Request for Proposals: Flathub Program Management

[ramcq]

The GNOME Foundation is seeking a contractor to help with program management, financial/legal setup, and public outreach to bootstrap Flathub LLC. This work is funded by Endless.

Project Overview

The GNOME Foundation, in partnership with KDE e.V., is bootstrapping Flathub LLC to become a self-sustaining entity. Flathub has already established itself as the premier app distribution platform for Linux, serving over 4 million active users and hosting more than 2,500 applications from over 1,500 contributors.

The program manager will focus on these key objectives:

1. Launch payment and donation systems for applications and Flathub itself
2. Establish operational governance for Flathub LLC
3. Coordinate financial and legal operations
4. Ensure community engagement and transparency

Desired Experience and Knowledge

Candidates should demonstrate expertise in:

• Knowledge of US and software legislative landscape (you don’t need to be a lawyer, but if you’ve worked with lawyers before on contracts/licenses/terms that would be very helpful)
• Experience with accounting and basic economic management
• Track record of establishing cross-organizational processes
• Experience working with volunteer communities and coordinating technical work
• Fundraising and communication abilities

Project Objectives

The successful candidate will be expected to:

1. Oversee deployment of payment systems for applications and direct donations to Flathub operating costs
2. Finalise governance documents and convene a simple governing body for Flathub with representatives from GNOME, KDE and the Flathub community
3. Establish and manage bank and Stripe payment processing accounts
4. Finalize and launch terms of use and developer agreements
5. Coordinate handling of accounting, operations and expenses with the GNOME Foundation
6. Ensure transparency through clear communications and documentation for the community

Budget

Available budget: $12,000

Expected duration: 3 months part-time

Individual hourly rates are not to exceed $55 USD per hour without prior agreement with the GNOME Foundation.

Eligibility

We welcome applications from individuals with experience in:

• Open source project management
• Financial operations
• Community management
• Legal document review

We strongly encourage candidates from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds, as well as those who might not meet all criteria but believe they can contribute to Flathub’s success.

Application Requirements

Please submit your proposal including:

1. Relevant experience and approach
2. Specific project milestones and timeline to achieve the key deliverables
3. Weekly time commitment, proposed rate and payment structure

Additional Support

The candidate will work with:

• GNOME Foundation and KDE e.V. leadership
• Legal counsel for governance, terms of use and developer agreement
• Existing Flathub technical team
• Community volunteers and reviewers

Submission Instructions

Proposals must be submitted to flathub@gnome.org by Wednesday 18th December.

For questions or additional information, please use the Flathub Discord or e-mail flathub@gnome.org.

[Beryesa]

Sorry if a little off-topic, but wasn’t flathub hosted in the Netherlands & UK (+ Fastly CDN), wouldn’t a US based LLC cause further legal issues regarding software patents, data (especially for payments) and privacy laws etc. in the future; why not in Europe?

[ramcq]

Hey, not a bad question at all. Bits of Flathub are hosted in different places; some of the frontend services are hosted on GNOME infrastructure in the USA, not sure where the build servers are right now - with Equinix in Amsterdam I believe - and some of the core repo servers in the UK.

However the servers aren’t the main thing here - the funds used to support growing/operating Flathub after the first donations have been received from philanthropic grants in the USA, and to the best of my knowledge must be directed into US tax-exempt 501c3 orgs such as the GNOME Foundation. Flathub LLC is owned/operated by GNOME so also counts as a tax-exempt organisation, and is able to share accounting/finance/ops/etc processes with GNOME rather than having to set up all of its own stuff.

Stripe does already work in different ways depending on where you are - people in Europe are more likely to have their transaction processed by Stripe in Luxembourg or whatever. For Flathub itself, I don’t think this is a particularly huge deal for eg data privacy because a) we’re not going to collect much user data at all because that’s just not of interest/relevance to our purpose, and the more we collect, the more risks/complexity around compliance, consent, removal, etc and the more risks, and b) even if “headquartered” in the USA, by operating servers and serving users in the EU, Flathub still has to comply with EU GDPR and other similar laws that require compliance on a transnational basis.

Software patents… well… it’s complicated. I can’t really reproduce our legal advice on the forum here. We’re trying to do what (little) we can to protect ourselves and developers. Maybe at some point somebody who has the combination of technical, legal and financial nous will to set up FreedomHub in Switzerland - they’re welcome to as we’ll keep all of the infrastructure and tools we build open source. The US funding and legal entity is what we have now and what got us to where we are today.

[Beryesa]

Thanks for the clarification, all the best!

[saif-ellafi]

This is a truly wonderful step. I am a hobbyist currently hosting my storytelling app flatpak privately. Very happy for this step to allow publishers and developers keep their apps alive and of higher quality. I even admit I’d be happy to test/help.

Cheers

[SViN]

this is an amazing step , especially with popular platforms like the steam deck i think its a great opportunity for linux software developers to get funding.
However the amount of $12,000 seems awfully low for such a goal. I think a flexible funding campaign(via a platform like kickstarter) would help a lot.

[ramcq]

I don’t disagree there’s a bunch of work to do; but it’s more coordination and management than doing a lot from scratch. The legal agreements are drafted, they need reviewing/finalising. The code for payments is ready - it needs a Stripe account and a roll-out plan. The governance thing doesn’t need to be crazily complex, it just needs someone to make sure it happens and record/publish the minutes, etc. And raising more funds for Flathub itself as part of the work is a great idea. Maybe a fundraiser / drive on flathub.org itself could be a way to test out the Stripe integration for the first time, and have people make accounts? Open to suggestions from whoever applies and how they prioritise things in their plan, but the budget is what we have to start with right now.

[razzeee]

@ramcq

And raising more funds for Flathub itself as part of the work is a great idea. Maybe a fundraiser / drive on flathub.org itself could be a way to test out the Stripe integration for the first time, and have people make accounts? Open to suggestions from whoever applies and how they prioritise things in their plan, but the budget is what we have to start with right now.

That has been implemented anyway (not exactly as a fundraiser, but a general donation) and would IMO be the first thing to roll out.