Converting Bottles, Cans & Cash to FOSS donations since October 2010…

I've been using Free & Open Source software for about a decade. Happily Linux and FOSS have become my primary choice at home. In all this time I have taken the riches of FOSS for granted, giving nothing back, except a modest amount of advocacy. In Late 2010 two projects which I use daily put out simultaneous requests for donations to help with current and future development. This was sufficient catalyst for me to decide that I should begin giving back a little to the FOSS project teams that provide the software which enriches my daily computing experience. My hope is that my small contribution will help sustain these projects and maybe inspire others to do what they can to support the FOSS they use.

I decided to enlist friends and family in this quest. I've been slowly converting friends and family to the home computing joys of Linux and asking nothing in return… well except the occasional free meal and/or beer. I came up with a simple plan. Where I live in Canada we have an excellent recycling program which allows return of bottles and cans for refund of deposit. I have simply begun asking friends and family who have benefited from FOSS to let me have their Bottles and Cans so that I can turn them into cash and subsequently donate the proceeds to FOSS projects. So far the reception and response from everyone has been exceptional.

These are the Projects I've selected to support so far. Naturally this will expand over time.

Project	DTD	Comments
Linux_Mint	US$1298.00	What can I say? Mint is currently the best all around home computing experience… IMHO
DaDaBik	€185.00	Database Interface Kreator - I've used this as a web front end for years for many small database projects
DokuWiki	€35.00	Outstanding Wiki software. Keeps me organized at home and work. It's what I'm using to maintain the document you are reading now. The creator Andreas likes Beer so I'm going to do what I can to ensure he does not go thirsty
Vim	€10.00	If the Vim editor is not already installed on a computer I use, it is the first thing that gets installed.
FileZilla	US$50.00	Free FTP solution! I encourage non-techy people I help with Web stuff to use this.
KompoZer	€37.00	Easy Web Authoring! I encourage non-techy people I help with Web stuff to use this.

This is a record of details related to donations and cash collected. Its purpose is to provide donors with accounting of where their Bottles, Cans and Cash donations are going.

Started this new Cash raising scheme February 2011. We moved offices where I work and there are individuals at the new location who are more than happy to pay $1.00 for the convenience of not having to re-stock their Pop supply in the community Fridge. So I decided to augment my FOSS donations by providing that service. Basically I go to the grocery store and buy cases of pop at whatever discount I can get and turn around and sell them for a dollar which is cheaper than you can expect to pay at a vending machine or vendor. The price per case fluctuates but typically profit is at least $0.50 on the dollar. Occasionally there will be Profit discrepancies due the the inevitable, hopefully infrequent, five-finger-discount in a non-policed office environment but provided that does not get out of hand there should always be a healthy profit. Anyway we'll see how it goes. Here is the Log: