Profile: Flattr

Authors

Rationale

There are so many subjects you could choose to profile, so why did you choose this one? What drew you into wanting to know more about the organization? How did you/your group decide on and agree?

Flattr was company that we had never heard of before and wanted to learn more about the platform.

Organizational Details

Is the subject of your profile a corporate entity?

Flattr is the corporate entity

What type?

Limited Corporation

When was it founded?

March 2010

By whom?

Peter Sunde (of The Pirate Bay fame) and Linus Olsson

Original founder(s) still active?

Yes

Publicly Traded? Since when? Initial Stock Price? Current stock price?

Flattr is not publically traded.

Has the company made any acquisitions? If yes, which companies, and what were their core products?

Flattr hasn't made any acquisitions.

Has the company made any investments in other companies? If yes, which ones.

No they have not.

Number of Employees?

<10, 3 listed on Crunchbase. (source1) (source2)

Where is HQ?

Malmö Sweden, and London

Does it have any other offices or locations?

It is unclear which office is primary

Website?

https://flattr.com

Wikipedia?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flattr

Does your organization file any annual reports? Please include links to any relevant documents (i.e. 990, Annual Report, Year in Review, etc...)

None

Communications

Does your subject participate in social media? If yes, please list a URL for each account, and reach within that community. (i.e. Twitter: @RedHatNews - 61.9K Followers.)

What communication channels does your subject use to reach their public? Briefly describe and include a URL for each.

Social medias, and their blog: http://blog.flattr.net/

Does your subject organize or participate in any conferences? If so, list them here, and provide links to any relevant sessions, keynotes, or content.

None

Community Architecture

Your subject likely runs or contributes to one or more Open Source products or projects. Choose one (or more) of these and answer the following questions:

If applicable, list and provide links to:

The project's IRC Channel

#flattr on freenode with a max of 5 users in the past year

Source Code repository

Closed Source but has a github account that host many flattr plugins github

Mail list archive

None

Documentation

API documentation

Other communication channels

Website contact form

Project Website and/or Blog

  • Website - https://flattr.com
  • Blog - http://blog.flattr.net/

Describe the software project, its purpose and goals.

Flattr is micro-donation system to that looks to help support creators.

Give brief history of the project. When was the Initial Commit? The latest commit?

  • Launched in March 2010 as invite only and went public in August.
  • December 2010 Allowed users to donate to wikileaks after Paypal, Visa, MasterCard started canceling payments.
  • April 2011, Allowed for users to receive donations without having to send a donation to someone. source

Who approves patches? How many people?

This is not applicable because it is business and it isn't open source.

Who has commit access, or has had patches accepted? How many total?

This is not applicable because it is business and it isn't open source.

Has there been any turnover in the Core Team? (i.e. has the top 20% of contributors stayed the same over time? If not, how has it changed?)

  • leihog - Leif Högberg
  • smgt - Simon Gate

Does the project have a BDFL, or Lead Developer? (BDFL == Benevolent Dictator for Life)

The founders? - Peter Sunde and Linus Olsson. This is unknown because it is a private company.

Are the front and back end developers the same people? What is the proportion of each?

Unknown. This is a private company.

What have been some of the major bugs/problems/issues that have arisen during development? Who is responsible for quality control and bug repair?

Unknown

How is the project's participation trending and why?

It looks as though the usage of the project is going down. source

In your opinion, does the project pass "The Raptor Test?" (i.e. Would the project survive if the BDFL, or most active contributor were eaten by a Velociraptor?) Why or why not?

Yeah I believe the project would continue. The project is a company so when people are lost most times, people would hire others to take their place.

In your opinion, would the project survive if the core team, or most active 20% of contributors, were hit by a bus? Why or why not?

People depend on Flattr to employ them and with this I think the project would continue.

Does the project have an official "on-boarding" process in place? (new contributor guides, quickstarts, communication leads who focus specifically on newbies, etc...)

No onboarding process exists except for the documentation.

Does the project have Documentation available? Is it extensive? Does it include code examples?

The service has API documentation located here. There are also a few plugins on their github account that you could use as examples.

If you were going to contribute to this project, but ran into trouble or hit blockers, who would you contact, and how?

Stackoverflow with the flattr tag or the Website contact form

Based on these answers, how would you describe the decision making structure/process of this group? Is it hierarchical, consensus building, ruled by a small group, barely contained chaos, or ruled by a single or pair of individuals?

Assuming Hierarchical as it is a business.

Is this the kind of structure you would enjoy working in? Why, or why not?

It’s a normal work place I’m assuming. As far as plugin development with flattr you’re pretty much on your own and you should have all the resources you would need.

Technology/Product (Section adapted from EFF Worksheet)

Who invented, created, or sponsored the technology?

Many different companies influenced this model including Kickstarter, HumbleBundle, and Gratipay

What was the technology designed to do? How was it used?

It was designed to allow people to give back to content creators

Who would benefit from using this technology?

Content Creators

What kinds of companies or organizations (stakeholders) might have been concerned about the development of this technology? Why?

Any kind of content creator, including photographers, writers, coders, and many others even musicians.

Did an aspect of copyright law play a role in controversies about the technology? How?

It allows people to release their content without having to worry about how they can profit from their copyright, which prospers the open source environment around the projects.