1 Billion Dollars for Open Source Maintainers
summary
Argues that redirecting 0.05% of global developer spend yields $1 billion per year, enough to fund roughly 10,000 full‑time maintainers and management; shows the back‑of‑envelope math from ~16M pro developers and salary estimates, and points to existing tooling and routes: foundations, fiscal hosts, payroll via Open Collective, and the live example of Open Web Docs funded by corporates and public grants. Recommends splitting maintenance from innovation, creating maintainer pods and formal career paths, and notes the EU Cyber Resilience Act’s notion of Open Source stewards.
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chapters (6)
- 0:00Introduction
- 2:09Case for paying maintainers
- 6:28Maintenance vs innovation
- 15:43Professionalizing maintenance
- 25:32Funding models
- 28:43Q&A
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