Request for stories about *real humans* working on OSS

[nayafia]

As mentioned in #49, the value of OSS is still really hard to explain to a layperson, but broader public support is needed to make this A Thing.

One way to do that is by highlighting individual stories of people who are contributing to OSS but find themselves short on time or money. The ProPublica story about Werner Koch for example helped make his situation real and tangible for people outside of the community, and he pulled in $250K in donations.

To that point, consider this an open call: I'm working with a foundation right now to collect stories about OSS contributors and share them with a wider community. I've reached out to some of you on here already. If anyone wants to share a story (about themselves or others) that highlights the issues around OSS funding, I'd love to hear it.

Note these don't just have to be stories about things not working: if you managed to make it work through consulting on the side, or getting hired by a company, please share. If you're good on money but still feel short on time and juggling priorities, I want to hear it. The more concrete you can make it, the better.

Feel free to post below or email me privately. If there's anything you want me to keep confidential, just let me know.

[seiyria]

Basically, I don't have a way yet to make it feasible, though I am trying to do it. I really enjoy it and I wish it were easier to make money doing it -- too many people seem to think it won't work out because "anyone can take it and modify it, so how are you going to make money on it?"

Ultimately, I have to do these things in my spare time (ie, I have to take a job with a company) unless I can make them coincide with company goals, which can be tricky (either because projects just don't work outside of the company or because the company actively opposes open source). It'd help to have a company that focuses on open source (or, maybe figure out a way to make my own projects profitable, or find a way to get a grant) so I can really do it full time.

(side idea: maybe there could be a job board of companies that are heavily invested into open source)

It's hard to find funding - I've followed numerous threads here regarding various funding strategies and for the average developer (me) some of them are totally out of reach. I saw Kickstarter mentioned, which only works if you either go viral or hire someone to do all of the marketing/design/promotions (low budgets make this difficult). Turning a project into a business is great too, but you have to find a market, do a bunch of business-related tasks -- these are all things that take away from development (which is the part I like to focus on). If I wanted to get a grant, I wouldn't even know where to start.

[ariddell]

There are many (certainly more than a dozen) programmers who work nearly full-time on open-source projects when that project is related to scientific research. I might look at some of the contributors to scikit-learn and similar projects.