At the moment I only know about Utopian.io since yesterday when I talked about it with @elear. I asked him about how Utopian.io would look like and if there will be an auctioning system. But instead of giving me an answer, he asked me to write an article about it.

Although I don't know if I'm familiar with all important elements of Utopian.io, I will do that now and explain what I specifically mean with an auctioning system for the platform.

The Parameters Of The Auction System

Auctioning systems can have many forms and usually their specific shape depends on the content of the auctions and what interests the sides involved have.

Utopian.io intends to help open source web projects by rewarding users with upvotes for their work. The upvotes will come from an account specifically designed to upvote these projects, but of course other users can give upvotes the same way.

This means that so far the auction element on Utopian.io is intended to be implicit.

At the moment, users publish tasks for open source projects and then they get a vote for it. Before receiving it, this vote has for the users a random value. An explicit auctioning system would make this variable known and open the perspective that not only users can offer their work, but auctioneers too can become active and request tasks while fitting them with a specific price (or upvote) they are willing to pay. For users who do the task this would be equal to contract work.

An auctioning system can be very detailed and offer specialized solutions for every kind of task including all kinds of specifications that go beyond the intended open source character of the proposed platform. Theoretically, it is possible to extend the system to also rewarding scientific tasks or go into the classic commercial direction.

Although extending such a system seems very interesting, this would also be very complex and it would go far beyond what Utopian.io is supposed to accomplish. Therefore at least for the moment, only basic auctioning features will be considered.

How The Auction System Could Look Like

A) The Offer Of Tasks By Users

1. Users can offer tasks with an open source character.
2. They have to describe the task and determine how long they need to finish it.
3. In addition to that the users (or the group of users) can add references to show that they are up to finish the proposed task.
4. They have to declare that they will do the task on their own and not copy an existing solution or buy cheap labor e.g. in India.
5. What they can add is a minimum price for which they will do the project and what discounts they accept if they need more time or can't finish the entire task (both is in the interest of the users).

Of course whole projects can be added, but it seems easier and better assessable if the projects are limited to partial tasks like translating Wikipedia articles or programming new features for steemit add-ons.

B) The Request Of Tasks By Users

1. Users can make requests for tasks or whole projects that have an open source character.
2. This can be a stand alone task or something for an existing project or group that needs something specific done.
3. Depending on its complexity the task must be described in detail, what specifically is needed and when it is needed.
4. The user who makes the request must agree that the finished task will be open source and not private.
5. They can add a price that they are willing to pay for the task. The price can be zero, but if it is more, the user has to ensure sufficient funds.
6. Other users can add their own price to the task and also add more conditions. For them the same rules apply.

This feature should be strictly limited to trusted users, whales and 3rd parties who pay to prove their sincereness.

Trust, Controlling & Legal

While the looks and the functionality of this auctioning system's basic structure is very simple, it still needs mechanisms that ensure its functionality. Here are some of them:

• Every user intending to take part in the auction system must comply to the (not yet existing) rules of the system.
• The most important rule will have to be: No refunds and no guarantee for payments or the delivery of what has been requested.
• It needs a neutral arbitration body that creates the rules, updates them if necessary and rules when there are issues regarding the auctioning system.
• All entries (offers and requests) must fulfill certain standards and these standards must be defined regarding their complexity, hours to finish, people involved et al.
• Users should have to qualify themselves with fulfilling simple tasks for higher (more complex and time consuming) tasks with a higher price.
• The realm of online open source must not be extended to offline, proprietary, products or politics.
• The auctioning system will need an equivalent to @cheetah to test proposed projects on plagiarism.
• Only new projects (or new tasks or features for existing projects) can apply for the auctioning.
• Maybe new users (on the offer side) should have to make a limited safe deposit for cases of plagiarism. 10% of the asked price seem sufficient.

Overall, trust between the managers and the users is paramount. Only when that is given, an auctioning system for Utopian.io can be successful.

This Is My First Draft And I Do Hope You Found It Interesting. If You Have Ideas For Improvements Or Want To Add Something Important, Let Me Know In The Comments. THX!!

PS: I don't know what this "Github project (eg. Wordpress/Wordpress)" exactly means. I hope I have used the correct repository.