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Most management has no idea of the importance of the open source building blocks that their business rests upon. Similarly they cannot begin to conceive of the
by nickdothutton 1y ago
Most management has no idea of the importance of the open source building blocks that their business rests upon. Similarly they cannot begin to conceive of the benefits of making a donation. Probably the most effective thing you could do is to somehow attempt to copy the "greenwashing" effect of companies being environmentally responsible, and having an environmental section to their annual reports. "The health of the open source ecosystem is essential to sustainable research, development, and operations at ACME Corp. This year we have sponsored the following...for our current and future benefit".
- bluGill 1y agoI've long tried to figure out how we can donate to projects. If we were to buy/license those tools it would cost thousands of dollars, but I don't know how to get any money for the free tools we use. When I ask half of management doesn't understand the question, and the rest don't know either.
- petdance 1y agoCan you dedicate employee time to help on the projects?
- bluGill 1y agoSometimes and I have done so. However they have plenty of work for me. Unless there is a new feature we need time doesn't exist.
- TristanBall 1y agoPerhaps look to your marketing folks rather than engineering. "Purchasing silver sponsership with [org] as a way to grow our brand awareness" is intrinsically understandable to pretty much any businesses manager. "Giving away money for something we already have", which is what most technical managers will hear regardless of your actual pitch, is completely inexplicable to many. It does require that sponsership is even possible, and recurring sponsership may be harder than recurring license fees of course, so its not a sure thing, just an option to try.