Open Source in Brazil is a new free eBook from O’Reilly Media that offers an inside look into the growth of Brazil’s free software community despite the country’s unique barriers. Brazil has a vibrant IT and startup culture and hosts the largest open source conference in Latin America, Fórum Internacional Software Livre (FISL). The conference…
Linux creator Linus Torvalds joined Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, on stage at the Open Source Leadership Summit for a candid conversation on maintaining open source projects. After 25 years of maintaining the Linux kernal, Torvalds has developed a network of trust that enables the project to iterate quickly with its 2.5…
Kevin Wang and his team at FOSSA have carved out a niche for themselves in the open source product space with the launch of their license compliance and dependency analysis tool. The company announced a $2.2 million seed round this week after completing a year-long private beta period with Fortune 500 companies. FOSSA continuously scans…
Discourse is free, open-source discussion software created by Jeff Atwood in 2013. In addition to celebrating its fourth birthday, the team announced the Discourse Encouragement Fund. The fund allows the development team to pay contributors for critical work. In the course of a year, Discourse has paid 16 different developers a total of $17,000 to work…
In October 2016, Matt Mullenweg called out Wix for using GPL-licensed code from the WordPress mobile app and distributing it in its proprietary app. After identifying a path for Wix to comply with the license, Mullenweg confirmed he would be willing to go to court to protect the GPL. Wix CEO Avishai Abrahami’s response to…
The second edition of Karl Fogel‘s “Producing Open Source Software: How to Run a Successful Free Software Project” is now available for download. Fogel, a partner at Open Tech Strategies and OSS contributor since 1997, was a founding developer in the Subversion project. He has worked for more than a decade as an open source…
If you want to make a living in the world of open source software, Nadia Eghbal has created a guide that explores various models for funding your work. Eghbal, who has written extensively on sustainability and open source, recently authored a white paper published by the Ford Foundation called “Roads and Bridges: The Unseen Labor…
Last week the Ford Foundation published a white paper titled “Roads and Bridges: The Unseen Labor Behind Our Digital Infrastructure.” The foundation, established in 1936 by Edsel Ford, president of the Ford Motor Company, is currently working to challenge inequality and advance human welfare. This new document in the foundation’s library, written by Nadia Eghbal,…
This weekend, WordCamp New York City takes place at the United Nations Office of Information and Communications Technology. The event offers everything you’d expect at a WordCamp including multiple tracks of sessions and a contributor day. Behind the scenes however, WordCamp NYC is part of a large initiative that includes a number of open source…
The Bulgarian government has just passed an amendment to its Electronic Governance Act that mandates all custom software created for the government must be open source. The amendment was voted on in the Bulgarian parliament and put into effect July 1, 2016. According to Bozhidar Bozhanov, a 27-year-old software engineer and advisor to the deputy…
Last month the White House called for developers to comment on its proposed draft for a Government-wide Open Source Software policy. The new policy would require code paid for by the government to be made available for reuse across other federal agencies and a portion (20%) of the custom code would be released as open…
In a rare and deeply personal interview with TED Curator Chris Anderson, Linus Torvalds spoke about how open source made his projects what they are today. Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel and the Git version control system, revealed that he prefers to work alone, in his bathrobe, in total silence. Although he heads up…
Borek Bernard and Jan Voráček, creators of VersionPress, announced that they’re transitioning the plugin into a free, open source project hosted on GitHub. In addition, they are releasing VersionPress 3.0 Beta, the first version released under the new model. Open Source Is the Way Forward In a post on the product’s site, Bernard explains that…
The makers of GitLab are attempting to capitalize on the current situation at GitHub where open source project maintainers have publicized their frustrations with issue management. Last week, project maintainers published a letter called “Dear GitHub” that outlines their concerns and the solutions they hope to see implemented. GitHub has not officially responded to these…
Drupal, the open source CMS founded by Dries Buytaert on December 29th, 2000, is 15 years old. Drupal version 1.0.0 was released on January 15th, 2001, “The early decisions to open-source Drupal and use the GPL license set the cornerstone principles for how our community shares with one another and builds upon each other’s achievements…