What open source maintainers shared with us
By Mirko Swillus
In News
We conducted a survey in the spring, asking the community a wide range of questions to help shape the new fellowship for maintainers. This 12-month program supports the people who work on critical digital infrastructure. Here are some of the insights we uncovered.
The goal of the Sovereign Tech Fund is to strengthen critical open technologies and make the open source ecosystem more resilient. Even before the xz incident became public in March 2024, we had been looking at how individuals who play important roles in the maintenance and care of critical technologies can be better supported in the public interest.
We carefully explored how to construct a fellowship program tailored to the needs of the people keeping critical open source projects running. The insights and feedback from our survey and other research on FOSS maintainers have helped us to design the fellowship and launch the pilot program: Applications can be submitted until October 20, 2024.
Apply for the fellowship for maintainers
In evaluating the responses and reading the many comments, we identified a few aspects that we would like to share here. We would like to thank the open source maintainers who took the time to complete our survey.
Strong interest in the fellowship program
Our survey showed that there is a high level of interest in a fellowship program in general: of the 536 respondents, around 60% said that they would be interested in a program like this. Although we kept the description of the program deliberately broad, the results reflect the high demand for support for open source maintainers.
How and whether maintainers are paid
A central topic of the survey was the question of payment for open source maintainers. Here, too, the results were revealing:
- 33% of respondents stated that they are not currently paid for their work as maintainers, but would like to be.
- Another large proportion, around 30%, are paid, but not enough to make a living from it.
These figures underscore the need for models that provide financial support and thus ensure the long-term sustainability of open source projects.
Interest in flexible working arrangements
One noteworthy finding was the interest in flexible working hours as part of the fellowship program. One-third of respondents said they could see themselves working part-time, for example one day a week. Flexible models could be a useful approach to giving experienced maintainers the opportunity to devote more time to their open source work while still meeting their existing commitments.
Professional experience of the survey participants
The survey also showed that many respondents have extensive professional experience. The majority, over 50%, have more than 10 years of professional experience in software engineering. This is important to consider because the pay of experienced professionals would need to be commensurate to their skills and abilities. At the same time, however, it also shows that these individuals bring enormous value to open source communities.
Challenges and needs of maintainers
Another significant topic was identifying the biggest challenges faced by maintainers today. It became clear here that many respondents feel isolated in their role. 31% of participants work alone on their projects. This isolation does not only make work more difficult, but it can also lead to an increased risk of burnout. That is why we are planning to offer mentoring and networking opportunities within the fellowship program to address these needs.
Preferred contract types and durations
The responses showed that many maintainers would prefer a freelance engagement, while others would prefer a salaried position within an organization. Both models have their advantages and disadvantages, which is why we are designing the fellowship to be flexible enough to accommodate both preferences.
The question regarding the optimal duration of the program also yielded interesting results: 12 months was indicated by most participants as a reasonable period of time to achieve significant progress without having to make long-term commitments.
Summary and next steps
The survey provided us with valuable insights into the needs and challenges of open source maintainers. Based on these results, we were able to fine-tune the design of the fellowship and launched the application for the pilot four weeks ago. Our goal is to provide flexible support for those who work behind the scenes ensuring the stability and further development of open source infrastructure.
The feedback from the community has shown us that there is a real need that we can address with the fellowship. We’re looking forward to receiving applications (by 20 October 2024) and to continuing to improve and iterate on the fellowship.
