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Fed up with virtual pets? Adopt some code instead
30 Apr 2009 | 16.08 Europe/London
It may sound like something out of Matt Groening brain-child Futurama but open source video client Miro's come up with what could be a unique idea: letting you adopt a line of code. For four American dollars a month - that's around £2.70 at today's exchange rate - you'll get to experience something like adopting a wild animal in a far-flung foreign land. That includes getting pictures of your darling code "growing up" in avatar form and a widget that'll let you show him, or her, off on your blog for others to dote over.
Miro's adoption scheme constitutes a new funding model for the non-profit organisation behind it, the donation-funded Participatory Culture Foundation (PCF). They relaunched the software, formerly known as Democracy Player, two years ago. And they recently released Miro 2.0, which brought in some user interface tweaks and support for a wider variety of web-based videos. Now it looks like they could be victims of their own success at a time when the economic downturn's tightening purse strings everywhere.
"Over the past few months, we’ve seen the number of Miro users triple with the release of Miro 2.0," reads a statement on the Miro website. "But during that same time, the foundations that fund non-profit organizations like ours have seen their endowments drop dramatically, and they are giving less. As a result, we are facing a very serious budget challenge this year."
It looks like what the PCF are attempting is a voluntary subscription service with an adoption gimmick - and at £35 a year it's not certain how many people will buy into it. But with each adopter's name inserted in the software's credit box, it at least gives Miro aficionados a way to get their name into the program. And if you always wanted to digitally adopt but virtual pets always seemed like too much work, maybe a cute little Miro critter is for you.
[ ars technica ]
Miro's adoption scheme constitutes a new funding model for the non-profit organisation behind it, the donation-funded Participatory Culture Foundation (PCF). They relaunched the software, formerly known as Democracy Player, two years ago. And they recently released Miro 2.0, which brought in some user interface tweaks and support for a wider variety of web-based videos. Now it looks like they could be victims of their own success at a time when the economic downturn's tightening purse strings everywhere.
"Over the past few months, we’ve seen the number of Miro users triple with the release of Miro 2.0," reads a statement on the Miro website. "But during that same time, the foundations that fund non-profit organizations like ours have seen their endowments drop dramatically, and they are giving less. As a result, we are facing a very serious budget challenge this year."
It looks like what the PCF are attempting is a voluntary subscription service with an adoption gimmick - and at £35 a year it's not certain how many people will buy into it. But with each adopter's name inserted in the software's credit box, it at least gives Miro aficionados a way to get their name into the program. And if you always wanted to digitally adopt but virtual pets always seemed like too much work, maybe a cute little Miro critter is for you.
[ ars technica ]