[jules]

Why is this downvoted? "License an open source formula based on the value of short/long contributions" sounds like LOC to me. Dividing income fairly is the core issue. Solve that and the rest is easy. The problem is that this is very hard.

[stuaxo]

I forget who it was, but there was a car factory that worked like this:

Groups no larger than 6, reporting to higher groups of 6, up to how many levels you need.

Within the groups of 6, they work out themselves who gets paid what, completely transparently.

The amount everyone gets paid is posted publicly. It worked, because people set the rates fairly in the groups.

If your going to do something slightly anarchistic like be by developers for developers you might as well go the whole hog.

Oh, also make sure the whole organisation isn't bigger than 150 at any time - staying within the dunbar number seems like a great idea.

[bigohms]

Also, unfortunately I think income is also a difficult split to have happen. If you are looking for scale, at some point, some investment will be needed. Even with scalable resource architectures, two co-founders can only answer so many customer communications. That recapitalization will need to be factored in based on a communally accepted baseline. In essence, you can factor in a unit-based investiture that pays out dividends on meeting certain business liquidity scenarios and operating rules. Those units can be sold or traded at will, with new buy in "partners" accepting the new operating license of the business. Remaining unit holders vote changes to the operating license.

I give it 4 months and the SEC will come knocking, guaranteed.

[bigohms]

Yea I don't think lines would work ;) If bloatware was bad, just imagine. Short/Long contributions refers to the short term and long term implications of contributions from software developers. Company produces product to solve problem. Product contributions in no particular order or coherence: 1) Long term smart growth-focused architecture 2) Long term product strategy 3) Short term code quality (bug count) 4) Short term, feature suggestion & consumption ratio 5) Customer vs. Company/Product satisfaction rating to solve problem 6) Software's Resource Utilization 7) Customer speed-to-solution average, etc, etc.