I think funding for infrastructure continuity can be put on a backburner, since Nokia has pledged its support for maemo til the end of 2012. A backup plan in the unlikely case of Nokia terminating its support earlier than 'end of 2012' wouldn't be such a bad idea, but it's something that can be setup within short notice and coordinated through other channels anyway (irc, mailing list).

As far as 'funding for development' goes, I would think offering a fixed sum of bounty for certain targets are more cost efficient with more predictability than settting some goals and paying 'mercenaries' to chase such targets and paying them hourly/daily/period fees. You'll end up having to deal with issues with:
- selection and qualification of whom to contract
- negotiating the contract (goals and schedules, milestones, late penalties, etc) with the parties
- setting budget. With lower manhour/day budget, you'll likely to end up sourcing the manpower from more limited regions of the world.

In short, it becomes a business.

Imo in this case, we should just be straightforward and say, "Hey, we're a group of N900 lovers who wish to see yet a few more years of this platform to grow by getting A, B, C components opened; whether by license/code release from the current original owner or whether they're a completely rewritten/clean reverse-engineered plug-in replacement. We've collected a donation of XXX amount and we would be glad to offer this as bounty for fulfilment of said goals. Cheers. "

yep. pretty much my thoughts as well.

If Cordia is what you guys say - and I have very little understanding of what it currently is, to be honest - then why haven't we seen it on another device?

2nd that.

Given that so many of the issues with Maemo that people are still unhappy about relate to the closed components of the OS that are intrinsically integrated with core functionality, wouldn't it be better to consider the benifits of supporting something that will provide progression and resolution?

Meego offers progression, Cordia offers the familiarity of hildon from a UI perspective.

CSSU offers a path of prolonging Maemo with functionality and enhancements (albiet within limitations of existing closed integrated components and risking sacrificing stability due to new bugs).

the same rambling idiocy about reverse engineering that get's trundled out by the usual suspect, fails to:
a: acknowledge the IMMENSE WORK required to do so - read: how much funding?
b: address the legalities of not only IP and patents owned by Nokia, but also the IP and patents that are owned by others and licensed to Nokia for use of their hardware in that device
c: the inherent risks to safety resulting from opening code that allows possibly dangerous or illegal changes to things like radio and BME by 3rd parties
d: obtaining functionality on other hardware without a reference platform to design on, including device drivers that will also need to be RE'd to get that "openness" that some here demand as right.

Narrowing down what the $10 is for would be a great way for helping people to decide if donating anything is worthwhile.

Yes...someone please help develop 3G video call and Ovi map voice navigation.

Reading through the thread, I'm wondering th objective of the funding is to sustain Maemo until???

End of N900 - coming soon, right?
Use Maemo with other (future) hardware?

I think what Ysss said made sense...
And/or maybe to use the collection for funding some missing apps like 3G Video Call!

All i ever see is talk talk talk talk, then..... talk talk talk talk......then ....... even more talk talk talk talk.

Nothing ever gets done nothing ever moves forward faster than a snail on a binge.

The reality is nothing gets done.

I can remember like yesterday when a bunch of us got together to hack an encryption system just for fun.... it all started because some clown called Murdoch decided to encrypt Star treck.... BIG mistake because 9 month later all of his encrypted channels were hacked wide open and we were once again able to watch our favourite series.

EMMC should have been hacked long ago as soon as Nokia told everyone they were ceasing support.

Talk talk talk talk nothing but talk talk talk talk.

Would you be willing to donate $10 for Maemo?

Yes for quite good programs, such as a decent OVI-maps with voice navigation.
NO for MAEMO, why? MAEMO is a open-source OS, like LINUX is.
And the main goal of Open-Source is that it is FREE, and that the source-code is availible, to everyone.

Also i think that software/firmware udate's should be free of charge as long as it has to to with bug-fixes.
For any upgrades that has to to with extra features, mayby a pay is suitible.
Of course is everybody free to ask for payment of their work/programs they made.

The CSSU team is doing great work, they should be hired (read: payed) by Nokia for supporting the Maemo/n900 devices!

How?

Will we create a bank account?

Accountable for managing the account?

I am interested in contributing, especially for developing applications.

Incorrect.
Maemo is based on Debian and has/utilizes some open source components but is is not open-source like Linux