3 ms·

Open source sabbatical = awesome

116 points by petercooper 9y ago

sparrish 9y ago
Great to hear about his. Our small company would like to help fund this kind of thing but I'm not sure where to start. This gave me a few ideas, thanks.
- khc 9y ago
  Speaking as someone who has trouble finding time to work on his open source projects, I would say one way to start is by reaching out to small open source projects that your company uses. Larger projects tend to have momentum to keep going but the one-man projects are more at risk. I've had people reach out offering a couple hundred dollars for specific fixes but larger, months long contracts are what some of the more niche projects really need.
- kakwa_ 9y ago
  I would love to see the following funding scheme: Have a service that provides a list of Open Source projects properly indexed (github projects, sourceforge, projects with their own infrastructure) where the projects/individual contributors can register. In tech companies, allow somthing like $50 per employee per month that the employee can see fit to give to one or several Open Source projects of his choice. Unless changed, the amount given is the same every month. If no allocation is done by the employee, the $50 are distributed by the service to projects that need it the most. This would be a great way in my opinion for tech companies to give back to OSS project as these companies, most of the time, relies heavily on Open Source projects.
ocdtrekkie 9y ago
This seems really neat, I always have open source stuff I want to work on, but rarely get the time/energy to really put into. I can't actually fathom stepping away from my job for three months, but it's really neat to see companies doing this and sponsoring it.
djsumdog 9y ago
I've taken two Sabbaticals on my own, self funded: https://penguindreams.org/blog/leaving-full-time-jobs/ https://penguindreams.org/blog/leaving-full-time-jobs/ However it was a struggle to get work this time, which is probably more dependent on the market I moved to than anything else. I decided I probably wouldn't make this jump again unless I had something lined up. I liked that she was able to delay her start on this project and she away even given unpaid leave from her employer. This might be a great option the next time I decided to take time off to work on BigSense. I know a professor who is trying to get me a fellowship at his university back in Ohio. If I could get one of these three month grants, combined with a fellowship, I could probably line them up with after I'm through with the big project at my current job, to make a nice transition into moving back to University and working on my PhD.
- kolpa 9y ago
  Why didn't you return to your previous employer after sabbatical?
- actuallyalys 9y ago
  Julia uses she pronouns, FYI.
  - djsumdog 9y ago
    updated
actuallyalys 9y ago
There's a dearth of viable ways to fund open source software, particularly for people who can't work in their spare time for tip jar-level donations, so hopefully this one gets traction.

116 points by petercooper 9y ago

Great to hear about his. Our small company would like to help fund this kind of thing but I'm not sure where to start. This gave me a few ideas, thanks.

khc 9y ago
Speaking as someone who has trouble finding time to work on his open source projects, I would say one way to start is by reaching out to small open source projects that your company uses. Larger projects tend to have momentum to keep going but the one-man projects are more at risk. I've had people reach out offering a couple hundred dollars for specific fixes but larger, months long contracts are what some of the more niche projects really need.
kakwa_ 9y ago
I would love to see the following funding scheme: Have a service that provides a list of Open Source projects properly indexed (github projects, sourceforge, projects with their own infrastructure) where the projects/individual contributors can register. In tech companies, allow somthing like $50 per employee per month that the employee can see fit to give to one or several Open Source projects of his choice. Unless changed, the amount given is the same every month. If no allocation is done by the employee, the $50 are distributed by the service to projects that need it the most. This would be a great way in my opinion for tech companies to give back to OSS project as these companies, most of the time, relies heavily on Open Source projects.

ocdtrekkie 9y ago

This seems really neat, I always have open source stuff I want to work on, but rarely get the time/energy to really put into. I can't actually fathom stepping away from my job for three months, but it's really neat to see companies doing this and sponsoring it.

djsumdog 9y ago

I've taken two Sabbaticals on my own, self funded: https://penguindreams.org/blog/leaving-full-time-jobs/ https://penguindreams.org/blog/leaving-full-time-jobs/ However it was a struggle to get work this time, which is probably more dependent on the market I moved to than anything else. I decided I probably wouldn't make this jump again unless I had something lined up. I liked that she was able to delay her start on this project and she away even given unpaid leave from her employer. This might be a great option the next time I decided to take time off to work on BigSense. I know a professor who is trying to get me a fellowship at his university back in Ohio. If I could get one of these three month grants, combined with a fellowship, I could probably line them up with after I'm through with the big project at my current job, to make a nice transition into moving back to University and working on my PhD.

kolpa 9y ago
Why didn't you return to your previous employer after sabbatical?
actuallyalys 9y ago
Julia uses she pronouns, FYI.
- djsumdog 9y ago
  updated

actuallyalys 9y ago

There's a dearth of viable ways to fund open source software, particularly for people who can't work in their spare time for tip jar-level donations, so hopefully this one gets traction.