FOSS Force

We like to think of ourselves as the scrappy little guys, street kids with integrity and notepads. We're newsies in an age when print is rapidly disappearing, so we cover FOSS, Linux and the world of free tech with pixels instead of ink, on our website, FOSS Force. 

It was five years ago this month, on May 20, 2010, that we first went online -- with a story on Steve Jobs' and Apple's threats  to sue the open source video codec, Ogg Theora, for patent infringement. We've been doing it ever since, reporting on all aspects of free and open source, striving to ask the questions that we think you want answered.

When we started, we were the voice of one writer, and we published stories three times per week at most, often only one or two, and sometimes going silent for weeks at a time. But the frequency of our reporting gradually increased as we added writers to our team. Today, we have a volunteer staff of three regular writers, with others who contribute from time to time, and we publish articles and news stories at least five times each week.

We're happy with our accomplishments. We are proud of our site, but we'd like to do more and dig deeper to find the truths buried beneath the apparent surface. Why? Simple. As FOSS supporters, how can we make informed decisions on something as important as the impact of information technology when we are uninformed?

Welcome to the FOSS Force Pledge Drive

To move forward and improve our coverage we need funding, plain and simple -- mainly to pay our writers for the work they do. At present, everyone who works to make FOSS Force happen does so on a volunteer basis. We're all happy with that, but it means that the time we have to devote to the research necessary to provide the coverage you need is limited. To obtain the funding we need, we're taking a cue from NPR, and we're turning you, our readers for support.

The nuts and bolts of our campaign:

We're seeking to raise $6,000. We're good at squeezing a nickel to turn it into a dime, so if we're successful this amount would allow us to fund a slow but steady expansion of the coverage we offer for six months. If we go over and raise more than our goal -- that's great! That'll give us the chance to move beyond our most immediate objective and possibly bring aboard an additional writer, one who who can translate the mumbo-jumbo of modern tech into language that we mere mortals can understand.

We already take in enough money from advertising to cover both the cost of our server and our office expenses. That means we'll be able to use the vast majority of the money we raise here for what we see as our most immediate objective -- to pay our writers. Again, this will enable them to devote more time to the important work of covering FOSS.

Indeed, with this funding in place, we believe that we could double our output from five articles weekly (one article per day, Monday through Friday) to ten, with more in-depth articles which require time consuming research and leg work.

The people behind FOSS Force...

With our readers, of course, we are a force of thousands, but there are currently three people who work to make FOSS Force happen.

Christine Hall: Owner, editor and writer

Christine has spent much of her life as a freelance writer, columnist and contributing editor for various newspapers and magazines, getting her first assignment from the legendary Los Angeles Free Press back in 1972. She also brings to the table her experience as a broadcaster, which goes all the way to her childhood, as her father was the owner of the first FM radio station in her home town of Greensboro, North Carolina. Over the years, she served as program director for two newstalk stations.

Larry Cafiero: Writer, columnist and editor

Just as Christine spent her childhood hanging out at radio stations, Larry spent much of his hanging out at newspapers, as his father had a long career at The Miami Herald. Our Larry followed in his father's footsteps, and has spent much of his life working as an editor and writer for daily and weekly newspapers. He's a family man, with a wife and daughter, who calls the Monterey Bay area of California home. We're lucky to have him on board at FOSS Force.

Ken Starks: Writer and columnist.

Unlike Larry and Christine, Ken's background isn't in journalism. That doesn't keep him from being one of the loudest  and most eloquent voices in the whole of the FOSS world, however. His weekly column on FOSS Force nearly always speaks to the very conscious of the free software community and he brings to our pages a blue collar common sense that we find refreshing. Besides, he's always fun to read. Ken spends most of his time handing out refurbished computers running Linux to financially disadvantaged children in the Austin, Texas area through Reglue, a nonprofit organization he founded.

But enough about us...where are the perks?

Everybody knows that you can't do crowd funding without a few perks to liven things up. We thought about having a few T shirts or coffee mugs printed, but when we found out how much they would cost, we dropped those plans pronto. That just seemed to defeat the purpose of a fundraiser.

However, we were able to put together a few fun perks for you. Like a little ebook, "The Best of FOSS Force," which will bring together a collection of what we think are some of the coolest articles we've ever published, plus three additional articles written especially for the book. We're also borrowing another page from the NPR playbook and offering you the chance to become a day sponsor.

We've got a few other perks as well. The folks at IT-oLogy have donated a pair of tickets to this year's All Things Open conference that'll be held in Raleigh this October. Also our good friend Elizabeth K. Joseph, wearing her hat as a Ubuntu community member, has donated an autographed copy of The Official Ubuntu Book which she coauthored, along with some very cool Ubuntu stickers.

Have you been hankering to take a Chromebook for a test drive? Well, here's your chance to do so, with this Acer 11.6-inch C710-2487, at a great price, and all of the money goes to help FOSS Force.

How about a super cool Acer Aspire R3700 personal PC. This one is used, but we've had it on the bench, removing Windows to install Lubuntu LXDE 14.04. No monitor, and the stand is lost, but we're including a nifty Dell keyboard and a wireless mouse (not the keyboard and mouse in the picture). Oh yes, it's got Nvidia on board - with drivers installed and working fine!

Or maybe you'd be interested in this uber cool factory unlocked VIVO IV phone with the screen protected by Gorilla Glass. The phone is only 5.5mm thick, making it the slimmest phone on the market.

For those who want to let their Linux flag fly, we're offering this adorable little Tux squeeze toy.

Any of these can be yours with the appropriate donation -- and we're still looking for items to offer, so stay tuned...

So now it's time for us to ask you to go to your wallet...

Because we're not a nonprofit, your contribution won't be tax deductible. Nor will your gift buy you any ownership shares in FOSS Force.

So what's in it for me? we hear you ask.

Simple. You read our site, and many of you read it daily. You enjoy our articles and are entertained. Most of all, you've come to expect to keep informed about what's happening in the world of FOSS and free tech through our site. Your contribution will help us to continue, and will help us become even better at what we do.

If you can't give, there are other ways you can help us grow. You can "like" our page on Facebook or follow us on Twitter -- which would help others find out about what we do. And when we publish articles you especially like, you can share them or tweet about them -- again, to help others find them. You could even tell your friends and coworkers about our fundraising campaign -- maybe they'll want to give.

If everyone who visits our site daily were to make just a $10 donation, we would reach our goal quickly, with money left over. Help us, if you can.