OStatic

I blame the souls at Ars Technica just as much as the diabolical (though creative) minds at Miro for the ear-drum shattering, make-your-teeth-ache squeal I just unleashed upon the world. Miro's new fundraising campaign -- where for $4 a month, one can adopt a line of code -- has got to be one of the most innovative, creative, and inviting fundraising efforts an open source software project could ever dream up.

While I still take stock in the notion that perhaps open source projects could benefit from spinning their requests for monetary contributions as investments rather than donations, the Miro team has hit on (figuratively, anyway) real gold with this effort. Adopting a line of code (as if it were a whale, or, even, say, a penguin) and giving a little to the adoptee in return -- a blog widget, an adoption certificate, and a picture of your fostered line -- has a low impact on the project's resources, can garner some great returns, and is just fun.

I'm betting it'll turn out to be effective in other ways, as well.

In my inbox yesterday, along with the notes from my mom, forwards from relatives and friends who never really write, and a wide variety of great deals on fake watches, I discovered a press release from Funambol. That in and of itself isn't unusual, but what the open source mobile sync and push solution company was reporting is remarkable on several levels.

Many open source software companies are seeing increases in revenue, stronger migration rates and a general upswing in business thanks to the rather anemic economy. You don't need to write about open source to see this -- it's readily apparent to anyone skimming tech-related headlines. Funambol's announcement certainly mentioned the economy, and gave some truly impressive figures surrounding the project's growth -- but they weren't in relation to undeniably important financial gains. The jaw-dropping growth is happening somewhere that's even more critical in the long-term: the community.

How do you manage, grow, and foster active involvement in a community? One way might incorporate planning several events at approximately the same time and venue. This is why you can rest assured that the organizers behind the Community Leadership Summit can help you learn to manage your project's community in the most effective way possible.

Jono Bacon, Ubuntu's community manager, officially announced the unconference (an event so focused on discussion that an open, organic schedule is required) on Sunday. The event itself takes place the 18th and 19th of July in San Jose, California. The summit is mere hours before OSCON 2009 kicks off -- in the very same convention center.

eWeek reported this morning that Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, has closed up shop for Wikia, his community-driven search engine. Wikia Search launched in January 2008, and was reported to be the fifth-fastest growing community destination by Nielsen Online in February 2009. The Nielsen statistics seem to have incorporated data from other sites in the Wiki line, however, and reports say that Wikia Search was only drawing 10,000 unique visitors per month.

Wikia Search was a very different animal than traditional search engines, as it substituted search results provided by algorithms for those chosen and ranked by community members. It's certainly an interesting idea -- it's an idea that might actually work exceedingly well under the right circumstances. For now, however, Wales has opted to put work on community-based search on hold and focus his team's efforts elsewhere. He also holds out hope that community search is workable, and vows that when it takes hold, he'll be there in some capacity, actively contributing or simply cheering on the effort.