
Ask HN: My OS project is taking off. How to balance competing for-profit users? - mrandish
The open source thing I made is getting big and for-profit companies are deploying it as part of their service and consulting businesses. Some are multi-nationals and others are garage shops. People are contributing stuff back but so far 95% is what I made. Some of the largest users are offering to set up a non-profit foundation and would like my blessing and participation.<p>I&#x27;m happy to help get it going but unsure how much I want to be involved in the long run. Anyone have advice or links on setting up the governance structure of the non-profit to fairly balance the interests of commercial, non-commercial (including Edu) and individual stakeholders in the long-run?<p>Legally, I&#x27;m getting a good law firm involved, so I&#x27;m most interested in stuff like how setting it up well can help the community grow vs fragment. How can I most effectively use my influence to set the right tone and expectations? Are there risks I should try to mitigate? For example, a commercial deployer using their involvement in the governance of the non-profit to unfairly disadvantage smaller deployers or non-commercial users?<p>I want to minimize the odds of future drama and maximize the odds that I&#x27;ll feel good about what I made growing and helping people.
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gkanai
Instead of asking a wide cross section on HN, why not look at the OSS projects
you admire and contact the key people in those projects for their advice?
You'll get more relevant advice from people who have done what you are trying
to do vs. general advice from mostly people who haven't.

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mrandish
That's a good suggestion. However, I'm more of a designer not a coder and not
familiar enough with OS projects beyond Linux itself to know which are well
run. Do you have any suggestions of some I should look at?

What I created isn't traditional code. It's a structured process for doing
something that includes frameworks, checklists, lots of written text in well-
designed layouts with infographics, flowcharts, images, quizzes and videos.
Commercial deployers are either implementing it as a web-delivered service or
as physical materials (eg books, worksheets, posters).

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mr_puzzled
Can you share a link to your project?

