项目众包 开源项目

Chen Ravid is a free software enthusiast and serial entrepreneur. He is one of the founding members and VP product at xs:code, a monetization platform for open source projects.

Chen Ravid是一名自由软件爱好者和连续企业家。 他是 xs：code (开源项目的获利平台) 的创始成员之一兼副总裁产品 。

为什么要获利？ (Why Monetize?)

Open-source developers are not in it for the money. They create amazing software projects we all use every day, spending hundreds, if not thousands of hours of their spare time in the process. The reward? Recognition, a sense of accomplishment and bragging rights on their next job interview. This was enough for most developers for a long time, but in the past couple of years, and as commercial usage of open-source increased, we’ve seen growing frustration among developers, who are flooded by requests, bugs and questions – from people using their code for free. Some developers even got threats (!) from disgruntled users, demanding the developers fix a bug or implement a new feature they needed.

开源开发人员不愿意花钱。 他们创建了我们所有人每天都使用的惊人软件项目，在此过程中花费了数百甚至数千小时的业余时间。 奖励？ 在下一次面试中获得认可，成就感和吹牛的权利。 对于大多数开发人员而言，这已经足够了很长时间，但是在过去的几年中，随着开放源代码的商业使用的增加，我们已经看到开发人员之间的挫败感日益增加，开发人员对请求，错误和问题的泛滥(来自人们)免费使用他们的代码。 有些开发人员甚至受到不满用户的威胁(！)，要求开发人员修复错误或实施所需的新功能。

This frustration is increased, when developers see their open source projects are used to generate revenue for companies, while they are getting nothing for their talent, work and efforts. It seems unfair, and rightfully so. Developers need a way of getting the resources they need, to keep developing their projects. They need to be able to afford the time to work on their projects, get hosting servers, pay others to help out and more. Without any form of compensation from the people using their code – that is just not sustainable in the long run. So, the goal is not to get rich. The goal is getting the resources to build better software. Monetization is the way to achieve that goal.

当开发人员看到他们的开源项目被用来为公司创造收入，而他们的才能，工作和努力却一无所获时，这种挫败感加剧了。 这似乎是不公平的，而且理应如此。 开发人员需要一种获取所需资源的方法，以继续开发他们的项目。 他们需要能够腾出时间来处理他们的项目，获得托管服务器，向其他人付费以提供帮助等等。 没有使用代码的人们提供任何形式的补偿–从长远来看，这是不可持续的。 因此，目标不是致富。 目标是获得用于构建更好软件的资源。 货币化是实现该目标的方式。

挑战 (The Challenges)

Monetization is something that is usually out of the scope of what developers are interested in, and usually requires dealing with non-programming tasks such as setting up billing, handling payment processing and taxes, addressing legal issues and more. Because of the complexity involved, a lot of developers just give up before even trying. They don’t want to worry about financials and other corporate nightmares. They want to write code – not run a software company.

货币化通常不在开发人员感兴趣的范围之内，并且通常需要处理非编程任务，例如设置帐单，处理付款处理和税收，解决法律问题等等。 由于涉及的复杂性，许多开发人员甚至在尝试之前就放弃了。 他们不想担心财务状况和其他公司的噩梦。 他们想编写代码-而不是运营软件公司。

Besides the complexities of charging users for using their code, there are other aspects that make things even more complicated – how do you incentivize your users to pay while keeping your code open source? How do deal with other developers who contributed code to your project? Should they be compensated as well?

除了向用户收取使用代码的费用的复杂性之外，还有其他方面使事情变得更加复杂–在保持代码开源的同时，如何激励用户付费？ 如何与其他为您的项目贡献代码的开发人员打交道？ 他们也应该得到补偿吗？

It’s a complicated task, and there are not a lot of easy solutions.

这是一项复杂的任务，并且没有很多简单的解决方案。

为什么不使用捐赠？ (Why Not Use Donations?)

To meet the monetization challenges, several donation platforms have emerged, offering developers to ask for donations from users using their code. That seems like the proper thing to do. If you are using a project for free and make money using it, you should be happy to donate to its creator, right? The reality is, unfortunately, that the overwhelming majority of companies using open source, do not donate at all. Because of the inherent nature of donations, being non-mandatory, no one has a strong incentive to donate, let alone on an ongoing basis. This makes donations a very limited way of monetizing, and many developers who tried it report that their revenue from donations is marginal, if not zero. Donations are an all-carrot-no-stick approach, and if developers need a steady stream of revenue to afford to make their projects better – they need something they can rely on. They need a stick to go with their carrot.

为了应对货币化挑战，出现了一些捐赠平台，为开发人员提供了使用其代码要求用户捐赠的平台。 这似乎是正确的做法。 如果您免费使用某个项目并使用该项目赚钱，您应该很高兴向其创建者捐款，对吗？ 不幸的是，现实是绝大多数使用开源的公司根本不捐赠。 由于捐赠的本质是非强制性的，因此没有人有强烈的动机去捐赠，更不用说持续进行了。 这使得捐赠成为一种非常有限的货币化方式，许多尝试过捐赠的开发商报告说，他们的捐赠收入是微不足道的，即使不是零。 捐赠是一种“全盘禁止”的方法，如果开发人员需要稳定的收入来负担改善项目的费用–他们需要可以依靠的东西。 他们需要一根棍子和胡萝卜一起去。

货币化的新方法 (A New Way to Monetize)

To overcome the barriers mentioned above, we at xs:code came up with a solution, that we believe can help make monetization so simple, that any open-source developer can start doing it today. xs:code is a platform that allows developers to offer subscription-based access to a private repository the keep on their Github account. Usually, open-source projects are kept in a public repository, freely accessible by anyone.

为了克服上述障碍，我们在xs：code提出了一个解决方案，我们认为该解决方案可以使货币化变得如此简单，任何开源开发人员都可以立即开始使用。 xs：code是一个平台，允许开发人员在其Github帐户上保留对私有存储库的基于订阅的访问。 通常，开源项目保存在公共资源库中，任何人都可以免费访问。

Our platform allows developers to keep another version of their project, that is connected to xs:code, and accessible only for users who pay for a subscription. The developer can decide how the two versions are different, and keep developing on Github as usual. The platform handles everything from billing, payment processing, invoicing and legal. The trick here is to make a smart decision on how the paid and free versions differ, so users have an incentive to pay. There are several options to do that, each with its own advantages.

我们的平台允许开发人员保留其项目的另一个版本，该版本已连接到xs：code ，并且只有付费订阅的用户才能访问。 开发人员可以决定两个版本的不同之处，并照常继续在Github上进行开发。 该平台处理从计费，付款处理，发票到法律的一切事务。 这里的技巧是就付费版本和免费版本之间的差异做出明智的决定，以便用户有动力付费。 有几种选择可以做到这一点，每种选择都有自己的优势。

双重授权与免费增值 (Dual Licensing vs. Freemium)

One option is often referred to as “dual licensing”. The developer keeps a version with a copyleft license (such as GPL) on his public Github repository, and the exact same code, with a permissive license (such as MIT), on his private repository. GPL licensed code, usually means the code cannot be used in commercial software, as it requires to change the entire code around it to GPL as well. That means companies using the open-source code will need to make their entire code base open source, and that is usually not viable most companies. MIT licensed code, can be used freely, no restrictions apply. If a company wants to use an open-source project with an MIT license, they would need to buy a subscription on xs:code.

一种选择通常称为“双重许可”。 开发人员在其公共Github存储库中保留一个具有copyleft许可证(例如GPL)的版本，并在其私有存储库中保留一个具有许可许可证(例如MIT)的完全相同的代码。 GPL许可的代码通常意味着该代码不能在商业软件中使用，因为它需要将其周围的整个代码也更改为GPL。 这意味着使用开源代码的公司将需要将其整个代码库开源，这通常对大多数公司而言是不可行的。 MIT许可代码，可以自由使用，没有限制。 如果公司要使用具有MIT许可证的开源项目，则需要在xs：code上购买订阅。

Another option, usually called “freemium” or “Open core”, means that the developer keeps a “Lite” version on his Public repository, and another “Pro” or “Premium” version on his private repository. The “Pro” version can have more features, better support, paid hosting, or whatever the developer wants to offer.

另一个选项通常称为“免费”或“开放核心”，这意味着开发人员在其公共存储库中保留一个“精简版”版本，在其私有存储库中保留另一个“ Pro”或“高级”版本。 “ Pro”版本可以具有更多功能，更好的支持，付费托管，或开发人员想要提供的任何功能。

There are many other options to separate the paid and free versions, and developers are only limited by their imagination and creativity to come up with ways to offer value to their brand new paying customers.

付费版本和免费版本有许多其他选择，开发人员仅受其想象力和创造力的限制，无法想出为新的付费客户提供价值的方法。

付费贡献者 (Paying Contributors)

Code contributions are one of the key elements that made open source so incredible. When developers from all over the world contribute their time and talent to help make projects better – we all win. When the developer of a project starts to generate revenue from his code, it only makes sense the developers who contributed would also be entitled to their fair share. xs:code makes that simple, by allowing developers to grant contributors a percentage of their revenue. We see this as not only fair, but essential for keeping contributors motivated, and offering new contributors an opportunity to benefit from helping with making a project better.

代码贡献是使开源如此不可思议的关键要素之一。 当来自世界各地的开发人员贡献自己的时间和才华来帮助改善项目时，我们都会赢。 当项目的开发人员开始从其代码中获得收益时，做出贡献的开发人员也将有权获得其应得的份额才有意义。 xs：code通过允许开发人员向贡献者授予一定比例的收入来简化这一过程。 我们认为，这不仅是公平的，而且对于保持贡献者的积极性以及为新的贡献者提供从改进项目中获得帮助的机会也至关重要。

结论 (Conclusion)

Open source is an incredible thing. But without proper compensation for developers and contributors, it might not last – and that is bad for everyone involved in software development. In order to keep open source alive, a clear path of compensation for developers is crucial. I truly hope that our humble contribution to this cause would help make open source better – for all of us.

开源是不可思议的事情。 但是，如果没有对开发人员和贡献者的适当补偿，这种补偿可能不会持续一会儿-这对参与软件开发的每个人都是不利的。 为了保持开源的生命力，为开发人员提供明确的补偿途径至关重要。 我真正希望我们对这一事业的微薄贡献将有助于使我们所有人的开源更好。

Interested in monetizing your project? Visit xscode.com

有兴趣通过您的项目获利吗？ 访问xscode.com

Thoughts? Comments? Criticism? Let me know at [email protected]

有什么想法吗？ 注释？ 批评？ 让我知道[受电子邮件保护]

翻译自: https://www.thecrazyprogrammer.com/2019/10/how-to-monetize-your-open-source-project-and-stay-alive.html

项目众包 开源项目