Hi everyone :
I been chatting to few designers/developers about developing & upgrading modules to SS3 . Many designers & developers are asking the same question; when will this & that module updated to SS3 .
We all need the same modules to be upgraded to SS3 , Blog, Forum, Shop(ecommerce), member profile, news letter , Galleries ..... so to get a premium modules for a fraction of the cost ready to be used with SS3 ; Crowd Funded development is the solution .

We want to use SS3 & GriedField. We want all the new features of SS3 , the better performance, the new look to impress out clients , so what are we waiting for ?

I had a look around & i see many requests for the following modules:
- Shop (ECommerce)
- Forum
- better blog
- member Profile
- news letter
- payments Gateways

Are you a designer or developer ?
How often you use SS & do you use other CMS ?
What else do you want to see upgraded/developed for SS3 ?
Do you have some ideas that can help others ? New module idea ? feature you like to be added to the modules ?
How can you contribute ? Funding , Development Support, Testing & reporting bugs in the modules .
Are you an author/developer of any SS module(s) ? we need your support here .

Let us know what you think :D

Crowdfunding sounds like an excellent idea to improve these modules. As the owner/maintainer of the shop module, I am very keen to receive funding so I can dedicate some solid time and effort to migrate the module to SS3, and possibly see some further improvements. It would depend on how much funding actually comes in.

I can understand that the community would want to feel confident that their money is put to good use. I would need to outline exactly what I plan to do with the available funding. Hopefully my track record with the shop module will also build some confidence.

- What is the best crowd funding platform to do this on?
- Is there a feature-rating interface we can use to determine the most desirable features? Google code has a 'total starred' count, but I don't think there's the same thing on github.

How about kickstarter?

Which gives me a chance to post this waaaaay off topic link...

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1523379957/oculus-rift-step-into-the-game

Thanks for the support guys :D
I just signed up with KickStarter , its a good Platform as far as I can see.

We will need a development plan . I was thinking to start a survey to see what modules & features are most wanted then develop based on that ? or should we focus on upgrading & providing the skeleton modules for now then features can be provided later as extensions ?
The plan is ; contributors will have instant access to all updates then the module/code will be release to public after 1-3 month depending on how big the module/project is . The bigger the module/project is the longer it will stay private as it takes longer to collect the funds & develop it .

I/We need to do the following :
- List what modules are most wanted.
- List most wanted features for each module & set priorities
- What is the best place to organize Ideas, Development progress & Bug reporting ? Hardcore Developers , what do you use for things like this.
- If you are a user, designer or developers , let us know what you think about "Crowd Funded development for SS3" & what do you like to see upgraded/developed ?

Who can benefit from "Crowd Funded development " ?
- Companies/Businesses that want to cut down the development costs of "most wanted" modules .
- Companies/Businesses that are looking for "Professional" modules to use as the base for their future development . With the core functionality of your desired modules are built by professional developers , you can focus on "extending & improving" thus saving time & money .
- Freelance Designers/Developers : Develop your projects based on well coded modules .Feel more comfortable doing your job knowing that you are using modules built for the latest SilverStripe release so can focus on getting projects completed for you clients .
- New to the world of web design & development ? our modules will be be ready to use with minimal configuration so your support will allow us to provide you with more features for a fraction of the cost .
- For designers : you only need a blog, forum, shopping cart , news letter and/or user registration / Profile management ? just download the module & install to have your website up and running in no time .

Hi DesignerX,

as already mentioned in the IRC, i in general like the idea of crowd funded developement.
But there are a many aspect to take into account.

1) Do contributers have to pay a fixed monthly amount (like 5$/month) or do you just pay for work on a certain module that you are interested in. I think its not a good idea to let contributers decide themselves how much money they would like to donate. :)

2) How can you keep the code private? Most modules are probably on github. And afaik github repos are only for free if they are open for everyone

3) How can you be sure, that the developer who gets paid deliveres quality code (or at least working code).

4) When this system establishes, there is a certain risk, that developers will no longer share new modules for free but expect to make some money with it.

(to be continued)
lx

Thanks for your input lx :
1- yes, there will be a monthly payment to help keep modules alive . My idea so far is to provide some kind of different level memberships .
Bronze($5-10 ),Silver($10-25),Gold($25-50) a month .. & modules will be tagged with Bronze/Silver/Gold depending on the development costs of that module.
If user has permission to access that module, he can get instant updates/downloads & if he doesn't , latest release of each module will be held back 1-3 month from the public to encourage funding .

2- WE can organize payment for github , We will have a look at the plans & see whats best
3- In most cases , the original developer or maintainer is going to work on the module , so you'll be sure to get the same & even better quality code .
4- For now, we only taking existing & popular modules from SS2.4 & upgrading/re-developing them to work with SS3 . Not every module will be funded, a module HAS to be open source for some time & gain the community's trust & interest before it's funded in any way .
I think the idea of crown-funding modules will make new designers/developers work harder & make better open source modules to try & get them funded .

BTW, I am starting to organize the data i have so far on google group, its not ready yet, but everyone is welcome to view & request to join ;D

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/silverstripe-crowd-funding

I'm not sure that restricting open source software to contributors is the best way to give incentive. I think open source software should always be available for anyone to pick up and make their own fork if they so desire. Closing off things means that bugs will not get caught as quickly, and the community won't be able to contribute feedback/ideas as quickly/easily.

If we're talking about using something like kickstart, then perhaps incentives could be things like: get a t-shirt, get more votes to make a feature's development a priority, name in the credits, ?