 |
| Fig 1. Some Floss |
In general, we initially contribute to open source software for selfish reasons: Perhaps we are interested in some code, or we want or need to fix something, or we just want to write something cool. Whatever the motivation, we imagine that we are going to extract more in benefits than it costs us to contribute ... even if the benefits are just internet points.
I haven't said anything surprising ... It seems obvious that people that contribute to open source are getting something out of it.
This, I think, is what makes business feel comfortable in failing to compensate those people that work in the open on software which they depend.
It should be no surprise that contributing can become a burden, which we tend to bear silently.
The Preface
How often do you go into your living room, or garden, or to a field, and just stand there, doing absolutely nothing ?I never do this, and nor does my wife, as far as I know. I think it's because free time doesn't actually exist ...
We can say for sure that humans require certain things to function at an optimum level. Take away one of these things and this affects our ability to perform, to interact, to function in general.
Maybe you want to say that free time is that time which we spend engaging our hobbies ...
Preventing burn out is extremely important. Some industries have laws preventing employees from working for too many hours at once, in effect regulating how much sleep they must have.
Unfortunately, we have no such direct protections. While it's true that in general most of us should be protected by some kind of employment law (or contractual clauses), it's also true that most of us have heard a manager talk with pride on the subject of being able to push their team to work unreasonable hours in the pursuit of achieving goals which they determined.
Having hobbies is a part of a healthy work ethic that managers should encourage, and workers should be unapologetic for.
Maybe you want to say that free time is that time which we spend with our families or friends ...
We may be responsible for some family members, calling any time we spend with our children free time is nonsense: Parenting doesn't just happen, you actually have to put effort in, and that's what we are doing, all the time.
Time we spend with our significant others or friends is necessary for the maintenance of those relationships. The loss of any one of these relationships can potentially destroy our ability to function, perhaps beyond repair.
Tech is a very unbalanced industry in terms of diversity. I think this makes it all the more important that people that work within the industry have strong influences from outside. Obviously, this doesn't solve the problem in our industry, but it's interesting to ponder what difference it would make if the influence of peer groups were taken away.
Even if you are one of those street performers that take up temporary residence in city centres the world over on weekends to entertain us with juggling and mime, perhaps while (miming) riding a little bike .... maybe it takes you three hours to get ready to do that because you're a perfectionist and makeup is hard ... that's not free time, that's time you need, to be you ...
The Deal
Most human beings that manage to survive to adulthood have to earn a living to support themselves and possible dependants.As adults we strike a deal with one or many employers, or otherwise establish an income or several income streams. We trade some of our lives for these streams of income so that we have money for makeup, those little white gloves you need to mime stuff (and perhaps little bikes).
All of the rest of our time on earth is not free time in any sense, it belongs to us ... it belongs to our friends, our family.
The Problem
When we start a project, or on our journey of contributing, we are essentially gifting the community with some code, or some work of some kind. We trade some of our life for whatever the perceived benefits of contributing will be.Maybe we miss a weekend out with our friends, or we miss dinner with the kids for a few days to make that initial contribution ... We accept that because we obviously enjoy what we are doing, and secondarily (for most people) we want to try to provide something useful.
Now, in those cases where a contribution needs maintenance - you publish a component/library/extension/whatever - we obviously know that this means an ongoing commitment is required. The fact of the matter is, our calculation of this ongoing commitment is just another quote or guesstimate that we get wrong, and that can only be expected.
Way before you actually "succeed" - your project becomes popular, or input becomes sought after - maintaining the project, or otherwise continuing to contribute begins to steal time from other activities. The more successful you are, the more incorrect your guesstimate and so the more pronounced the problem.
This is not part of the deal: We are essentially functioning as we would for an employer, but nobody is paying us.
The Solution
It's quite simple: We need to start compensating those people who maintain or otherwise heavily contribute to projects our businesses rely on.We need to do that because these people are essentially in our employ ... and that's the deal ...
The Conclusion
I hope you look around at your stack and think about how your (employer's) business would continue to function if some open project disappeared, or otherwise stopped being developed.
I hope I have made the position that people who work in the open don't need to be compensated, something between awkward and morally (or socially) untenable, obviously destructive, and self destructive.
I hope you look around your community, and identify those people that deserve to be compensated.
You can compensate me personally via Patreon.
Peace out, phomies ...
