Hack for the Dole
15 August 2007 – 10:54 am by wgI’ve just learned that recipients of unemployment benefits (welfare/”the dole”) here in Australia are able to fulfill their “Work for The Dole” (”mutual obligation” — service to the community to continue receiving welfare benefits) requirements by contributing to open source software projects — whether by providing their services as a programmer, writing documentation, contributing artwork, etc.
CommunityCode, an organisation responsible for the scheme in Sydney launched the idea at Linux.conf.au in 2005. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to have progressed far since then. The CommunityCode Wiki was edited a few times between 2005 and mid-2006 but has been dormant since. I would be very interested to know if the scheme has had any success, or if there are any other community groups offering open source project work as a mutual obligation activity.
