Funding issue

[Bruce Sherwood]

glowscript.org is a "Google App Engine" application. There is a monthly charge for storing people's programs, for computer time associated with handling editing of programs, and for computer time spent on downloading libraries used in the browser to compile and execute programs.

The total charge for December was 19 cents, and with increased use the January charge was 32 cents. Do you think I should initiate a Kickstarter campaign to finance these costs? Or would it be better to apply for an NSF grant?

(These ludicrously small charges reflect the fact that the GlowScript enterprise scales extremely well, because all the significant computation, for compiling and executing, is done in users' individual browsers. Also, the total library download is only 935 KB, and I suspect that often it is cached by the browser and not downloaded at the start of every session.)

[Aaron Titus]

Kickstarter or a periodic message asking for a donation (like Wikipedia and some shareware) would certainly work and is a sustainable option. However, I like the idea of a NSF grant because, in my opinion, it is a “slam dunk” for a review committee. Also, it could be sponsored through either physics or CS, in the undergraduate education division.

Aaron

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[Jim Deane]

I am willing to send you five months of charges plus a little extra (100 cents!) every year to make sure Glowscript stays online.

I'll even pay the first five or ten years up front...

[Bruce Sherwood]

When the costs soar to several dollars per month I'll definitely call on you!