Philosophy & Motivation
When somebody offers you something for nothing, you are wise to ask:
How is that possible?
Why would you want to do that?
How we are able to do what we do
We have very, very low overhead.
- We don't pay rent or utilities.
- Our (very nice) servers and (slightly old) workstations are donated.
- Our labor costs are covered by grants or by fees for custom software.
- We use free software.
- Lots of smart and industrious people working for love over money.
- Our average salary is $10,000 per year. note
- The Computer Science Dept of UMass Lowell provides us free office space.
Why we want to do this work
Our group has consensus on these points:
On a global scale, almost eveyone we know (including you dear reader) are amoung the worlds wealthiest people. For proof see: the rich list
- It is a sin that poverty exists.
- There are limits to the happiness provided by money.
- Many, many things (accomplishment, autonomy, scholarship, helpful co-workers...) are more satisfying than money.
- Voluntary Poverty or at least making an effort not to be greedy is desirable.
Note: In theory, our pay scale has a top level that allows a person to spend 30% of her income on a (1) bedroom apartment in Lowell MA, but we haven't reached that level yet.