Funding Open Source in a new era…

In today’s ultra-connected digital world, it is very easy to forget that everything we do is tied to and dependent on technology. What overwhelming makes this all possible?

Open Source and the tireless volunteers that power this global movement.

Did you know that over 92% of the technology we depend on exists because open-source developers, ranging from individuals to large global teams, have volunteered days, weeks, months or years of their time?

And when I say everything… it’s really incredible how truly widespread and engrained in our society open source really is, here is one such ‘small’ 😉 example:

Software: cURL

a free and open-source computer program for transferring data to and from Internet servers handled 12.43 billion requests in a recent month. It is a critical part of today’s technosphere and adopted at a rate of 37,000 downloads a day. This hints at how often curl is embedded into tools, containers, and systems, not just run by humans at a terminal.

Initial version: 100 lines of code in 1996, today’s version: 180,000+ lines. 😳 🚀

Thanks go to Daniel Stenberg and all of its contributors over the years.

But it goes far beyond that, open source is used and affects every aspect of our daily lives:

Cell towers and core networks, voice over LTE / internet calls, airline and train operations, global shipping and warehouses, city infrastructure and “smart city” systems, emergency services dispatch, video streaming and conferencing, messaging and collaboration tools, smart TVs, set‑top boxes, car infotainment, Wi‑Fi routers and home gateways, point‑of‑sale and retail back‑office, fintech and digital payments and databases like SQLite in your smartphone or IoT device just to name a few… and let’s not forget ;) your favorite open source CMS (Content Management System) website building tool!

But open source is challenging; not just because it requires coordinating hundreds, thousands of people across the world with varied timezones and multiple languages, but because it is affected by every major technological wave that comes… the latest such wave is AI.

It’s pretty obvious that AI is here to stay and has brought some very positive things and some not so positive aspects as well. And at least one such aspect affects open source projects all around the world: a huge increase in security reports (some valid and many not so much). Since open source projects are overwhelmingly run by volunteers this is causing a huge amount of extra work on said volunteers because every security report has to be checked for validity! 

BUT IF so many companies, institutions, and governments rely on open source, there should be relief from all those entities in the form of help, resources and funding, right?

WELL… sadly that’s not quite the case. Yes, there are corporate sponsorships, and partnerships - but they are hard to find, long to negotiate and are hard to sustain over years - when you do establish one the organization is very grateful and appreciative of such sponsorships! However, like everything else the sponsorship landscape is changing as well.

Most of today’s sponsorships expect a direct or indirect measurable ROI (Return On Investment), a perhaps logical concept from a business standpoint but one that is much harder for volunteer-run organizations that don’t track any user data… 

Luckily, with a changing landscape, come new ideas, and opportunities… here are some interesting new(er) funding initiatives that need further attention, evangelisation and adoption:

OSPOs (Open Source Program Offices) help to bring light onto the value of open source in their organizations and thereby bring resources, help, coordination and at times funding, that’s more anecdotal than widespread but it’s out there and they are valuable and appreciated! 

So what if you don’t or can’t have an OSPO or aren’t quite big enough to have one yet… how can you help give back to the foundational projects or organizations that allow you run your business and your day to day activities?

There are already established initiatives:

• the Open Source Pledge,
• the Open Source Employer Pledge *
• the Copie Publique,
• the Open Source Endowment and others...

* when a company can’t give money, they can grant X number of employees, X number of hours a week, a month that they can spend (and/or get paid specifically for) on an open source project of their choice, programs like Futurice’s Spice Program, Salesforce Open Source VTO program, etc…

And while these exist, they are not nearly enough,

There are also organizational level constant donation programs, recurring donor programs (think: Doctors Without Borders - Field Partners) or Wikipedia-like yearly donation banner campaigns with more or less reach and results.

Ever moving, evolving organizations that run large projects like CMSs need funding to handle legal, accounting, trademark, servers, events, software licenses and countless other things and affect the web in the millions… and yet are constantly hunting for resources and funding!

We just have to be creative, resilient and share our passion about something beautiful and greater than ourselves: open source powers the world, let’s make sure it thrives!

It is my hope that if you’re reading this:

• you appreciate the countless hours given by so many people (or if you are one such volunteer: THANK YOU for whatever you do), 
  
  
• you’ll want to help to extend the reach, capabilities of your favorite open source project,
  
  
• donate your time if you can,
  
  
• donate a few €, $ etc,
  
  
• talk to your employer about giving back in time, in resources, or in funds,
  
  
• join Joomla’s newly relaunched Capital Team
  
  … and even if none of those above are possible, sometimes it all starts with just making an introduction.

I look forward to hearing and seeing other initiatives to help open source thrive and how we can adapt those to our favorite Joomla! CMS.