Nov 10, 2024 10:00:00

The Drupal development community shows how to solve the problem of 'big companies exploiting open source without contributing to it'

Open source software development projects often have problems such as 'companies just send correction requests without contributing to the development.' The development team of the open source CMS '

Drupal ' is trying to avoid this problem by visualizing the contributions of the project.

Solving the Maker-Taker problem | Dries Buytaert
https://dri.es/solving-the-maker-taker-problem

Open source software is also used in commercial projects by large companies, and most of the modern IT industry would not be possible without open source software. However, much of the open source software is developed by a very small number of developers working for free, which can lead to problems such as 'companies asking for modifications without contributing.' Recently, Matt Mullenweg, the developer of WordPress and CEO of Automattic, criticized WP Engine for 'only making profits without contributing to WordPress.'

Automattic CEO and WordPress developer Matt Mullenweg sharply criticizes WP Engine as 'a cancer for WordPress' - GIGAZINE

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Doris Beitart, the developer of Drupal, has named the relationship between 'developers (makers)' and 'others (takers) who benefit without contributing' that often occurs in open source projects the 'maker-taker problem' and has shown how to solve it.

To solve the manufacturer-taker problem, Baitaru focused on 'creating a flow that turns takers into manufacturers.' Specifically, he paid attention to three points: 'visualizing manufacturers and takers in the development ecosystem,' 'actively supporting manufacturers,' and 'communicating the importance of choosing a manufacturer to users.'

The Drupal development community has implemented a mechanism called the 'contribution credit system,' which gives credits according to contributions such as code submissions and documentation modifications. In addition, the organizations to which users who contribute to development belong are made visible to anyone. This has successfully made it possible to visualize what kind of organizations people who belong to are active as makers.

In addition, measures such as 'granting event sponsorship rights only to organizations with a certain number of credits' and 'changing the display order in

the marketplace according to the number of credits held' are being implemented to inform users of organizations with high contributions, creating an environment in which 'the more you contribute, the easier it is to do business.' In addition, in his speech at the event, Beitart praised high-contributors and stressed the importance of contributing to the project.

Drupal has asked a neutral third party to monitor the contribution credit system to ensure its fairness. These measures have helped Drupal build a healthy development ecosystem.