How is BitViews funded?

Conditional crowdfunding: a new mechanism for libraries to finance their projects.

As explained more fully in the presentation at the 2019 Open Repositories conference in Hamburg, BitViews should not be regarded just as yet another "good idea" : it should be assessed as a feasible solution.
A key feature of a viable solution is that it should attract funding from its stakeholders in a manner that is fair, efficient, and verifiable. This is why we at BitViews have devised a new mechanism to fund the project - conditional crowdfunding.
Conditional crowdfunding is based on three concepts: pledges, a target, and pro rata payments.

Pledges: as from the 1st of February 2020, contributing libraries will be able to access securely the BitViews conditional crowdfunding portal and thus communicate the maximum amount they are willing to pledge to fund the BitViews project.
It is important to note that this pledge is not a legal commitment to contribute and that at this stage no financial contribution is requested.

The target: We estimate that the total cost of designing, developing, testing, and distributing the BitViews blockchain application is £250,000 (or approx. US$330,000). We explain here how this amount is calculated.
The conditional crowdfunding portal will be open only for three months (from 1.2.2020 to 1.5.2020). On the 1st of May 2020, all (maximum) pledges will be added up.
If the total amount pledged is less than the £250,000 target, the BitViews project will be closed (notice that each contributing library will have made no payment and will not be bound in any way by its conditional pledge).
If the total amount pledged is more than the £250,000 target, the BitViews project will be active and all contributing libraries will make a payment explained in the next point.

Pro rata payments: these are best explained by an example. Suppose total pledges amount to £416,000 (approx. US$550,000). Then, each pledging library will be asked to make a pro rata payment equal to 60% (=£250,000/£416,000) of its (maximum) pledge.

It can be seen that this funding scheme has several advantages:

1. Pessimistic potential contributors (who expect the project to fail) are not deterred from participating: if they are right (and the project does fail to reach its target), they lose nothing by pledging.
2. Optimistic potential contributors (who expect the project to succeed) are less likely to free-ride on other contributors, because their actual payment will be less than their maximum pledge.
3. If the target is reached, 100% of each participating library's payment will contribute to the cost of the project, as no crowdfunding fees need be levied.
4. The scheme as an in-built word-of-mouth effect, in so far as it is in each library's own interest to promote the project and ensure that as many libraries as possible join the scheme, because the greater the total amount pledged the lower each library's actual contribution.