One of the challenges we have here at Mycroft AI is one that many open source development projects face. How do we prioritize Community Development efforts, while at the same time rewarding Community Developers for their time, efforts and contributions?

That’s why we’ve decided to trial Bountysource.

What is Bountysource?

Bountysource is a funding platform for open source software, where users can improve the open source projects they love by creating and funding bounties, and by pledging to fundraisers. Developers can also work on Issues they are passionate about, and collect money from bounties from doing so.

In this way, Mycroft AI can choose to fund Issues that are of high priority to the organization, but where insufficient internal resources exist to work on the Issue. This also allows our broader Community the option of financially supporting Issues, features or enhancements that are important to them.

How do I participate?

You can participate in one of two ways.

Post or fund a Bounty

If there is a feature, bug or enhancement you really want to to see resolved, you can post this on Bountysource. You can also choose to fund the Bounty. The higher the funding of a Bounty, the more likely it is that a Community Developer will chose to work on the Bounty. Multiple people can join together, and help fund a single Bounty. For instance, if multiple people want the same feature, or want the same Issue resolve, they can join together to make the Bounty higher.

If you’re posting or funding a Bounty, it’s really important that you have clear and unambiguous acceptance criteria for your Issue. That way, it’s straightforward to determine whether the Community Developer has completed the task or not. If you need a refresher on writing good acceptance criteria, check out this blog post.

A Bounty is represented in Bountysource as a link to a GitHub Issue. So, to create a Bounty, the GitHub Issue must exist first. You can see all the existing Bounties for the Mycroft AI team here:

https://www.bountysource.com/teams/mycroft_ai

Work on an Issue and collect a Bounty

As a Community Developer, you can discover Bounties, and work on one, then submit your claim to the Bounty and be rewarded. Different Bounties are worth different amounts – you might for instance – want to work on a few smaller Issues, or bite off a more complex (and rewarding) bigger Issues.

Once you believe you’ve finished the Issue – by ensuring the Acceptance Criteria are met – you can then claim the Bounty. The poster of the Bounty and contributors then check that the Acceptance Criteria are met, and then you’re awarded the Bounty.

Bountysource takes a 10% fee on withdrawals from the platform. So if you claim, and are awarded, a $100 Bounty, it will cost $10 to withdraw it from the platform.

Great, I’m ready to get started

To get started, head on over to https://www.bountysource.com/teams/mycroft_ai. You can see our first bounty here – for noise cancellation.

If you have any questions, or want to make contact, ping @kathy-mycroft over at https://chat.mycroft.ai