OPEN SOURCE FUNDING
Four funky funding foundations formed
GitHub, Fastly and Mozilla are all looking for new projects to back, giving a boost to open source development.
Small open source projects might be created solely by enthusiasts but most make use of outside developers, often paid ones. So, how do you get your project some hired help? You can join a FOSS foundation, a non-profit independent home that brings creators and sponsors together. They can handle legal, IP, fundraising and infrastructure issues, and offer more tangible help. You can also get help more directly from the big players via various schemes and funds, and four such new funding initiatives have been announced.
GitHub started funding projects in 2019 and has put $25 million into open source projects since then. It wants to do more to help, however, and has two new programmes. The GitHub Accelerator programme will directly fund 20 developers who maintain projects, offering mentorship and a $20,000 stipend to ease transition from start-up to business, although you only have until 31st December 2022 to apply – see https://accelerator.github.com. The M12 GitHub Fund aims to fund open source developer tools. Initially, it has $10 million to invest in projects at their seed stage. The first project to receive funding is CodeSee and GitHub is currently inviting other start-ups to apply at fund@github.com.
Fastly has launched its Fast Forward project, though you have to read through lot of waffle in the announcement before you get to the meat. The company is to give out $50 million worth of free services to open source fast-forward#apply-now.
