One of the posters in this very thread was responsible for funding much of my development time over the last 18 months (not sure if he wants public credit, so I'm not naming him). It's a model that can work... but alas altruists are the minority. It seems, sadly, that most people would rather have someone else pay for the code. Tragedy of the commons and all that.

It is vitally important that we come up with alternative mechanisms for pooling resources to get the necessary projects done, because what we are doing is not working. I have high hopes for Hearn's Lighthouse application, but even more innovation than that may be needed...