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I am not quite sure I totally agree with the authors view of 'giving back' but this is a much needed article and we need more of this. I think it's a bit risky

by tobbyb 11y ago

I am not quite sure I totally agree with the authors view of 'giving back' but this is a much needed article and we need more of this. I think it's a bit risky to conflate start ups and businesses that are solving problems with 'giving back'. Let's celebrate these startups for innovating, solving problems and being successful, but let's not mix that up with 'giving back'. Giving back would be getting involved in social causes, solving problems for free with no expectation of any return, and in this context giving back to the open source community. Stripe is awesome but in this context it would be great to hear about how they are supporting open source projects they are built on than how they are solving problems in payment processing. Open source funding is a bit of a mess at the moment. There is a huge lacuna on how to highlight startup companies (and thus encourage others) that are successfully built on open source contribute back. Companies that use open source should at least have a page listing the projects they are using and how they are giving back. There is no visibility or any initiative that tracks and encourages this positively. Without focus and organization nothing happens. Another important thing is giving back should be simple funding for open source projects and not hiring the developers or adding developers. That seems to be more about gaining influence than supporting the project for everyone. The more worrying thing is a general lacuna of user representation in open source in an organized fashion, developer funding of popular and interesting projects that are not a part of the startup scene and just general funding. The inevitable result is open source will if it's not already, be hijacked by corporate interests. Ultimately money makes its own agenda, and if users do not secure their interests others will.

cperciva 11y ago
I don't think the public good and making a profit are unable to coexist. Y Combinator has greatly aided startups, but has made a great deal of money in the process; Stripe and Amazon Web Services are very much the same. To be sure, there are some causes which can operate as charities; but if your goal is to simplify credit card processing for startups, can it be achieved in any manner other than in the form of a corporation? My own startup falls into the same category: I wanted the world to have a solid, secure, online backup service for geeks, and it turned out that a company was the only natural way for Tarsnap to exist. While I absolutely agree about the importance of open source software -- and that's how I've primarily given back to the community -- I don't think all the other ways people improve the world are in any way diminished by the fact that they make a profit in the process.
simula67 11y ago
> Giving back would be getting involved in social causes, solving problems for free with no expectation of any return This is impossible. Whenever we do something, we are always acting in our on interests, even if it is that warm feeling we get when we help someone. The best we can do is map our own happiness to the happiness of others.

by tobbyb 11y ago

cperciva 11y ago

I don't think the public good and making a profit are unable to coexist. Y Combinator has greatly aided startups, but has made a great deal of money in the process; Stripe and Amazon Web Services are very much the same. To be sure, there are some causes which can operate as charities; but if your goal is to simplify credit card processing for startups, can it be achieved in any manner other than in the form of a corporation? My own startup falls into the same category: I wanted the world to have a solid, secure, online backup service for geeks, and it turned out that a company was the only natural way for Tarsnap to exist. While I absolutely agree about the importance of open source software -- and that's how I've primarily given back to the community -- I don't think all the other ways people improve the world are in any way diminished by the fact that they make a profit in the process.

simula67 11y ago

> Giving back would be getting involved in social causes, solving problems for free with no expectation of any return This is impossible. Whenever we do something, we are always acting in our on interests, even if it is that warm feeling we get when we help someone. The best we can do is map our own happiness to the happiness of others.