Unfortunately, open-source technology such as curl and Python will not see a cent from that bill. Open source is the infrastructure of the web, and legislators fail to see the importance of funding open source. But we also fail to show up and comment on legislation or give our local representative a call.
In the future, we want open-source projects to receive government funding, but that’s not going to happen unless we start getting politically active.
We ought to hire a political science intern to help us understand when laws are being proposed. The intern will help us
keep current on proposed legislation
call political representatives
comment on proposed legislation
The internship will be about 3-4 months long. While they’re teaching us the legislative process, we can teach them the basics of coding and introduce them to open source technologies like git and JavaScript. I’d be more than happy to find and mentor this intern.
This is very American-centric, but I’m sure that we can in the future hire and mentor interns from other areas of the world.
In terms of funding, I don’t mind putting up some money to pay the intern but would love it if other companies and organizations chipped in.
Yes. This is what we need to sustain Free and Open Source Software, across international boundaries (which, of course, is what FOSS does!). Here’s a superb talk given by an IT consultant to (of all people) the MIchigan State Appropriations Committee - even here in New Zealand, more than a few of us took note. Michigan Senate Appropriations Committee, Feb 26 2020 - YouTube If that - and the response from the Committee - don’t give you optimism, not sure what will.
This is partially what the Research Software Alliance (ReSA) is seeking to achieve. We could be a coordinator for such work, though we’re mostly a volunteer organization.
This group does not need an intern. There are a lot of organizations tracking activities that impact open source in the US, in statehouses, in Brussels, you name it, there is an organization. They are underfunded and their activities are dispersed.
Think about it. How many different NGOs and foundations can you name that support “open source”? Everyone of them advocates for some public policy.
As someone who has been playing around with the “public funding for open-source software” ideas for some time, I’d be happy to connect and join any effort/working group related to this topic.
I’m impressed by all of the work this group has done in making sure that open source has a seat at the table. Too many of our government officials are ignorant in how open source is the digital backbone of the modern world.
Now that the money is involved, more and more corporations are turning to open source to turn it into a business model, promoting themselves as leaders in open source, marking good things that we’ve achieved as a open source community with their names. And the concern is that people become a replaceable assets, and those who have opinion in community are being attacked and cancelled. Prior to GitHub acquisition there were harassment scandals, FSF founder was involved in that too. So called open core model is promoted from big conferences. The code is open, yes but there are no people in this model, no culture, no sharing of knowledge, no open society, new connected type of people. Only giants trying to brand this field.
