It's Time to Fix Open Source  ## Metadata - Author: [[Theo - t3․gg]] - Full Title: It's Time to Fix Open Source - Category: #articles - Document Note: --- tags: [#opensource, #sustainability, #pledge] Author: Merlin Source: YouTube Reference: [It's time to fix open source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3SVKdgpaH8) date created: 2024-10-14 12:30 --- # Title: It's Time to Fix Open Source ## Table of Contents: - [📝 Summary](#-summary) - [📖 Main Content](#-main-content) - [🗒️ Notes](#️-notes) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) - [✅ Action Items](#-action-items) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#-questions) - [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#-implications) - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#-deib-assessment) - [✅ Logical Validity](#-logical-validity) - [🔍 SEO Evaluation](#-seo-evaluation) - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) ## 📝 Summary: Merlin’s video highlights the challenges of maintaining open-source projects, focusing on the lack of financial contributions from companies benefiting from them. It introduces the "Open Source Pledge," urging companies to pay developers directly and report their contributions publicly. ## 📖 Main Content: The Open Source Pledge proposes that companies give $2,000 per developer annually to support open-source projects, promoting sustainable development and recognizing the value of open-source contributions. ### 🗒️ Notes: - **Problem**: Companies benefit from open-source software but often contribute little financially. - **Solution**: The Open Source Pledge encourages transparency and direct payments to maintainers. - **Marketing Angle**: Companies participating benefit from branding and improved supply chain security. ## 📖 References: - [It's time to fix open source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3SVKdgpaH8) ## 🗣️ Paraphrase: 1. Companies often leverage open-source software without fairly compensating maintainers, despite generating significant revenue from it. 2. The Open Source Pledge aims to align company profits with community contributions, fostering sustainability and transparency. ## 📰 Newsletter: In this issue, we explore how companies are stepping up to support open-source projects through the "Open Source Pledge." This initiative, launched by Sentry, encourages organizations to contribute $2,000 per developer annually to the projects they depend on. Find out how businesses can build stronger relationships with the open-source community while improving transparency and sustainability. ## ✅ Action Items: - **Engage with Open Source Pledge**: Assess GoDaddy’s alignment with the pledge principles. - **Evaluate Opportunities**: Identify WordPress projects to fund sustainably. ## 🧪 Hypotheses: - Transparency in financial contributions will foster better community trust. - Companies contributing to open-source will attract more developer talent. ### 📊 Methodology: - **Survey**: Assess community sentiment about company-led contributions. - **Case Studies**: Analyze companies adopting the Open Source Pledge. ### ❓ Questions: - How can smaller companies participate sustainably in open-source funding? - What governance structures will encourage more transparency? ### 🔮 Future Research: - Explore metrics to track the effectiveness of open-source contributions. - Investigate long-term impacts on community growth. ### 💡 Implications: A successful pledge could change corporate policies, creating more sustainable and collaborative open-source ecosystems. ### 🧠 Learning Styles Assessment: - **Visual Learners**: Include diagrams of the pledge's financial flow. - **Aural Learners**: Add audio summaries or podcasts discussing the pledge. ### 📊 Accessibility Assessment: - **Screen Readers**: Ensure that the pledge website is fully accessible. - **Keyboard Navigation**: Improve accessibility for contributors with disabilities. ### 🌍 DEIB Assessment: - **Inclusiveness**: Ensure open-source projects represent diverse communities. - **Psychological Safety**: Encourage respectful communication across company-community interactions. ### ✅ Logical Validity: - **Strengths**: Aligns financial contributions with dependency on open source. - **Fallacies**: The argument may assume that financial contributions alone resolve sustainability challenges. ### 🔍 SEO Evaluation: - **Keywords**: Open Source Pledge, sustainable development, corporate responsibility. - **Optimization**: Improve SEO by linking case studies of successful implementations. ## 🎯 Conclusion: The Open Source Pledge encourages companies to compensate open-source maintainers, promoting sustainability and goodwill within the community. This initiative serves as a model for balancing corporate responsibility with community engagement. Short Summary for [It's time to fix open source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3SVKdgpaH8) by [Merlin](https://merlin.foyer.work/) Title: Pushing Companies to Fund Open Source with The Open Source Pledge - Theo - t3․gg [00:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3SVKdgpaH8&t=3) Many big companies benefit from open source without contributing back financially. [01:29](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3SVKdgpaH8&t=89) AI can handle npm installs and deployments for you [02:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3SVKdgpaH8&t=171) Encouraging companies to pay open source maintainers [04:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3SVKdgpaH8&t=250) Open source pledge to give back to the community [05:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3SVKdgpaH8&t=332) Challenges of donation matching for open source [06:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3SVKdgpaH8&t=408) Tech companies should fund open-source projects more effectively [08:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3SVKdgpaH8&t=488) Supporting open source generates impact and ROI [09:21](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3SVKdgpaH8&t=561) Supporting open source can benefit your brand and attract new customers. --------------------------------- Detailed Summary for [It's time to fix open source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3SVKdgpaH8) by [Merlin](https://merlin.foyer.work/) Title: Pushing Companies to Fund Open Source with The Open Source Pledge - Theo - t3․gg [00:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3SVKdgpaH8&t=3) Many big companies benefit from open source without contributing back financially. - Sentry's Open Source pledge aims to push companies to fund the open source projects they use. - The project allows companies to contribute back to the open source software they rely on. [01:29](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3SVKdgpaH8&t=89) AI can handle npm installs and deployments for you - The AI can switch logic over to a different library of your choice and handle npm installs - It can also deploy the project with ease, and you can track the commands it's running [02:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3SVKdgpaH8&t=171) Encouraging companies to pay open source maintainers - Companies should contribute $2,000 per year per developer - Transparency in reporting contributions publicly on a blog [04:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3SVKdgpaH8&t=250) Open source pledge to give back to the community - Launching the open source pledge to support maintainers directly - Motivation behind building the pledge, inspired by the founder Z of Sentry [05:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3SVKdgpaH8&t=332) Challenges of donation matching for open source - Direct funding approach based on dependency graph, project votes, and leadership guidance - Success of Cent's funding program led to expansion and sharing with other companies [06:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3SVKdgpaH8&t=408) Tech companies should fund open-source projects more effectively - Investments into their own ecosystem have limited impact on the open-source community - Pledge to give cash to maintainers to recognize their hard work and encourage them to continue [08:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3SVKdgpaH8&t=488) Supporting open source generates impact and ROI - Investment in open source has a genuine impac - Document Tags: [[open source contribution]] [[open source corporate contribution]] - Summary: The Open Source Pledge is a really exciting effort from my friends at Sentry, I am hopeful for how this may change things. Thank you to StackBlitz for sponsoring today's video!!! Check out https://bolt.new CHECK THEM OUT https://opensourcepledge.com/ Check out my Twitch, Twitter, Discord more at https://t3.gg S/O Ph4seOn3 for the awesome edit 🙏 - URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3SVKdgpaH8 it's no secret that some of the biggest winners from open source software are huge companies that aren't putting back their fair share of money think about things like elastic search that blew up on AWS and never saw any money as a result of that this is weirdly common and there's a lot of companies using a lot of Open Source software that just don't pay back and that's why I'm really excited about a new initiative kickstarted by Sentry called The Open Source pledge trying its hardest to push companies to help fund the open source that they're all building on top of this is a really awesome project and I can't wait to tell you more about it but first I have to get paid so let's hear a quick word from today's sponsor hopefully you've heard about Bol by now if you haven't it's the new AI code tool built by Stack Blitz yeah like the ID and the browser guys it's really really cool unlike the other similar tools they support pretty much every framework out of the box so I can just click next here you know the view framework I'm very well known for using it will spin up a project run the npm install do everything in the browser but you can still edit the code remember so if you want to sit in here and play around you can but what if I don't want to what if I want them to easy theme the home page so it looks like the react documentation now it's going to do that we can hop back to the code Tab and see the actual changes it's making as it makes them it'll guide you through all of it you can even tell it to install packages so if you want to have it change logic over to a library that you like just tell it and it will do it I've never seen an AI that can run npm installs for you before that was kind of trippy it's not just the installs either this can deploy too I'll show you in just a sec and there we are nujs the intuitive view framework that's uncanny I got that a little too good a little too quick but if we want to deploy it it's pretty easy tell the AI and I'll figure it out for you you even see the commands that it's running as it does it and my face is currently covering it but if I move that there you can see open and stacklist and deploy are both buttons they have right there too but now we have it deployed open the website and there we are deployed on nfy I can clone it to my account immediately with just one more link tell me that's not pretty cool thank you to stack Blitz for sponsoring today's video go check out b. new open source pledge pay your share whether you're a CEO CFO CTO or just a Dev your company surely depends on open source software it's time to pay the maintainers believe it or not I actually saw this at a bus stop NSF like they took over one of like the poster ads because Sentry is taking this seriously and sf's the place to do these types of advertisements it was weird seeing an open source call out like that next to a bench as I was walking around the city but it is cool to know that they're pushing this for real it's spending money not just to quickly pay open source devs but to try and build the culture of paying them more tldr the first step pay open source maintainers the minimum to participate is $2,000 per year per Dev at your company so the goal here is to scale the amount of contribution you're making based on how many many devs you have 2K per year might sound like a lot when you consider many of these devs are making over 200,000 a year this is a 1% increase and open source is doing a lot more than a 1% bump in our productivity this is also way smaller than things like the WordPress five for the future chaos this is a a best faith contribute some money back based on the fact that you have hundreds of devs that are doing all sorts of stuff this isn't for random Independents to try and throw a bunch of money this is for big companies that have a ton of developers that AR contributing jack to open source and the two things they're asking in order for you to be part of the open source pledge is that you do those contributions of 2,000 minimum per year per de at your company and that you report this publicly on some form of blog outlining the payments you've made and where they've went this is a great initiative to get companies who wouldn't exist without the digital public good of Open Source software to give back here are some of the companies that are already complying might end doing this myself because this is really cool God I actually now I look at the list I love all of these companies these are all really cool I've had incredible conversations with the get Butler guys laravel I just filmed a video about I love what they've been up to lately browser base I work with closely they're doing really cool things Val toown I've only heard great stuff about Sentry obviously previously was a sponsor know them really well I don't know antithesis astral or prefect or logfire I do know the rest in emerge tools is so cool they're doing deep dive breakdowns of why apps are slow on Twitter where they like break apart the entire bundle to show why so big and what's wrong with the app I've learned so much about Native Dev stuff through a merge it's like hard to put into words great crew check out their stuff for sure makes a lot of sense that they would join something like this I love it let's hear a bit more about the motivation of building this Z told the story of course if you don't know Z originally the founder of Sentry he's currently making fun of all of the Indie hackers with his Twitter bio sentury 10,000k a month probably God damn it Kramer why do you do this anyways here's their blog post that he wrote all about this today we officially launch the open source pledge The Pledge started as an idea some years back what if we could give back to open source on behalf of every employee at Sentry he's been talking about this for years we've had a lot of convos about it I'm not that surprised hype for them though we threw around a number of ideas on how we might do that but none of them seemed like they'd achieve the level of impact that we wanted we always had two goals pay maintainers directly and do it sustainably and scale it with our growth my earliest thought in the space censored around a form of donation matching The Hope was we could take something like GitHub sponsors and match employees contributions to open source maintainers that posed a number of challenges the biggest risk was participation not everyone cares about open source and that's fine so donation matching breaks down with reduced participation instead we decided to do direct funding driven by a variety of inputs like their dependency graph projects people voted on and guidance from engineering leadership that program is what you've seen from us publicly running it for three consecutive years each year we increase the funding amount based on Cent's own Financial growth it became such a no-brainer within Cent's leadership that we've aggressively increased the funding every year even beyond our original targets with the success of that we set off to take this program codify it and bring it to other companies to see if we could turn this into a bigger thing lead by example as we started talking about this and thinking about how we might turn into something bigger with more impact I was reminded of a number of scenarios that I had previously experienced when speaking with other Founders I regularly speak at a variety of events many where open source is a key part of The Narrative they're generally filled with venture-backed Founders telling their stories of why open source matters to their business why they believe and invest in it one thing that was commonly expressed by these folks was the sustainability challenge in the industry great I thought we have a solution not a single one of those Founders did anything more than talk about the problem sure maybe they throw a few bucks at one of the big foundations and they almost certainly fund investments into their own ecosystem their commercial interests Unfortunately they rarely do anything measurable that improves the thing that they claim to care about so deeply worse some of these people often from the largest tech companies have a laundry list of excuses for why giving money to people is hard I've heard so many of those excuses and I'm happy that they're fighting that directly so we decided to try and do something about it that's something is the open- source pledge we don't think it's the only solution nor do we think it's the only way to give back but we do believe giving cash money to maintainers is an appropriate way to show your thanks to recognize their hard work and the value that they create for you maybe just maybe we'll do our small part in encouraging the maintainers to keep putting up with us in the enormous ecosystems that we rely on this classic I reference this so often all modern infra and then some random project that a person in Nebraska's thanklessly been maintaining since 2003 this gets more true every single day and the goal of this is to make sure this person gets paid at the very very least which I like I think it's a noble goal and I hope that this ends up becoming popular so how do you pledge what does it take as I mentioned before it's giving 2,000 per engineer that you employ every year Sentry it's 135 Engineers I would have thought it would have been more but that means that their minimum commitment is 270k this year think about that in the context the centry generates more than $100 million in recurring Revenue it's a fraction of what we spend in any given calendar month on digital advertising then why you all cut me I understand anyways it's a pretty modest amount in the grand scheme of things but it's enough to have genuine impact and second what's the return on investment that your company is going to get from joining it's marketing I mean it worked sent not paying me anymore and I'm giving them a bunch of free advertising right now hell if you're trying to figure out what errors are happening in your app you should probably be using Sentry they don't to pay me to say that anymore but they're paying open source and now I'm saying it so they won it works for marketing it's your brand it's top of funnel it's software security it's free software it's open source we see return on investment in two major ways brand marketing and the supply chain you may care about one more than the other so choose whichever helps you get over the finish line from the supply chain angle you're encouraging maintainers of the software you use to continue to provide support you're telling them that you value their work and the contribution is there to encourage them to keep contributing to it the very least you're giving them a big thank you which sets the tone for the future generations of maintainers you're thanking them for free software both of those improve the efficiency of your research and development investments from the brand angle it's what you make of it it's a space that you care about you're putting your money where your mouth is and your audience will recognize that yeah I will say if you're not a Dev tools company this is harder to justify but if you are easiest thing in the world this is you should be doing this you buy products from brands that you connect with and if your customers care about open source you're giving them one more reason to care about you over your competition you're also putting yourself out there attracting new eyes to your brand that may not have heard about you before we don't know yet if the pledge will be successful but I'm thrilled with the number of people who have decided to support the program both directly with funds and indirectly with broadcasting and recruiting woo it's me especially want to thank the people who have put in the hours to really get this off the ground Chad Whitaker and Michael svage from Sentry as well as Vlad and Ethan Arrowwood while Sentry is funding getting the program off the ground we're hoping it lasts well beyond us and turns into something much more the industry is in IR rocky place these days and a little bit of effort from the people who can afford it can go a long way this is a really cool effort I genuinely am hyped that centries putting their money where their mouth is and trying to make open source more sustainable how do you feel about this are you going to contribute more are you going to push for your companies to do it or do you think open source is overrated let me know in the comments and until next time keep maintaining, It's Time to Fix Open Source, Theo - t3․gg, 01ja5rnyz5xaty4m2j7ya20ss5.