Participatory Budgeting social.coop support of FOSS Projects
Matthew Cropp
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I was recently thinking about how the co-op relies on various pieces of FOSS infrastructure; not just Mastodon itself, but also the various mobile apps we use, etc.
We're internalizing the cost of some of the services we use with subscriptions (Loomio at a generously discounted rate, git.coop), but I've been thinking that it would be good to direct some of our resources towards improving our common tools.
So, let's use this thread to discuss what portion of the budget feels appropriate, and what participatory budgeting process we should use to select beneficiaries and distribute funds.
Matt Noyes Mon 18 Feb 2019 3:19AM
I like this idea.
Nick S Mon 18 Feb 2019 1:30PM
I like the idea of participatory budgeting too. But I do think we should use it to commission/fund work within our own teams first, and only then to 3rd party work if there's a surplus.
Dazinism mentioned on the tech chat channel:
The Ecobytes crew are working on #solidbase:matrix.allmende.io software for participatory budgeting for community supported agriculture projects- although I think it would work for other things.
Its being built in a way that it can work with #valueflows:matrix.org and IIUC in the future activitypub
There's also Inspiral's co-budget tool. Disclaimer: I've not used any of these.
(One comment when adding tools: we should aim for tools which can integrate, in terms of account management.)
Nick S Mon 18 Feb 2019 1:35PM
Ah, I see he posted here: https://social.coop/@dazinism/101612274140904577
Matthew Cropp Mon 25 Feb 2019 5:20PM
I've played with Co-Budget in the past, but its use case is a little different than what we'd need. In its case, each participant has x dollars that they individually divide among projects. For the use case I proposed, I think the Loomio dot poll would be sufficient. Basically, we have a round of nominations, everyone who wants to participate gets ten dots, and they allocate them among the nominated projects as they'd like.
Nathan Schneider Mon 18 Feb 2019 10:38PM
I agree that this is a really good habit to get into early on. And the 10% rate seems right—tithing!
Darren Thu 21 Feb 2019 1:17AM
I would agree with Nick S that it would be good to focus on spreading some funding for people who are keeping SC working before deciding what to do with any surplus. Its looking like most the work will be in the community & tech working groups. Its nice to see CWG organised and getting some funds in recognition of their responsibilities/activities. Would be nice to see some funds also flow to tech WG. Guess Tech needs to bring forth a proposed budget, I'm up for helping organise that. Will post something in the tech group.
Solidbase is under pretty heavy development, but as it is deigned for budgeting running costs over time periods looks like it may be useful for organising the participatory budgeting of something like social.coop
Nathan Schneider Thu 21 Feb 2019 6:25PM
I'd say let's do both together as part of a comprehensive plan: Establish a budget that includes supporting our people as well as the projects we benefit from and support. Thinking about this budget holistically is the best way to make sure we're making good decisions.
Matthew Cropp Mon 25 Feb 2019 5:23PM
On reflection, I do think we should prioritize getting the Tech WG ops team comp system in place before doing this, but that setting this up as a regular patterns should be the next on the list. @wulee and I will be putting heads together to discuss that on 3/3, so hoping that can be in place in the next few weeks.
Matthew Cropp · Mon 18 Feb 2019 2:53AM
My initial thinking:
- Timing: The process happens twice per year, as the co-op seems to be adopting 6 month cycles for role appointments at the moment.
- Amount: A pool of 10% of the last 6 month's OpenCollective receipts is determined.
- Voting process: Members nominate open source projects, then we do a dot-voting process to allocate funds among the nominees.