[ODE] Let's Help Russ With Money

[Olivier Michel]

Hi,

Coding ourselves in ODE (or I should say hacking around ODE) is what we 
have been doing so far for a while... And although there were great 
contributions poping up, there are still fundamental things to be done, 
fixed, documented and properly integrated into the main trunk, like 
trimesh collision, integration of flat-end cylinders, etc.). Since ODE 
is open source, anyone is free to do it, but in practice, nobody did it 
so far, and it is unlikely that it will happen soon.

I believe Russ is the best person to do this job, and if the only 
problem for him is funding, then, I believe it is possible to raise some 
money for him. My company is selling a commercial product which uses ODE 
(it's called Webots) and we have no problem giving money to Russ for 
continuing the development of ODE. I am sure many other companies and 
people have the same feeling. This is fair.

We might set up a system to raise money (maybe similar to what has been 
done in the past for the open source Blender software).
We could simply have a web page on ODE main site stating something like:

"ODE needs some funding to develop the following features: blah blah blah
The amount needed to develop these features is USD <russ, insert 
whatever you need here>.
The current amount of money is USD <amount> (given: <already given 
amount> + promized <promized amount>).
Please click here to give or promize additional money."

Then, the users could enter their credit card information and choose 
either to give money right now (even if the minimal amount requested by 
Russ is never reached) or to give money only when/if the minimal amount 
of money is reached (promized money).

This has worked very well for Blender, I guess we could give it a try 
for ODE as well.
Russ, what do you think of this ?

-Olivier

jnilson_99 at yahoo.com wrote:

>"I agree with your concept, but I think the plate
>should first be passed to those organizations that are
>making money off the sweat of Russ et al's
>brow. "
>
>lest i be a party pooper, but why can't we as an ode
>community do the work ourselves. afterall this is free
>software. why couldn't russ just outline what needs to
>be done and the WE CODE IT?
>
>russ is a busy man. but we are not, we just need to
>kernal of knowledge to complete the task. id russ can
>provide that, then we are already there.
>
>john
>
>p.s.
>
>"science is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration"
>
>
>--- "Gary R. Van Sickle"
><g.r.vansickle at worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>
>  
>
>>>-----Original Message-----
>>>From: ode-bounces at q12.org
>>>      
>>>
>>[mailto:ode-bounces at q12.org] On 
>>    
>>
>>>Behalf Of KuRi
>>>Sent: Sunday, July 03, 2005 1:19 PM
>>>To: ode at q12.org
>>>Subject: [ODE] Let's Help Russ With Money
>>>
>>>I have read that Russ Smith (the father of ODE) is
>>>      
>>>
>>looking 
>>    
>>
>>>for funds to continue the ODE project. I think
>>>      
>>>
>>that we (all 
>>    
>>
>>>the ode user community) could help him donating
>>>      
>>>
>>little 
>>    
>>
>>>amounts of money (15-25$) for example, so he could
>>>      
>>>
>>finish the 
>>    
>>
>>>iterative solver and the trimesh collisions.
>>> 
>>>I think that ODE is an invaluable resource to
>>>      
>>>
>>indie 
>>    
>>
>>>programmers, and i would like to see the project
>>>      
>>>
>>been 
>>    
>>
>>>developing again.
>>> 
>>>This is only a thought, let me know what do you
>>>      
>>>
>>think. 
>>    
>>
>>>Hey Russ, how much money do you need to keep
>>>      
>>>
>>working on ODE? xD
>>    
>>
>>> 
>>>Cheers, KuRi.
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>I agree with your concept, but I think the plate
>>should first be passed to
>>those organizations that are making money off the
>>sweat of Russ et al's
>>brow. 
>>
>>-- 
>>Gary R. Van Sickle
>> 
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>ODE mailing list
>>ODE at q12.org
>>http://q12.org/mailman/listinfo/ode
>>
>>    
>>
>
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>