Money, Money, Money...
summary
Claim: free software wins given equal resources; reality: maintenance lacks funding. Cites heartbleed and OpenSSL rescue, Capistrano abandonment from burnout, and Django’s $50,000 fundraiser to hire a fellow who reduces ticket backlog and halves review lag. Proposes mechanisms like a PyPI toll (0.10 USD × ~1,000,000 downloads → ~$100k/month) and patrons/fellowships, contrasts SaaS, training, support, corporate sponsorship, crowdfunding, and shows which models scale or fail for small versus large projects.
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chapters (39)
- 0:00Start
- 4:59How do we pay the piper?
- 5:40Engagement
- 5:51A thought experiment
- 6:34Projects
- 7:18Pragmatic Freedom
- 8:59Cathedral and the Bazaar
- 10:29Merchandise
- 10:41Documentation
- 11:00Training
- 11:10Productizing
- 12:08Access to developers
- 12:25Access to software
- 15:02Indirect cost to the community
- 15:35Land mines
- 15:59A question of scale
- 16:32Horses for courses
- 16:58Crowdfunding
- 17:24Bug bounties
- 17:57Working income
- 18:38Fellowships
- 19:46Corporate sponsorship
- 19:58OpenStack
- 20:14node.js
- 20:50Venture funding
- 21:01Magic beans
- 21:29Developing a patronage culture
- 22:04Resource needs
- 22:59Facilitating patronage
- 23:43Wordpress Ecosystem
- 24:16A controversial proposal
- 24:41Running the numbers
- 25:01Standing on the shoulders of giants
- 25:24Development grants
- 25:37Free passes
- 26:02Naysayers
- 26:18Tragedy of the commons
- 26:32Learn from the MPAA and RIAA
- 27:32Difficult conversations
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