“OpenAvenue hopes to be the middleman that connects
companies in need of programming services to the vast pool of
freelance talent available on the Internet. …plans to make
money by charging companies that want to ‘brand’ open-source
efforts and by charging companies for extra services such as
testing software developed by open-source programmers… StarBase,
a company that sells software to let programmers collaborate over
the Web, has a majority interest in OpenAvenue but plans to reduce
its stake in coming months…”
“OpenAvenue loosely resembles other efforts to compensate
open-source programmers such as SourceXChange or the Free Software
Bazaar. These efforts, along with moves such as Apache’s
incorporation and Red Hat’s planned initial public offering,
illustrate the growing push to capitalize on the open-source
movement.”
“OpenAvenue will host open-source development efforts for free
… developers using OpenAvenue will be able to get paid through
their work through a deal with Cosource, at which companies or
people can offer a ‘bounty’ to programmers who accomplish a
specific job.”