Let's all support GNU MediaGoblin!

A few days ago the fundraising campaign for a new project started, GNU MediaGoblin.

There are two days until their campaign closes and they have just raised a little more than $ 30,000 of the 60,000 they were asking for. The project needs the support of all who can to continue.

But before continuing to urge you to donate the money from your pockets, I want to stop a bit and explain why it is so important to me that this project grows.

Decentralization benefits us all

GNU MediaGoblin is a project focused on the dissemination of multimedia content, such as photos, videos and sounds. A project that from the beginning aims to replace YouTube, DeviantArt, Flickr and others is always going to be too ambitious to be true, and certainly MediaGoblin cannot yet cope in the state of development in which it really is.

However, the project is promising. Once they get the necessary financing; the hardest and most important part of the project will begin: the federation. Thus, those who have a private instance will be able to interact with those who are registered in a public instance. But how does that help us?

Many will think that the current alternatives are sufficient for any use that we want to give them. Flickr has taken off a lot for the photographers who use it, both professionals and those who take it as a hobby, DeviantArt is the refuge of many people with digital art, having tons of themes, application design and a long list of customization. Vimeo performs quite well as a showcase for shorts and videos with a certain air artistic.

Let's imagine the following case. You are a photographer. Like many others, you want to set up your own site to promote your work. Because it's your job and you want the world to see it. But creating your own site excludes you from established communities. Solution? Set up your own MediaGoblin, which would give you certain advantages.

• It is cheap. With a little patience and help from the community you can install on a server and that's it. You don't have to pay anyone to make you a Flash site that only you can use.
• You can change it to your liking. Of course, GNU MediaGoblin is free software, available under the AGPL. In fact, there are already several plug-ins that allow supporting up to 3D models. Like this or more flexible? And it supports themes from the beginning. Making one for your instance would be fantastic and there are already people who have done it.
• It gives you other advantages. It has already implemented a commenting system that supports Markdown, EXIM metadata, Atom syndication, flexible licensing and collections. It is quite usable today.

Of course, quite a few features are missing; such as user tracking, a substantial improvement in comments, an API and others; what They are on the way or that are possible by extensions and it is likely that we have them when the federation arrived. We would be talking sometime in 2013 about GNU MediaGoblin 1.0 ready to take on the whole internet.

But this bright future will not be possible without help. Two days left. I know that no one has money to spare and that many of us cannot donate for whatever reason, but at least I want to do my bit. If only one person reading this donates, I will have met my goal. If you are interested, donate. And if not, at least help spread the word.

And what do I win?

We reached the moment everyone was waiting for: The rewards! Why no campaign of through crowdfunding it would be complete without the little gifts of the project. Some of the things you can win are:

• A virtual hug for only 15 USD. A hug!
• Un c sponsored for only 35 USD. I imagine it would be something like "This innovative feature was made possible by your help" in the project's Git repository.
• A postcard by 50 USD.
• Football jerseys for nothing more than 100 USD.
• Starting at $ 1000, you will start receiving a Gavroche figure, the project's mascot. For $ 1000, you get it clean, fresh from the 3D printer. For $ 2000, hand painted by the project leader, Chris Webber.
• And for just $ 7500, Chris Webber will cook you dinner. You just have to go to Wisconsin. It is worth mentioning that you can bring a companion and that the dinner will be vegetarian, although optionally vegan. A bargain!

The fundraiser is being run by the FSF, so you end up donating two for the price of one. Webber explained (in English) because the FSF is doing the through crowdfunding and not Kickstarter or any other service, which can be summarized as the fact that the FSF trusts the project a lot and that they have the capacity to have a campaign much more tailored to their needs.

So You know. If they have some money and they have a way to pay; It is only to tempt your heart a little and give a few dollars to a project that is going to be very important in the future. Donate, please.