Re: Debian accepting Social Micropayment?
Steffen Möller <steffen_moeller@gmx.de> writes:
> there is a new advent on the Internet horizon which is the social
> micropayment. Regular web users pay in some money and distribute that
> with respect to their clicks in the web. I feel that Debian should
> somehow participate with that, i.e. we should have links whenever we
> display a package in the bts or in the pts, that allows the user to
> "flattr" or otherwise support that package. The amount collected should
> then go to upstream. Maybe we should not do this for all packages but
> only when upstream asks for it.
So far, these systems look like a great way for the micropayment broker to
make money and rather iffy for everyone else involved. I'm dubious about
the desirability of the project as a whole making a substantial
contribution to Flattr, which in practice is what this would mean at the
moment.
However, I've not researched it thoroughly, and might change my mind about
this particular objection if someone can point me at a detailed financial
accounting from the micropayment broker that shows:
1. Exactly how much money they're taking in from donations and from fees,
with full accountability to the community for all fees and how they're
being charged.
2. An overall overhead rate (meaning money that goes to the brokerage
rather than to the intended projects via any means, whether it be fees
or percentages) that's on the order of the overhead charged by credit
card processing (less than 5%). Ideally, they should be run on the
same business model as Kiva or Network for Good where they don't take
*any* overhead and are instead supported entirely by separate donations
directly to the non-profit micropayment broker.
--
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
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