Geomys, a blueprint for a sustainable open-source maintenance firm
1–10 of 19 posts
Re: Geomys, a blueprint for a sustainable open-source maintenance firm
#2Very cool! I hope this will work out well and that we’ll see more companies like this launching.
Re: Geomys, a blueprint for a sustainable open-source maintenance firm
#3I'm really glad to see `bluemonday` in such company, but I'm also really happy to hand over the reigns to a group of engineers that can focus on OSS.
I am the author of https://github.com/microcosm-cc/bluemonday but being a maintainer is a journey, you make a tool for yourself, you realise others will benefit and open it up to others... time passes... and then you realise you are that tiny pillar in the XKCD comic about dependencies, and that when you make a casual update to the project that multiple security companies ping you to ask the impact and scope of the change, implications, and of course others ping you to say that it breaks their individual workflow.
I've known Filippo for almost as long as that library has existed, and I know it's in a safe pair of hands, and that Geomys is going to be a good home to all of the OSS projects that they have in their portfolio.
It's definitely a journey, how should these foundational elements be supported and funded? This is one answer to that question, and I'm glad it exists as my spare cycles were very few, I'm also really glad for Filippo being so key to it, if anyone will make this work and do a good thing it will be him and those who he surrounds himself with.
Re: Geomys, a blueprint for a sustainable open-source maintenance firm
#4This is pretty exciting to see. I'm not an OSS maintainer myself, mostly due to lack of focus/energy, but the prospect of working with a company such as Geomys is inspiring. And I've been wanting to learn Go anyway...
Re: Geomys, a blueprint for a sustainable open-source maintenance firm
#5Great idea and well thought out execution. I suspect this will be a successful business for a long time to come.
Re: Geomys, a blueprint for a sustainable open-source maintenance firm
#6>"The model and pitch also came into clearer focus. Truly, it’s simple: if you’re betting your business on a critical open source technology, you
1. want it to be sustainably and predictably maintained; and
2. need occasional access to expertise that would be blisteringly expensive to acquire and retain.[5]
Getting maintainers on retainer
solves both problems for a fraction of the cost
of a fully-loaded full-time engineer. From the maintainers’ point of view, it’s steady income to keep doing what they do best, and to join one more Slack Connect channel to answer high-leverage questions. It’s a great deal for both sides."
I love it!
I love your business model!
More power to you, your company, and other future Open Source maintenance companies!
Re: Geomys, a blueprint for a sustainable open-source maintenance firm
#7I personally like Sentry's approach more, their program focused on supporting the breadth and depth of their dependency tree rather than just the critical components https://blog.sentry.io/we-just-gave-500-000-dollars-to-open-... Disclaimer: I work for thanks.dev
Re: Geomys, a blueprint for a sustainable open-source maintenance firm
#8This is what I was envisioning when I wrote this: https://gavinhoward.com/2023/11/how-to-fund-foss-save-it-fro... .
Re: Geomys, a blueprint for a sustainable open-source maintenance firm
#9I personally like Sentry's approach more, their program focused on supporting the breadth and depth of their dependency tree rather than just the critical components https://blog.sentry.io/we-just-gave-500-000-dollars-to-open-... Disclaimer: I work for thanks.dev
I got a DM from a maintainer asking to elaborate so here's my personal opinion "The Geomys model feels a lot like the Tidelift model but it doesn't really create an eco-system that's more inclusive & exciting to be a part of. We want to create a community where more maintainers are excited by contributing to open source instead of them saying ohh this is too hard lets pass it onto someone else with the resource. The other issue is that how do you determine if something is critical & if something isn't, it's really subjective."
Re: Geomys, a blueprint for a sustainable open-source maintenance firm
#10This is a fascinating idea. However, I wonder how it fits with the fact that the target type of project is still maintained by one person / project expert. Where is the redundancy for the proverbial maintainer-run-over-by-a-bus? While the three engineers necessary for maintaining a critical dependency is expensive, a company is unlikely to lose them all at once.