You can keep your fusty old venture capital. For our money, you can't beat the Tamagochi-eqsue cuteness of Miro's Code Adoption Program.
Miro is the free, open source, cross-platform online video player that manages queued downloads much like TiVo for the Internet. And although the number of users has tripled to about 1.1 million uniques over the past three months with the release of Miro 2.0, the amount of funds available for nonprofits such as Miro has dramatically dropped. Insert yet another generalization about the crumbling economy here.
]]> Miro's creative solution to their budgetary woes is called "Adopt a Line of Miro Code."
Founder Nicholas Reville said,"We're asking users to each support a little part of the program; hopefully, it will add up to our continuing to develop and grow."
Reville also noted that the idea of code adoption, although diminutively delightful, is based on the fundamental idea behind open source software. "The code isn't something that we or anyone owns. The idea of code adoption connects really well to our mission."
Participating users will receive an official adoption page, an image of their very own "line of code" that they can watch grow over the year, a blog or website widget, and credit for their contribution in every downloaded copy of Miro.
Users are encouraged to visit the Miro Adoption Center and adopt a line of code for $4 a month. It's definitely cuter than asking for microdonations; let's hope it's exponentially more effective.
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