'realistic'. Like the range of subject is large. They don't care if you are an individual or a registered entity. They don't require to have some credentials like being a student or an academic. They work on the idea of giving multiple small sums instead of few big ones. Totally oriented on the dev open source software.
[0]https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/selling-in-eu/public-c...
That submission has been sinking (due to critical comments?).
However it seems like many of the projects funded are stuck in the dilemma that either they get a new grant from somewhere or they stagnate/die. There seems to be a lack of sustainable development and a community, which I find sad. A lot of these projects are super cool, but not very well known or widely used.
Perhaps that's the goal. It is a "prototype" fund, after all.
What a nice round number.
So that's probably the rationale behind this number.