Social problem: Internet security privacy sucks and everybody is broke
Solution: Super secured internet and everybody gets shiny coins 
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One personās problem is another personās āfeatureā, so who holds the purse strings is relevant to the outcome. Looking over their past roster of geniuses that have received their āgenius awardā, iām not hopeful for a useful (to me) outcome.
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Interesting, good catch Eddy, it certainly fits, ignore the Debbie Downer. This would serve as a springboard to other opportunities and getting a mention and/or seat at a table with some very influential and connected orgs is nothing to shake a stick at. I hope @dirvine and @frabrunelle look at this not as a $100M opportunity but as a $100B opportunity.
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MaidSafe should hire someone (even just a freelance employee) whoās sole full-time job is to find and apply for as many grants / funds as possible.
Would be a great use of resources
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I agree with Bluebird on this one. Foundation money will come with strings, there will be lots of bureaucracy, and I donāt trust the fairness of the whole process. We have an organization that needs to be kept pure and should not be for sale like that. At the very least, anyone at Maidsafe who trolls for foundation/government money should have an exemplary track record and it would take a long time just to find someone like that and get them on board.
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Among grant-giving organizations, MacArthur is one of the best. They work with a lot of artists who donāt give a flying eff about the mainstream system. I think the āstrings attachedā theory doesāt really apply to themātheyāre very laisse-faire in regards to their winners. Iāve also heard only good things about the selection process. Iāve worked with a number of their recipients and yeah, I personally would love to see the MAID team apply. Theyāre unusually independent-minded (given who they select among the people in the field I work in), and fwiw, Iām generally extremely impressed with who they choose.
āThere are no limits on the type of organization that may enter. They can be international or from the United States. They can be for-profit or nonprofit. They just canāt be government entities or individuals.ā
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Could you give some examples of that?
I work in poetry, so these names wonāt mean much to people who arenāt involved, but winners have included:
John Ashbery
Anne Carson
A R Ammons
Jorie Graham
Robert Hass
Ben Lerner
Kay Ryan
Chales Simic
Adrienne Rich
C D Wight
Derek Walcott
And a lot of these poets werenāt terribly well-known before selection.
Iāve also been really impressed with some of their musician/composer choices, but know that field a lot less well.
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Thatās untrue and unfair, and if it prevents people from considering this as a real possibility, unhelpful, IMO. Any organization of this size is going to get flak from one corner or another, and if the worst they can do is accuse the Foundation of supporting renewable energy, or having one rogue winner among the 1000s who have won, then thatās a vote of confidence as far as I can tell ā¦
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I looked those people up, since I had not heard of a single one, and theyāre all poets. Bummer, as they say, since I would have to take a lot of time to engage you on their merits.
Any other artists, particularly graphical? Thatās something where I would not need to start from year zero.
We seem to just be batting opinions back and forth so far.
Judging from the list of celebrity winners of their award*, I canāt see much to gain for Maidsafe to spend the time to apply. On the other hand, if it is just a matter of filling out a form, or writing an essay, then sure, why not. Just donāt expect much.
* Paul Ehrlich? The ecology activist who lost the famous bet**? Come on!
** Look up āSimonāEhrlich wagerā.
Can you please list a few unworthy winners?
I donāt know where youāre from, but remember that a lot of the MaidSafe team & supporters are Scots, so by the standards of the American right, would probably be branded as commies.
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See the article I linked to.
I have no idea why you drag in the American right.
I will look them up, but thatās a small selection that is obviously cherry picked for an incredibly biased, anti-left article from a website that seems to exist only to discredit those toward the left or those who agree with scientists (climate scientists at least).
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Whoever believes thereās a lot of money to be made this way should draft some kind of a proposal and ship it to the Maidsafe brass. Just describe how you plan to get the $100 Million and what reward you want for your time and trouble. Iām sure if you do all the legwork and donāt disturb in any way Maidsafeās natural path to greatness, no one will have a problem.
Definitely not the way to do business. There is no natural path to greatness.
If you expect things to ājust happenā ā¦youāre dreamin. ā¦
What I meant is donāt disturb David, Nick, and the rest of the devs while they are doing important work. Itās my fault for not making that clear.
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We should let the team decide what important work is. Iām sure they are smart enough to know whether to turn left or right. Making suggestions and presenting ideas backed by rationale is what a community does.
Stifle = Fail
We have enough Debbie Downers posting hereā¦
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I totally agree. If someone decides to do this, it will get done. Otherwise it wonāt.
From reading the foundation website, it looks like they focus on the United States and in particular the Chicago area. Here is a link to their website.