Re: Open Source Developer Exchange

       Sounds like the Public Software Fund, only we're non-profit.
       We have a 501(c)(3) determination so donations towards the
       funding of projects are deductible on your US income taxes, and
       we don't take a percentage.


Yours is a superior and legitimate approach.  Your NPO performs a
genuine financial service by drawing the lines between public and
private interest.  For example, Alice and Bob can strike a quasi-deal
"out of band" -- and then implement that deal through pubsoft to
sweeten it.  In contrast, a ".com" doesn't add anything to the deal:
if Bob can find Alice via google, then the ".com" is superflous and
inefficient.

I think it _might_ make sense for some of the project governence orgs
(gnome.org, apache.org, etc.) to formalize a system to pay volunteers,
then use pubsoft.org to help implement that.  And then, following that
example, smaller projects that don't have a ".org" can join the pack.

Complementary to pubsoft.org would be a ".org" that does, in a
less discriminatory, what the FSF currently does in terms of assigment
paperwork and legal support for copyright issues.

-t