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Linux Foundation Launches New Tools Supporting The Open Source Community (sdtimes.com)
"The Linux Foundation is launching a new platform designed to sustain open-source communities," reports SD Times:
CommunityBridge was announced at this week's Open Source Leadership Summit. The Linux Foundation plans to launch a number of tools to the open-source community throughout the next two years.
The platform is currently being released with Community Bridge Funding to help developers raise and spend funding; CommunityBridge Security for potential vulnerabilities and fixes; and CommunityBridge People for networking and making connections with mentors and mentees.
"In making the announcement, Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, said on stage at the conference that the Linux Foundation would match funding for any organization that donated funds to CommunityBridge projects," reports FierceTelecom.
"Following up on those announcements, Microsoft-owned GitHub said it would donate $100,000 to CommunityBridge and invited maintainers of CommunityBridge projects to take part in GitHub's maintainer program."
The platform is currently being released with Community Bridge Funding to help developers raise and spend funding; CommunityBridge Security for potential vulnerabilities and fixes; and CommunityBridge People for networking and making connections with mentors and mentees.
"In making the announcement, Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, said on stage at the conference that the Linux Foundation would match funding for any organization that donated funds to CommunityBridge projects," reports FierceTelecom.
"Following up on those announcements, Microsoft-owned GitHub said it would donate $100,000 to CommunityBridge and invited maintainers of CommunityBridge projects to take part in GitHub's maintainer program."
Who cares. Probably would go better than his asserting that 2017 will be the year of the Linux Desktop.
What will these tools actually do, and how will they be better than just using some website?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
There is no information in TFA. It is all happymarketingspeak:
“CommunityBridge is the platform to solve critical challenges and fuel open source innovation and sustainability by empowering people — all in one place.”
Yeahhh.. That'd be great.
I fail to see the harm. The Linux Foundation gets a big chunk of cash for letting some corporate sponsors get a little publicity. Seems like they’re better off than before, not to mention that in their quest to self-promote, those companies are also talking about open software. I don’t know if it gets much better than that.
This is a good representation https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
How to earn a living w/ OpenSource (or not): https://www.youtube.com/watch?... Comments & ideas welcome!
What will these tools actually do, and how will they be better than just using some website?
On the one hand, I think the story shows that they (the Linux Foundation (which surprises me by continuing to exist (and to claim relevance))) sort of understand the problem, but on the other hand, it sounds like they still see it from the developers' perspective rather than holistically.
The fundamental problem is that time is valuable for EVERYONE. Yes, that includes the time of the developers, too, but not just them.
I think it is easier to respond in the form of a proposed solution approach that considers more of the involved parties. Drum roll, please. <ratatatatatatat> This is a job for a CSB! (Charity Share Brokerage)
Developers should be able to look for existing projects they want to work on. I put that first because the less glorious projects of maintenance and support need higher priority than they're getting. If the programmers want to create glorious new software, that's okay, too, but... The programmers should estimate up front how much time it's going to take and how much they want to be paid for that time. One of the most important jobs of the CSB will be the make sure the proposed projects are feasible in such ways as budget and schedule and resources (human and otherwise) and testing, too. Don't forget the testing.
On the users' (AKA donors') side, they should be able to find projects to support. Actually, a lot of time that may involve guiding the users to projects that support features the users want to continue using but that are in imminent need of funding. New features should be offered, too, but the key aspect is that unless there are enough donors who want to commit their money to support the feature (or to create the new feature), then nothing should happen just on hopeful speculation. For the users, the most important tasks of the CSB would be making the project proposals visible and assessing the results of the projects so that the results can be reported to the donors (and the world). That calls for making sure that each project has clear success criteria.
By the way, the free riders are NOT a problem. As long as ALL the costs are covered satisfactorily, they are just part of the donor pool. Or you could say that one metric of success is how many free riders become donors over time. (And yes, the loss of donors will slow you down, but that mostly means you need better projects to attract more donors--and at the same time you still know which projects are so crucial that they are getting the donors.)
Time's up and I'm flogging a dead horse anyway, but I still bid you ADSAuPR, atAJG. It's all IOttMCO, eh?
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Think of the harm as an opportunity cost. Linux and OSS could be vastly more successful than they have EVER been.
In CSB terms (per my longer comment), I think it would be better if the corporate sponsors were just matching the charity shares donated by other users (AKA the donors who are not concerned (AKA obsessed) with profits and non-charity share prices).
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
These look like nice software. Too bad nobody will actually use them.
I tried searching on "CommunityBridge", and hit "Community Bridge", a company.
https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2019/mar/13/lf-community-bridge/ is more understandable than the article we're pointed to in this /. story. This blog post also makes a number of interesting counterpoints worth considering.
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