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Two weeks ago, I announced the Bad Code Offsets project. It's a way to undo the bad code you other people have written without actually replacing the bad code. Much like carbon offsets, money used to buy Bad Code Offsets goes towards open-source projects which not only produce good code, but produce software that helps developers build good software.
And when I say the money goes towards these projects, I mean all of it. 100%. We pay for all expenses — PayPal fees, material costs, postage, etc. — out of pocket. But speaking of money, I’m happy to announce that we’ve raised $3,630.50 and are mailing out checks to the appropriate projects today.
Why Inedo? We're still in the process of starting an official not-for-profit. TRWTF is how much work that takes to do!
There are currently five projects supported, two of which — Drupal and FreeBSD — were added as a result of your feedback. The donations break down as follows, with Drupal and FreeBSD getting revenue from those who said "Let the Alliance decide" where their contribution goes.
Apache $803.00 jQuery $1,500.50 Postgres $288.50 Drupal $288.50 FreeBSD $500.00
Now if you do the math, you'll notice that the sum of the checks is $250.00 less than the cash received. There's a good reason for that.
Announcing The $500 Good Code Grant
Obviously, we're not expecting to change the world with $500. We'd just like to start or help something that maybe — just maybe — could make the world of code a better place. Here's how the grant works.
Tell us how your free and open source project prevents bad code from being created and show us how $500 would make a real difference in your project
— or —
Propose a new, free and open source project and show us how $500 would help you get it started
Will it work? I think it could. The folks like John Resig who dedicate their nights and weekends to creating projects like jQuery have it hard enough developing their project code. Then they have to recruit other developers, write unit tests, create documentation, and so on. And then they have to pay real money, out of their own pocket, for things like hosting, logos, and hardware.
Imagine that: all that meta-work and expense just to do work to build something that'll be free?! I think the least we can do is help with the expenses, and that's what we, The Alliance for Code Excellence, hope grants like this can achieve.
Join the Alliance for Code Excellence
When we chose the name the Alliance for Code Excellence, it was somewhat tongue-in-cheek, to fit with the satirically pompous copy on the Bad Code Offsets site. Well that, and Jeff already called dibs on the superhero theme with the whole League of (web) Justice thing.
That said, we don't want to come across as actually being pompous. Because we're not. We're simply a group of colleagues who want to improve the state of software development industry, whether it's through Bad Code Offsets, Good Code Grants, or whatever. And we're not even exclusive; in fact, we'd love it for you to join us.
The Alliance for Code Excellence is a not-for-profit venture that's 100% volunteer driven. But we do have some real costs, such as legal fees (a 501(c)3 is not quite DIY), materials costs (printing Bad Code Offset certificates), postage (especially for the overseas orders), and so on. The costs are paid by the Alliance, not through Bad Code Offsets.
So if you like what we do, feel free to become a member. A one-year membership is $50 and, as a welcoming gift, you'll receive a black T-shirt with our logo on it.
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Don't get me wrong: $50 isn't chump change and, quite honestly, you can buy several cool T-shirts for that. But it's not about the shirt, it's about joining the team and doing what we do: spending hard-earned money and precious time to build a better tomorrow, one line of code at a time.
If you purchased Bad Code Offsets, you should be receiving your certificate(s) in the mail in the next few weeks. We're a bit behind, but will get them out as soon as possible.
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