Open Source and How We Sustain Ourselves  ## Metadata - Author: [[WordPress.org Project]] - Full Title: Open Source and How We Sustain Ourselves - Category: #articles - Document Note: --- tags: - #OpenSource - #WordPress - #Sustainability - #Economics - #FreeRider - #TragedyOfTheCommons - #CommunityFunding Author: Courtney Robertson Source: WP Community Collective Blog Reference: https://make.wordpress.org/project/2022/08/01/open-source-and-the-free-rider-problem/ date created: 2025-08-23 00:00 --- # Title: Open Source and how we sustain ourselves ## 📚 Table of Contents: - 🔎 Introduction (#-🔎-Introduction) - 🧭 Clarifying the Concepts (#-🧭-Clarifying-the-Concepts) - 🛠️ Applying to Open Source (#-🛠️-Applying-to-Open-Source) - 🧩 Solutions and Implications (#-🧩-Solutions-and-Implications) - 🧠 Notes (#-🧠-Notes) - 📚 References (#-📚-References) - 🗣️ 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) - 🔍 DARVO Analysis (#-🔍-DARVO-Analysis) - 🔎 SEO Evaluation (#-🔎-SEO-Evaluation) - 🎯 Conclusion (#-🎯-Conclusion) ### References: - Elinor Ostrom’s 8 Principles for Managing Commons (overview: https://www.iasc-commons.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Ostrom_Design_Principles.pdf) - Public goods and free-rider problem (background: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/public-goods/) - Wikipedia funding model (case study: https://wikimediafoundation.org/support/) ## 📝 Summary: Courtney Robertson distinguishes between two often-conflated economic concepts used in open source: the Tragedy of the Commons (scarce, exhaustible resources) and the Free Rider Problem (non-rival, non-excludable public goods). She argues that contributions (time, money, expertise) map to the tragedy dynamic and benefit from governance like Ostrom’s principles, while the WordPress software itself maps to the free rider dynamic because it doesn’t degrade with more users. The piece invites a reframing: free riders aren’t inherently bad—broad access is desired—but disproportionate value extraction without support can underfund the ecosystem. The call to action is to strengthen social infrastructure, rebalance incentives, and sustain contributors while keeping WordPress broadly accessible. ## 📖 Main Content: - The post opens by noting the title was edited based on community feedback, signaling sensitivity to framing and inclusivity. - Distinction: - Tragedy of the Commons: concerns limited contributor capacity; avoid burnout by structure and equitable governance. - Free Rider Problem: pertains to WordPress as a public good; usage doesn’t diminish quality, but funding and prioritization can lag if many benefit without supporting. - Application to WordPress: - As WordPress scales, contributors are finite; governance and support reduce overload. - Software advances benefit everyone equally; access should remain unconstrained. - Solutions: - Social infrastructure (community norms, funding mechanisms, recognition programs). - Acknowledge that large communities can offset free riding, but under-support still risks program limitations. - Central question: - “How can we rebalance the tenacious need for contribution with the immense benefit WordPress brings to everyone, including our free riders and contributors?” ### 🗒️ Notes - Definitions - Tragedy of the Commons - Concern: depletion/overuse of scarce, rival resources. - Open source analogue: contributor time, funding, and expertise. - Mitigation: Ostrom’s 8 Principles—clearly defined boundaries, collective-choice arrangements, monitoring, graduated sanctions, conflict-resolution mechanisms, recognition of rights, nested enterprises, congruence with local conditions. - Free Rider Problem - Concern: underfunding of public goods due to non-excludability and non-rivalry. - Open source analogue: WordPress core software and shared docs/training. - Risk: insufficient investment relative to optimal outcomes. - Public media example - Everyone benefits; insufficient funding can lead to constrained programming and reliance on unpaid labor. - WordPress-specific insights - Contributions are finite; avoid overloading maintainers. - Software benefits scale; access should remain open. - Social infrastructure and scale can mitigate free riding but may still leave under-support. - Strategic implications - Encourage contribution without gatekeeping access. - Identify and address disproportionate value extraction (e.g., large commercial beneficiaries contributing little). - Blend funding models: sponsorships, grants, public funding, corporate memberships, philanthropic support. - Invest in contributor experience: onboarding, mentorship, recognition, governance clarity. ## 📖 References: - Elinor Ostrom’s 8 Principles for Commons Governance: https://www.iasc-commons.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Ostrom_Design_Principles.pdf - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy on Public Goods: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/public-goods/ - Wikipedia/Wikimedia funding approaches: https://wikimediafoundation.org/support/ ## 🗣️ Paraphrase: 1) Original idea: “We cite two economic problems…the Tragedy of the Commons and the Free Rider Problem…they are distinct but related, and apply to two different situations…we sometimes use the terms interchangeably…which can cause confusion.” - Paraphrase: In WordPress sustainability debates, two different economics puzzles often get lumped together: resource depletion versus underfunded public goods. Because they affect separate parts of the ecosystem, mixing them blurs solutions and leads to conflicting prescriptions. 2) Original idea: “The builders and extenders of WordPress are invested in this software being the best for everyone…How can we rebalance the tenacious need for contribution with the immense benefit WordPress brings to everyone, including our free riders and contributors?” - Paraphrase: People who create and maintain WordPress want it to serve all users well. The key challenge is aligning the ongoing demand for contributor labor with the broad, shared gains of a free platform—so those who benefit most also help sustain it. ## 📰 Newsletter: WordPress wins when learning scales and contributions thrive. This week: sharpen your dev chops, catch community highlights, and explore sustainable open source. - Learn web dev: Brush up on modern PHP patterns, async JS in Gutenberg, and accessibility-first HTML/CSS. Try pairing Git/GitHub issue templates with CodeSpaces for faster contributor onboarding. - Recent updates: Minor core fixes improve editor stability; block theme tooling sees performance gains; watch for upcoming contributions focus on performance and interoperability across page builders. - Community highlights: Shoutout to meetup organizers mentoring first-time contributors—your office hours are multiplying impact. Want to help? Pair-program a “good first issue” and sponsor contributor time where you can. - New plugins: Keep an eye on sustainability-minded tooling—dependency audits, performance budgets, and contributor experience helpers are trending. - Why this matters: Open source thrives on abundance for users and support for contributors. As Courtney Robertson puts it, the challenge is rebalancing the “tenacious need for contribution” with the benefits everyone enjoys. Further reading: - Ostrom’s design principles for sustainable collaboration - Background on public goods and the free rider problem ## ✅ Action Items: Purpose-built prompt for your role and goals: “From the perspective of a Developer Advocate at GoDaddy focused on open source and WordPress education, analyze the provided article to: - Map concepts to contributor engagement: Identify where the piece addresses onboarding, mentorship, governance clarity, recognition, and burnout prevention. Propose workshop modules or office hours derived from these sections. - Connect to sustainable funding: Extract all references to free riding, social infrastruc - Summary: The text discusses sustainability in open source projects like WordPress, mentioning economic problems such as the Tragedy of the Commons and the Free Rider Problem. It explains how these problems impact contributions and software usage, highlighting the need for a balance between contributions and benefits for all users. The author encourages a discussion on how to maintain support for open source projects while ensuring fair access and distribution of resources. - URL: https://make.wordpress.org/project/2022/08/01/open-source-and-the-free-rider-problem/ *The title of this post has been edited, due to feedback that the terms originally used were causing folks not to be willing to read the post.* In open source, we aim to make our projects more sustainable and make sure they survive and thrive long after we have stopped being there for them. It’s an immense and wonderful responsibility, and a complicated one! In discussing how to future-proof WordPress, we cite two economic problems as a shorthand for the open source problem we see: the [Tragedy of the Commons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons) and the [Free Rider Problem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-rider_problem). Over the past few weeks, I’ve talked about these two theoretical problems a lot, and there was something I noticed in each conversation. The folks I was talking to would advocate for two opposing solutions, sometimes in the same breath, and at the same time I could identify how those opposing solutions could work/do work in WordPress. To figure out what might be behind that, I spoke to a doctoral professor of economics and he clarified that these two economic problems are distinct but related, and apply to two different situations. Even though both of those situations exist in open source, we sometimes use the terms interchangeably to illustrate a single problem—which can cause confusion. #### Some Quick Clarifications The Tragedy of the Commons is the most recognized economic problem we discuss in open source. It uses the example of a public pasture to demonstrate what could happen if one group sent all their sheep there for the best grass without doing anything to make sure the grass remained the best and greenest for other sheep. The Free Rider Problem is discussed less, but is one of the harder to solve problems of tending to the commons. It deals with public goods that have the same quality no matter how many people use it, or how many times. This results in a lack of urgency and priority for supporting the public good. Take for example, public media. Everyone can listen to public radio stations, almost without limit, regardless of whether or not you contribute. That \*could\* lead to underfunded programming, relative to what would benefit listeners (and other free riders, like news sources that reference the station), resulting in a reliance on unpaid interns and a more limited information network. So, while a public station is able to operate and produce a good product, programming could be better or more plentiful if they had more resources. #### What Does it Have to do with Open Source? The Tragedy of the Commons is specific to a resource that can be used up and so needs some way to watch after equitable access and long term maintenance. The way it shows up in open source is when we’re looking at contributions. Contributing requires time or money and frequently some specialized knowledge, and there are limits to how much is available. Unlike the software, we can never treat a single maintainer as an infinite resource. As WordPress scales, having a little structure and support for contributors can help keep any one contributor from being overloaded. Mostly what is important to know is that this is considered a solved problem if you use Ostrom’s 8 Principles. *I can cover that in a separate post if folks find it interesting!* But the Free Rider Problem, since it’s specific to resources that can’t be used up and therefore don’t need anyone to watch after their equitable distribution, shows up when we’re looking at the WordPress software. No matter how many new sites are launched using WordPress, the core software does not become any worse for wear, and there is no end to the available “seats.” Access to and use of the software is wholly unconstrained and any advancement to the software benefits everyone equally regardless of the size of their company or contribution. #### So how is the Free Rider Problem solved? It is possible for an open source project to suffer from the free rider problem, but it depends on a clear understanding of the point at which it actually could become a problem. The Free Rider Problem doesn’t assume that ALL free riders are inherently bad. In WordPress’ case, we want a vast number of our users to be able to access the software (and hosting, training, information, etc) at remarkably low cost. The free riders that pose a problem are frequently those who get disproportionate value compared to what they contribute. It could be argued that organizations like public media, WordPress, or Wikipedia have overcome the Free Rider Problem by effective use of social infrastructure and by being available to a large enough community that the support is sufficient. Alternatively, it could also be argued that all of those organizations are actually under-supported relative to what would be best for our communities, therefore requiring them to limit the programs and services they offer. I believe that the crux of the discussion should be this: The builders and extenders of WordPress are invested in this software being the best for everyone using it. Collectively, we support the creation and maintenance of WordPress through our community of contributors. How can we rebalance the tenacious need for contribution with the immense benefit WordPress brings to everyone, including our free riders and contributors?, Open Source and How We Sustain Ourselves, WordPress.org Project, 01hbhdnmrkg3gk2gzjkhc5h1a1.