A Proposal for OSS Longevity

As OSS projects continue to look for ways to balance community, sustainability and profitability, let’s explore some alternative considerations for companies and communities. 

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SHOW NOTES:

• Troubles with Open Source Gig Economy (Chris Aniszczyk, CNCF)
• Open Source Needs Maintainers, How Do They Get Paid? (TNS)
• A New Way to Think about Open Source Sustainability (InfoWorld)

OPEN SOURCE HAS BECOME CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE FOR BUSINESSES

• Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, Ansible, Kafka, MongoDB, ElasticSearch, Java are all mission-critical to businesses. 
• Cloud providers have disrupted the previous OSS models - operationalize vs. contributions
• How to pay contributors?
• How to avoid unpredictable changes to licensing?
• How to provide better transparency to customers and communities?

DO OSS PROJECT NEED MORE STRUCTURE TO SUCCEED OR SUSTAIN?

• Establish “types” of projects: Business, Community, Any - Years to Action
• Establish some timelines around various types of projects
• Patents have a timeline to explore - can there be OSS licenses that have timelines
• Government tax credits for paying OSS contributors
• Should governance foundations create forks at established times?
• Should groups like CNCF be more active in recruiting forks after a period of time?

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