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My opinion is that open-source contributions stems from passion. People do it and implement something because they're passionate about it. When you attach any

My opinion is that open-source contributions stems from passion. People do it and implement something because they're passionate about it. When you attach any money to it, it becomes tainted with responsibility and emotions. Such as, "should I work on this an extra hour and burn myself out and get those extra 40 bucks for dinner tonight?" That formula doesn't make individuals want to work more on open-source. Sure they push them towards doing stuff in open-source but that usually almost never leads to creating great pieces of work. One great and amazing thing that open-source thought us is that individuals can group together and work on amazing things without any economical reward. To me it was always a fascinating experiment outside the usual realms of politics, economics, social-studies. Nobody would have ever imagined it to work without "money", but it does and it will continue to work. In fact, instead of pushing capitalism mentality inside of open-source we should be doing exactly the opposite: push open-source mentality in other parts of our society.

arendtio 7y ago
I think your conclusion comes a bit too quickly. Sure, open-source is about passion for everyone who doesn't do it as a day job and earning money can kill that passion. But so can other factors (e.g. communities that demand but don't contribute) and still, we see a lot of OSS projects out there. In my opinion, an important factor here is that you earn that money for whatever OSS project you are working on. That reduces the pressure to work on that single project you would get paid to work on. And if you are completely against the compensation, you could still not tell your company about what you are doing after 5 pm ;-) I think it is a great opportunity for employees.
philplckthun 7y ago
As an active Open Source contributor I'd like to say that apart from passion being involved it also is a big responsibility depending on the project either way and being paid for it affirms my passion and beliefs. Disclaimer: I work for Formidable
kelset 7y ago
open source maintainer here - I disagree that you get those "responsibility and emotions" only when you attach money. You already get plenty of those by the sheer fact that you care about the craft you contribute to. > Nobody would have ever imagined it to work without "money", but it does and it will continue to work. I'm sorry to break it for you, but it doesn't actually work. And constant articles and talks from OSS maintainers about burnout is one of the proofs. If you want to read more, there is a great book on this subject which I feel will help you get a more informed opinion on it: https://www.fordfoundation.org/about/library/reports-and-studies/roads-and-bridges-the-unseen-labor-behind-our-digital-infrastructure/ https://www.fordfoundation.org/about/library/reports-and-stu... Initiatives like this are important to "show by example" - currently there are too many Open Source consumers and not enough contributors. And also, work IS work - and it should be retributed.
- sktrdie 7y ago
  > I'm sorry to break it for you, but it doesn't actually work. Happy to disagree here. Personally it has been working amazingly since over the past, what, 30 years open-source has been the foundation of almost any tool or tech we use nowadays and it was done without economical incentives. Not sure where your data comes from. I agree about the burnout, but not sure adding money to the equation helps with this problem.
  - kelset 7y ago
    > Not sure where your data comes from. I literally linked a 150 pages book with both data and examples in my previous comment.
    - sktrdie 7y ago
      Ah damn I'm sorry. Can you tell me where this data is in the book? I quickly brushed through the 217 page book and there seems to be no data regarding my comment where I think open-source doesn't need economical incentives in order to work.
      - 7y ago
sagartewari01 7y ago
> Sure they push them towards doing stuff in open-source but that usually almost never leads to creating great pieces of work. Blender, Linux kernel...
onion2k 7y ago
That formula doesn't make individuals want to work more on open-source. Looking at the team profiles on Formidable's site it looks like a lot of them were working on open source projects anyway, so this isn't a way of manipulating them to do something they weren't already doing. It's just a way of rewarding them.
- andyrichardson 7y ago
  ^^ This guy gets it
anderspitman 7y ago
I'd agree with you more if they were only incentivizing certain projects, but it sounds like employees are paid for any open source work. And I agree the $20/hr is low enough that most devs could make more freelancing on the side, so why bother with open source? Seems balanced enough to be worth trying, and they're reporting the experiment as a success.

arendtio 7y ago

I think your conclusion comes a bit too quickly. Sure, open-source is about passion for everyone who doesn't do it as a day job and earning money can kill that passion. But so can other factors (e.g. communities that demand but don't contribute) and still, we see a lot of OSS projects out there. In my opinion, an important factor here is that you earn that money for whatever OSS project you are working on. That reduces the pressure to work on that single project you would get paid to work on. And if you are completely against the compensation, you could still not tell your company about what you are doing after 5 pm ;-) I think it is a great opportunity for employees.

philplckthun 7y ago

As an active Open Source contributor I'd like to say that apart from passion being involved it also is a big responsibility depending on the project either way and being paid for it affirms my passion and beliefs. Disclaimer: I work for Formidable

kelset 7y ago

open source maintainer here - I disagree that you get those "responsibility and emotions" only when you attach money. You already get plenty of those by the sheer fact that you care about the craft you contribute to. > Nobody would have ever imagined it to work without "money", but it does and it will continue to work. I'm sorry to break it for you, but it doesn't actually work. And constant articles and talks from OSS maintainers about burnout is one of the proofs. If you want to read more, there is a great book on this subject which I feel will help you get a more informed opinion on it: https://www.fordfoundation.org/about/library/reports-and-studies/roads-and-bridges-the-unseen-labor-behind-our-digital-infrastructure/ https://www.fordfoundation.org/about/library/reports-and-stu... Initiatives like this are important to "show by example" - currently there are too many Open Source consumers and not enough contributors. And also, work IS work - and it should be retributed.

sktrdie 7y ago
> I'm sorry to break it for you, but it doesn't actually work. Happy to disagree here. Personally it has been working amazingly since over the past, what, 30 years open-source has been the foundation of almost any tool or tech we use nowadays and it was done without economical incentives. Not sure where your data comes from. I agree about the burnout, but not sure adding money to the equation helps with this problem.
- kelset 7y ago
  > Not sure where your data comes from. I literally linked a 150 pages book with both data and examples in my previous comment.
  - sktrdie 7y ago
    Ah damn I'm sorry. Can you tell me where this data is in the book? I quickly brushed through the 217 page book and there seems to be no data regarding my comment where I think open-source doesn't need economical incentives in order to work.
    - 7y ago

sagartewari01 7y ago

> Sure they push them towards doing stuff in open-source but that usually almost never leads to creating great pieces of work. Blender, Linux kernel...

onion2k 7y ago

That formula doesn't make individuals want to work more on open-source. Looking at the team profiles on Formidable's site it looks like a lot of them were working on open source projects anyway, so this isn't a way of manipulating them to do something they weren't already doing. It's just a way of rewarding them.

andyrichardson 7y ago
^^ This guy gets it

anderspitman 7y ago

I'd agree with you more if they were only incentivizing certain projects, but it sounds like employees are paid for any open source work. And I agree the $20/hr is low enough that most devs could make more freelancing on the side, so why bother with open source? Seems balanced enough to be worth trying, and they're reporting the experiment as a success.