A call to action: Funding Clojure

This is an extract of Rich Hickey’s recent post about the need to find a way to fund his work on Clojure development. Please read it carefully and see what you can do to help:

“It is important when using open source software that you consider who is paying for it, because someone is. There is no such thing as free software.”

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“As should be obvious, Clojure is a labor of love on my part. Started as a self-funded sabbatical project, Clojure has come to occupy me far more than full-time. However, Clojure does not have institutional or corporate sponsorship, and was not, and is not, the by-product of another profitable endeavor. I have borne the costs of developing Clojure myself, but 2009 is the last year I, or my family, can bear that.”

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“If you are an individual user of Clojure, I encourage you to contribute $100/year to Clojure development, via the donation system.” (find the “donate” button in this page)

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“If you are using Clojure in a business endeavor, I appreciate and applaud your savvy, and wish you much success and profit. [...] I think Clojure needs several of you to recognize your mutual self interest in a continuing strong core development effort, and the collective value in pooling resources to fund Clojure. Each business can fund some weeks or months of my Clojure development time.”