FairOSS: A brand for Open Source Sustainability
Open source software isn't a natural resource; neither is it finite nor used up. It may, however, be abandoned in an ever-changing technology landscape. Production of open source software starts with the investment of people's time, a scarce resource. Sustainability is about incentivizing people to invest their time in open source so that everyone can benefit from what they create. When you factor out time for life's necessities, a person's capacity to produce open source software is finite.
Think about why people work:
- They have to - Money/Survival
- They want to acquire skills/knowledge - Independence/Mobility
- They want to socialize - Community/Status
With the majority of people working to make money, you can begin to see an inherent problem with open source sustainability. Most people don't see a return for the time they invest in it. More personal motivations may be enough to drive some contribution, but if you can't pay the bills with open source, you are likely to get a job that does.
It's also evident by the numbers of organizations using open source that it is valuable. Whether it's faster, cheaper, or helps them develop a better product, many organizations depend on it. The risk is that if something is considered valuable for consumers but isn't for the producers, there won't be a strong incentive to produce it. The immediate consequence for organizations is that if the software has a bug or lacks capability, nobody might be available to implement the change.
Some organizations give that profit to the communities through participation in open source foundations or non-profits. There are also a variety of other funding models for channeling dollars to open source, such as open source support subscriptions, feature bounties, consulting labs, or directly through sponsorships. FairOSS is creating a socially responsible brand for producers and consumers to signal their contributions towards sustaining open source, similar to Fair Trade.
FairOSS was incorporated as a public benefit corporation in May 2019 to sustain the production and maintenance of freely shareable intellectual property. The FairOSS community is a community of people that believe in our mission and want to further it. It serves as a focal point for the company and a center for discussion and development for ideas and tools to help us achieve our goals. With their help, the FairOSS Groundwater Program will establish equity and revenue agreements with companies that benefit from open source in return for the use of our brand. Through this program, FairOSS will build a supply of financial resources that projects can access.
We're interested in sustaining open source software, but we're also interested in returning value to those whose creations we benefit from. That's what we call bringing equity to open source.