Under Community Review

Crowd-funding platform for file format definitions

It would be empowering for the user to be able to steer which file format definitions are developed or updated by having a crowd sourcing platform. If a user suggests the development or update of a file format definition, SDL could estimate the cost (outsource the coding?) and open a crowd-funding project. Then every user who is interested could donate to the cause. Of course, there would have to be transparency as to how much has been donated, how much is needed and then a commitment by SDL, say, to make the file format available within 1 month of reaching the required funding.

We are a community of users, so we might as well team up to help develop what we need.

Daniel

Daniel Hug

  • I was involved in this discussion. Not mainly for crowdsourcing, but to build a billingual xml filter. Is there a place where we could check how big the need for this would be?

    Personally, this was on our list for a long time. But it's about a 10k investement to build a file filter like that. Support and maintenance not included.

  • Thank you for your reply, Paul, that is always possible. However, what I was thinking of was what in sociology is called an institution - a tool to deal with a problem. File formats are constantly developing as software is developing, so there will always be outdated file format definitions in Studio. If SDL would be the host and organizer of this platform, the resulting software would be owned by SDL and could be made available to all users and the option to influence this ongoing development would be part of the quality of the main product.

    Having said this, I don't rule out private initiative as you outlined it.

    Daniel

  • Good idea , what's stopping you taking advantage of the many platforms available for this sort of hing and doing it yourself?  Find enough people prepared to pay for it and we can always help you find a developer.