Towards a sustainable solution to open source sustainability

A presentation at OpenJS World by Tobie Langel

Towards a sustainable solution to open source sustainability

Towards a sustainable solution to open source sustainability

The Heartbleed Bug

The Heartbleed Bug

Heartbleed bug impact

Heartbleed bug impact

Pivotal moment where tech industry realizes open source is:

Pivotal moment where tech industry realizes open source is:

Core Infrastructure Initiative

Core Infrastructure Initiative

Patreon

Patreon

Patreon

Patreon

GitCoin

GitCoin

GitCoin

GitCoin

CodeFund

CodeFund

Open Source Capital

Open Source Capital

Open Collective

Open Collective

Open Collective + Back Your Stack

Open Collective + Back Your Stack

Tidelift

Tidelift

Limitations of addressing open source sustainability through funding alone

Limitations of addressing open source sustainability through funding alone

Limitations of addressing open source sustainability through funding alone

Limitations of addressing open source sustainability through funding alone

Worldwide developer population

Worldwide developer population

Limitations of addressing open source sustainability through funding alone

Limitations of addressing open source sustainability through funding alone

Developers working on the Linux kernel

Developers working on the Linux kernel

Limitations of addressing open source sustainability through funding alone

Limitations of addressing open source sustainability through funding alone

Limitations of addressing open source sustainability through funding alone

Limitations of addressing open source sustainability through funding alone

Thank you!

Thank you!

A few years ago, Heartbleed epitomized a massive open source sustainability problem for critical parts of the internet infrastructure. The bug, which affected the popular OpenSSL cryptographic software library, notably compromised the confidentiality of 4.5 million US patient records and cost the industry an estimated $500M.

It was soon revealed that the root-cause of the issue was that OpenSSL was precariously understaffed. Open source sustainability became a major theme overnight. Stories of maintainer burn-out made the headlines. And tentative solutions started to emerge, most of them donation-based.

In this talk we’ll explore a number of existing strategies to fund open source and make it more sustainable, from patronage to dedicated ad networks. And we’ll defend the idea that the best path to open source sustainability is to help companies understand the tangible business value they can get from contributing to open source.

Video

Resources

The following resources were mentioned during the presentation or are useful additional information.