
We Offered Matching Funds for Open Source – Here’s What Happened - alannallama
https://medium.com/open-collective/matching-funds-for-open-source-9653a81f8dcb
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sbr464
I completely agree but think it's a losing battle. With some exception, I feel
that there is a disconnect between people who are naturally technical, and the
people who are typically making decisions at companies about where to allocate
spending. It tracks the same dilemma with technical people not viewing risk
the same way as non-technical stakeholders. Non-technical people usually make
decisions that value long term support, data security, compliance, actual live
support plans etc., mainly because they know they can't deal with issues the
same way technical people can. This creates an entire billion dollar industry
that's fundamentally disconnected from how technical people normally think or
value software. The fact that one semi-enterprise client has no problem paying
thousands per month for a lackluster product/basic IT support, but a multi-
million dollar startup won't pay $100/month or a developer making $100k/year+
still uses an unlicensed copy of their IDE ($20 sublime etc) only proves the
point more.

It's a fundamental issue but one I think will get better as building software
becomes more inclusive and normal in society/schools etc.

Sorry for the labels, just trying to make a point and share what my experience
had been, from seeing both sides.

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alannallama
You make a good point that the financial decision-makers and the engineers are
often not the same people at companies, and this adds to the disconnect in how
open source is valued. What do you think about the ideas presented at the end
of the article suggesting some ways to address this, e.g. companies setting
aside a fund for open source that their developers could decide how to spend?

From the "money people" perspective it would likely be more of a
marketing/branding/recruitment/staff engagement expense (because those are the
budget lines where they'll see value for the investment) - but at the end of
the day the important thing is supporting critical open source projects.

