Crowdfunding…cool!

Recently there have been some interesting developments in the Moodle plugins world. Moodle 2.4 brought auto updating right from the Moodle site admin page and Moodle 2.5 promises to allow us to install plugins from the site admin too. Step aside WordPress, here comes Moodle!

And there is another exciting development for plugin lovers from Joe Thibault of Moodle News.  He is championing a new funding model for Moodle plugins. It is called crowd sourcing. Basically the prospective users of a plugin all chip in a little to get it made. No more waiting for Moodle HQ to get onto it, and no more having to fork out thousands to pay a developer. It is a model that has been around for some time.  But it has not yet been applied to Moodle plugin development. Actually crowd sourcing is perfectly suited to the academic landscape, where there are clear needs but often the needy are not concentrated in one institution.

The first project is “YouTube Anywhere.” This will put  YouTube video recording, uploading and linking options right on the Moodle TinyMCE editor. So it is a project close to many PoodLLers hearts. And, you knew it was coming, I will be writing it. We are really excited about it.

Joe has registered the project on a site called Indie Go Go to manage the process. It has a nifty funding progress report you can check out.  And you can read more about it on Moodle News. Please have a look, and spread the word, or consider participating.