[ Thanks to steve
hill for this link. ]
“People have been talking about “micropayments” since
the early days of the world-wide-web, so I’m always skeptical of
micropayment systems. Flattr is an interesting variation on the
idea though. It’s a voluntary system, without the overhead or
chilling effects associated with “pay walls” and it puts donors in
control of how much they spend, allowing them to split their
donations among beneficiaries based on a monthly “pie” model. The
greatest asset of Flattr is its simplicity of use — similar
in many ways to the various social networking services that abound
on the web today. Flattr may well succeed, and it may fill a niche
of financing small projects from free software to online videos.“I found out about Flattr a short while back, got an invite to
beta-test the site, and have had a little time to play with the
interface. I’ve not yet put any money into it, though I will likely
try it out soon.”