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Fighting for Open Source Sustainability: Introducing Code Sponsor

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Re: Fighting for Open Source Sustainability: Introducing Code Sponsor

#2

Post by jwildeboer »

Maybe I'm missing something, but I couldn't find a source for their claim that "Two-thirds of the top OSS projects are maintained by one or two people".

How many projects? How are they rated "top"? When you make such a bold claim, you should be able to back it up with verifiable sources IMHO.

Also, being a Red Hatter that has welcomed thousands of people in our New Hire Orientations, I dare say that we actually do employ quite some developers that continue their good work in a lot of communities. Describing that as "the 1% approach" feels a bit wrong.

Re: Fighting for Open Source Sustainability: Introducing Code Sponsor

#3

Post by cavneb »

jwildeboer wrote: post #2

Maybe I'm missing something, but I couldn't find a source for their claim that "Two-thirds of the top OSS projects are maintained by one or two people". How many projects? How are they rated "top"? When you make such a bold claim, you should be able to back it up with verifiable sources IMHO. Also, being a Red Hatter that has welcomed thousands of people in our New Hire Orientations, I dare say that we actually do em…

This data comes from a talk given by Nadia Engbhal entitled “Consider the Maintainer”. This data originally comes from here: https://github.com/aserg-ufmg/Truck-Factor/blob/master/READM...

Re: Fighting for Open Source Sustainability: Introducing Code Sponsor

#4

Post by ef4 »

The authors are mistaken about the impact of employer-paid open source. It is orders of magnitude bigger than anything else, and it has a decades-long history of success in projects like Linux.

Companies aren’t doing it out of charity and don’t see it as such. They see (correctly) that it’s easier to get what they want by paying some people to work on an open source project than to start from scratch and pay for 100% of the cost.

I’m all in favor of more models, but until you’re channeling many tens of millions of dollars per year, your impact is much smaller than employer sponsored open source.

Re: Fighting for Open Source Sustainability: Introducing Code Sponsor

#5

Post by jwildeboer »

cavneb wrote: post #3
jwildeboer wrote: post #2

Maybe I'm missing something, but I couldn't find a source for their claim that "Two-thirds of the top OSS projects are maintained by one or two people". How many projects? How are they rated "top"? When you make such a bold claim, you should be able to back it up with verifiable sources IMHO. Also, being a Red Hatter that has welcomed thousands of people in our New Hire Orientations, I dare say that we actually do em…

This data comes from a talk given by Nadia Engbhal entitled “Consider the Maintainer”. This data originally comes from here: https://github.com/aserg-ufmg/Truck-Factor/blob/master/READM...

Thanks. Found the slides. But they also don’t give any link to rating criteria or a list of projects.

https://www.slideshare.net/NadiaEghbal/consider-the-maintain...

Re: Fighting for Open Source Sustainability: Introducing Code Sponsor

#6

Post by dboreham »

After reading the article, I _think_ this is an advertising network for oss project owners. Not a bad idea except why aren’t existing ad networks meeting this need? And...if most of the pages displaying these ads are served by GitHub, isn’t this stealing money GitHub has deliberately left on the table, and won’t they be upset by that and hence take action? Perhaps the plan is to succeed so quickly that GitHub buys them?

Re: Fighting for Open Source Sustainability: Introducing Code Sponsor

#7

Post by princekolt »

dboreham wrote: post #6

After reading the article, I _think_ this is an advertising network for oss project owners. Not a bad idea except why aren’t existing ad networks meeting this need? And...if most of the pages displaying these ads are served by GitHub, isn’t this stealing money GitHub has deliberately left on the table, and won’t they be upset by that and hence take action? Perhaps the plan is to succeed so quickly that GitHub buys th…

> why aren’t existing ad networks meeting this need

Because most ad networks are data-gathering scum, and developers know this, thus avoid them at all costs.

This company is at least _promising_ not to track the ads, and only provide basic and relevant conversion data to advertisers. This is a big difference that would mean at least I would be willing to give them a try.

Re: Fighting for Open Source Sustainability: Introducing Code Sponsor

#8

Post by cavneb »

princekolt wrote: post #7
dboreham wrote: post #6

After reading the article, I _think_ this is an advertising network for oss project owners. Not a bad idea except why aren’t existing ad networks meeting this need? And...if most of the pages displaying these ads are served by GitHub, isn’t this stealing money GitHub has deliberately left on the table, and won’t they be upset by that and hence take action? Perhaps the plan is to succeed so quickly that GitHub buys th…

> why aren’t existing ad networks meeting this need Because most ad networks are data-gathering scum, and developers know this, thus avoid them at all costs. This company is at least _promising_ not to track the ads, and only provide basic and relevant conversion data to advertisers. This is a big difference that would mean at least I would be willing to give them a try.

Owner here. I agree 100%. From day one I have been promised to never do any tracking or remarketing. I don’t sell data. I have followed the Ethically advertising guidelines established by Read the Docs. If you are a developer on the platform, you know to the second what your payout is. If you are a sponsor, you know to the second how much you owe.

Re: Fighting for Open Source Sustainability: Introducing Code Sponsor

#9

Post by cavneb »

dboreham wrote: post #6

After reading the article, I _think_ this is an advertising network for oss project owners. Not a bad idea except why aren’t existing ad networks meeting this need? And...if most of the pages displaying these ads are served by GitHub, isn’t this stealing money GitHub has deliberately left on the table, and won’t they be upset by that and hence take action? Perhaps the plan is to succeed so quickly that GitHub buys th…

Owner here. Github is responsible for about 60% of the overall traffic. We support websites as well such as https://jsbin.com and https://codesandbox.io.

I don’t believe Github would ever want to buy Code Sponsor. The goal from the beginning was to provide scalable sources of funding. This has not existed prior.

We do not consider ourselves an advertising network. Here's why:

  * We do not display sponsors based on a bid system.
  * We only present sponsors that the developers choose.
  * Sponsors can select which projects they want to support and which they do not.

Re: Fighting for Open Source Sustainability: Introducing Code Sponsor

#10

Post by cavneb »

ef4 wrote: post #4

The authors are mistaken about the impact of employer-paid open source. It is orders of magnitude bigger than anything else, and it has a decades-long history of success in projects like Linux. Companies aren’t doing it out of charity and don’t see it as such. They see (correctly) that it’s easier to get what they want by paying some people to work on an open source project than to start from scratch and pay for 100%…

This is great feedback. Thank you.
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