Ah, the code bounty - that staple of open-source software development, where noble-minded and well-informed users donate their hard-earned cash to support building the features they crave the most.

And yet, for such a universally-espoused idea, there are very few of them actually going on. Why?

Software bounties are nothing new - Novell sponsored a large set of them on the Gnome linux desktop, Drupal-man(n)-extraordinare Boris Mann pioneered “reverse bounties” for drupal features, and they’re a staple of development on the Asterisk open-source PBX. But there are some challenges with how they’ve (historically) been managed…

1. Bounty-making as “donations” - or, the minimum threshold. What happens if there’s not enough money raised?
2. Programmers have to trust the “pledge-makers” - or, who’s holding the cash?
3. Scope creep, or - “I’ll add $50, but only if it does ‘x’, as well”
4. Status notifications, attached discussion forums, etc.
5. Governance - who decides if it’s “done”?
6. Dispute resolution

For many of these, I haven’t heard any horror stories. But there also aren’t many bounties out there, and I have a hunch that these, and other issues, are scaring people off. Here’s how I think we’ve addressed it:

1. BountyUp holds the cash. It means if the bounty ‘expires’ (more on that later), everyone gets their money back. It’s not a donation.
2. Bounties have one or more “contracts”. Each contract has it’s own deadline, set of requirements, and pledges. So scope creep can easily be captured and managed.
3. BountyUp tells you what’s happening - with rss feeds, email updates, and through your profile page. (We’re also working on badges and ‘applications’ for other popular sites).
4. Governance is dead-simple - the owner of the contract decides. So if you want the final word, open a separate contract. Bounty Hunters can decide which contracts they’re going to try and go after, based on the reputation of the owners. (We’re also looking at other governance models - let me know if you’ve got ideas.)
5. Dispute Resolution - The final advantage of BountyUp is that we’re a neutral third-party; in the case of a dispute, we have no reason to favor one side over another. And, we have the moderation and input of a much wider Bounty-Hunting community to draw from.

Is this enough? I sure hope so. I’m looking forward to the day when the IT department of every major corporation, is simply a couple of folks with a multi-million dollar Bounty Budget, contributing pledges to the open-source projects that solve their problems.

Take a look at http://www.bountyup.com and let me know what you think.