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dir: desc
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pagination: true
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published: false
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published: true
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publish_date: '2023-07-12 20:19'
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---
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# How we started to donate to Open Source at work
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@ -25,26 +26,27 @@ As you might have seen in the news, there have been a lot of articles over the
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years that Open Source software doesn't receive enough support, especially
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financially.
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At my employer [Contria GmbH](https://www.contria.ch) we use a lot of Open Source software:
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At my employer [Contria GmbH](https://www.contria.ch) we use a lot of Open Source software or freely
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available tools:
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- Ubuntu as the base OS for our VMs
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- Ansible to deploy the VMs
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- Nginx, PHP and MariaDB to run the applications
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- Vagrant and Virtualbox to set up a development environment
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- digwebinterface.com
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To just name a few and as well some tools provided by individuals for free. For
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example digwebinterface.com.
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Just to name a few.
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I would consider myself a Free Software enthusiast and read a lot of those
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articles mentioned above. So a few years ago I decided, I would try and ask if
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Contria would be willing to donate to the various Open Source projects we use
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to build and run our products.
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articles mentioned in the first paragraph. So a few years ago I decided, I
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would try and ask if Contria would be willing to donate to the various Open
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Source projects we use to build and run our products.
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When I spoke with the manager of the company about it, I wasn't actually met
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with a lot of resistance. I mentioned the problems a lot of Open Source
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projects had with funding and asked if we as Contria might be wiling to do
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something in this regard. He quickly saw the reasoning behind the idea and was
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willing to continue with the project.
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with a lot of resistance. I mentioned the funding problems a lot of Open Source
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projects had and asked if we as Contria might be wiling to support them in this
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regard. He quickly saw the reasoning behind the idea and was willing to
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continue with the project.
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> **Just like that?** \
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> _Yes just like that. Personally I expected more resistance and hope that it
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@ -52,43 +54,45 @@ willing to continue with the project.
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## Getting started
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After the initial pitch it took a few years before we actually started with the
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project. But in 2021 I was able to officially dedicate some of my time to the
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project.
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After the initial pitch it took a few years, due to our workload, before we
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actually started with the project. But in 2021 I was able to officially
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dedicate some of my time to the project.
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I started to create a short list with software and projects we used and seemed
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worth to donate to. I focused mainly on non-profit organisations and
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individuals. For example, while we use Ubuntu it makes more sense to me to
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donate to Debian. Ubuntu is based on Debian and Canonical, the company behind
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Ubuntu, is already profitable.
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donate to Debian. Ubuntu is based on Debian, and Canonical (the company behind
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Ubuntu) is already profitable.
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In addition to the larger and more system related projects, I would like to
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start curating a list of essential packages we use in our products. We're not
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quite there yet, but I expect this to be something to grow each year anyway.
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start curating a list of essential packages and libraries we use in our
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products. So far we only donated to about two or three, but I expect this to be
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something to grow each year anyway.
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After I created the list I assigned a percentage to each project. Currently,
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these are just 5 and 10%. Roughly weighed by importance to us and a bit by the
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size of the project. I did it this way so that the distribution wasn't based on
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the budget because when I created the list I didn't know yet how much money I
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was able to spend. It then turned out that the budget would be a **few
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thousand** Swiss Francs, I could freely allocate.
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After I created the list I assigned a percentage of a potential budget to each
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project. Currently, these are just 5 and 10% per project. The percentages are
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roughly weighed by importance to our work and to a lesser extent by the size of
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the project. This way the distribution wasn't based on the actual budget
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because when I created the list I didn't know yet how much money was available
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for donations. It then turned out that the budget would be a **few thousand**
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Swiss Francs, I could freely allocate.
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> **That doesn't sound like much for a Swiss company with over 20 employees.** \
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> _Compared to the licenses we pay for proprietary software it's indeed not
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> that much. But then again, it's still a substantial amount and I'm quite
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> happy with it. Who knows maybe it will grow in the future._
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Last year we had about 40% left which I didn't allocate to a specific project.
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We didn't just want to keep the money and were sure that there were very
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Last year we had about 40% left which weren't allocated to a specific project.
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However, we didn't just want to keep the money and were sure that there were very
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important but "hidden" projects we didn't think of. Think OpenSSL for example
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which was one of the most prominent examples in recent years. \
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We first thought about giving the money to the FSFE or a similar foundation. A
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lot of them do a very good job, but we felt that some of them might be a bit too
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political for a company to donate to.
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We first thought about giving the money to the Free Software Foundation Europe
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(FSFE) or a similar foundation. A lot of them do great work, but we felt
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that some of them are too political for a company to donate to.
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We then found the [Open Source Collective](https://www.oscollective.org/) which was exactly what we were
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looking for. Projects can apply for funding at the Open Source Collective, and
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they would then distribute the donations between the projects. So any leftover
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budget we have goes fully to the Open Source Collective now.
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they distribute the donations between the projects. So any leftover budget we
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have goes fully to the Open Source Collective now.
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## Problems when donating
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@ -96,16 +100,16 @@ For most projects it was very easy to donate to. Especially when they are on
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[opencollective.com](https://opencollective.com). Donating through PayPal works as well, but we prefer
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Open Collective.
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Some projects have regular bank accounts which you can donate to, for some this
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worked well but was more involved for us because I would have to go through the
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financial department. In the case of the Drupal foundation we weren't able to
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donate at all because something was wrong with the address of their bank.
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Luckily they are now on Open Collective.
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Some projects use regular bank accounts for donations, while this worked well
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for most projects, it was more labour intensive on our part as the donations
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had to be processed by the financial department. In the case of the Drupal
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foundation however, we weren't able to donate at all because something was
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wrong with the address of their bank. Luckily they are now on Open Collective.
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One project we quite like and use a lot didn't collect its donation, and it
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looks like the project might have become unmaintained. I'm not sure yet of we
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donate to it again this year. I really appreciate the work but if the money
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doesn't get used we probably give it better to a project that does use it.
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donate to it again this year. I really appreciate their work but if the money
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doesn't get used we rather give it to a project which does use it.
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## Final thoughts
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@ -116,7 +120,7 @@ Since it's my employer I'm writing here about I can't make any predictions, but
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I will keep advocating for the use and support of Open Source and especially
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Free Software inside our company.
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For other people that think their employer might be able to contribute to Open
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Source projects, I can give the following advice: \
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For other people who think their employer might be able to contribute to Open
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Source projects, I give the following advice: \
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The main reason why we didn't do it before, was that we didn't have someone who
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carried the idea forward. So go ahead and give it a try :).
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