The Wonderful World of Open Source

Travis Fischer

January, 2020

Open Source Definition

  • Open source software (OSS)
  • Public source code
  • Royalty-free distribution
  • Modifications must be adhere to original license

Examples

How to view OSS

  • Efficient vehicle for innovation
  • Alternative to academia & business
  • Large spectrum of project types
  • Global, decentralized, remote
  • Value creation vs value capture
  • Not a business model

Why OSS Matters

  • More efficient innovation
  • Faster time to market
  • Transparent by design
  • Spirit of open source
  • ~90% of companies in non-tech use OSS
  • ~100% of companies in tech use OSS

Source: RedHat

OSS is 🔥 for your Career

⭐ Contributing to OSS ⭐

  • Great for networking & learning
  • Can be very rewarding
  • Doesn't have to be code
  • Creating issues, improving docs, marketing, design, and many more ways to contribute
  • Please communicate with respect and empathy
  • Most maintainers are working for free

Contributing Guidelines

OSS Sustainability

  • Initial intrinsic motivation
  • Maintenance, support, growth
  • Sustainability requires extrinsic motivation ($)
  • Hobby vs part time vs full time
  • Options for funding open source work?

OSS Funding Approaches

Approach Value potential Barrier to entry
Donations 💰 💪
Grants 💰💰 💪💪💪
Ads 💰💰💰💰 💪
Licensing 💰💰💰 💪💪
Open Core 💰💰💰💰💰💰 💪💪💪💪💪
SaaS 💰💰💰💰💰💰💰 💪💪💪💪💪

(greatly simplified and probably wrong)

OSS Projects != Products

Open Core

Scratching the surface

  • OSS as a viable career path?
  • Contributing to open source (opensource.guide)
  • Licensing (choosealicense.com)
  • Diversity & inclusion (opensource.guide/building-community)
  • Funding (github.com/nayafia/lemonade-stand)
  • Commercial OSS (coss.media)

Thanks!

  • Travis Fischer (github.com/transitive-bullshit)
  • https://saasify.sh

The Wonderful World of Open Source

By Saasify

The Wonderful World of Open Source

A bit of background on OSS and a look at options for making OSS funding more sustainable.

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