thoughts on funding for perl fundation

[Qiang]

This is my first meditation. :)

just read the linuxfund story on slashdot. here is how linuxfund support works from linuxfund page:

The #1 way to help LinuxFund achieve its goals is to apply for and use the LinuxFund MasterCard. Every time you use the card to make a retail purchase, MBNA America Bank N.A. (the issuer of the card) will make a contribution to LinuxFund at no additional cost to you. You’re supporting open source development by simply using your credit card.

here is a response from slashdot:

According to public records they were bring in revenues between $100K to $200K per year at their high point. Its definately a viable model for funding open-source projects it just looks like its in need of volunteer support.

Although i can't get the fact about how much money the program actually generated. but that sounds like a brillian idea to get funding. I would love to have my credit card work that way and donate few bucks to the Perl Fundation while i spend.

plus, we can get a camel on the credit card (assume O'Reilly give permission). here is what the linuxfund mastercard looks like :)

feasible ? doable ? thoughts ?

[brian_d_foy]

These programs are called "affinity" credit cards, and the issuers like them because they're supposed to bring in customers. The MBNA site explains affinity marketing, which is what this really is: getting the affinity organization to give out free advertising. They give you money, but only if you do all the work to bring in the customers. The idea that there is "no addditional cost to you" is a bit misleading.

I think the idea is interesting, and on my own I'm looking into the idea just because I'm curious how it works. It's unlikely that they'll think The Perl Review will be worthy. If anyone else is pursuing this for TPF, please let me know so one of us doesn't waste our time. I'll report what I find, but that requires talking to a person at the bank and them deciding I'm not a crank.

I think it would be interesting to partner with a card that actually uses Perl. I know MasterCard had some Perl stuff going on.

[Qiang]

followed the link from your post, the affinity program is..

we developed a unique and powerful marketing proposition known as affinity marketing: selling to people with a strong common interest.

the ground work is not that much as long as the card is in place(this will take some time to set it up with the bank, but we can do it since liinuxfund can do it). people whoever want to donate few bucks to the perl fundation can choose to use this credit card.

I use credit card, and may as well use the one that supports my beloved perl development.

I think We already got lots people willing to help and this program can easily take off. just let them know here is another way to support perl.

but, after all, I see no one will lose from this.

[brian_d_foy]

The credit card companies don't do this because they are nice, so I'll see what we'd have to do on our side and what we'll get for it. We might, for instance, have to turn over a long list of people they can send mail to so they can market their services. The general inquiry form for MBNA already asks about that.

Usually when you think that nobody can lose, you're about to walk into a trap. The trick is to be a bit paranoid and ask a lot of questions before you get hooked into something. :)

[TedPride]

Sounds like a good idea for raising money. The question is, who would get the money and what would it be used for? That part has to be thought out first.

[Qiang]

that's where perl fundation come in. they have projects (pugs,parrot,perl 6 etc) to support and the money will be in good use under perl fundation administration.

[cbrandtbuffalo]

brian did follow up on this as a favor to TPF, and because he was interested. In the end, we chose not to pursue this idea because the credit card companies want data in return for providing this service. We didn't feel comfortable with the amount of information they wanted on the card holders (we all get enough spam and junk mail).

Even if you're willing to sell this contact info, you need many thousands of people playing along (signing up and using their cards) to get that kind of cash. In the end, it didn't seem viable for TPF right now.