[Evolution] Free software development on demand

[Roland Orre <orre bacon su se>]

Dear all evolution users,

This message is not about a specific evolution issue as such, even
though it's related. I just write to you on this list as you may
have some ideas on this subject.

The issue:
Assume that I have a specific problem that I want to have solved,
but there exist no free software package for this. Also assume
that I'm not in a hurry, but I'm prepared to pay a reasonable
amount to get this package designed and implemented, but I can
not afford to hire someone to do it and I don't have time to
do it myself.

Example:
Last year I needed a project planner. Mrproject was still not
in a state to be usable enough. It got that far that I even
considered buying Microsoft project ($500) until Mrproject
was in a state good enough, but those $500 would have been wasted
as they wouldn't have added anything to the world's software
base. Only made some people at MicroSoft even richer... :(
If I then would have been able to pay those $500 to someone
who could guarantee this program with a certain functionality
within a certain time with a GPL or similar open licence that
would have been perfect. (Finally I got a try on version from
Microsoft which solved the temporary problem, and now Mrproject
has become usable :)

Suggestion:
What I see as a long term need is an organisation and data
base system that can deal with this type of issues,
consisting of:

* A high level design tool where you can specify your need for
  the product, building on all possible desgins already existing.

* A data base where these designs can be stored and where you
  can also tell how much you are prepared to pay for this.

* A data mining tool which is able to search the data base
  for similar designs which can be "chunked" together to
  be able to widen the range of interrested customers.

* A contractor tool. When the a reasonable amounts of customers
  and payment has been reached the system then acts as a contractor
  to make job offers.

* A project employment system where programmers (and other
  designers of course, as this doesn't need to be a software
  design tool only) can take "jobs" offered by the system
  and guarantee a certain design for a certain price.

* A contract interface where customers can make up deals about
  payments.

The "profit" can be founded for maintainence of the system
and for instance invested in research and development of
the system.

Of course these are only fundamental ideas, which needs to
be thoroughly extended. For my own I'm working with data
mining (http://www.neurologic.se) so I may be able to
give useful input on this part.

If there are people here interrested in this idea it would
be interresting to hear your opionion about it, and maybe
to start a mailing list on this subject.

        Best regards
        Roland Orre