@Dan Knauss - Thanks for the input from an active independent developer & small-business operator! "[Open source cum journalism] is simply not an activity that can be supported financially without being captured by a big commercial interest."It is said of the economics of the Internet, that it tends to reduce the cost of both information and communication, toward zero.

But the clear corollary of this pop-axiom, is that making a buck off of info or connectivity therefore gets harder & harder ... while the cost of engaging in the 'Gift Culture', as described & practiced by our author Jeffro, thereby becomes more-invitingly affordable to ever-more economically-marginalized people.

People living with their parents, as Jeffro relates, have no problem scraping up the spare change to support their online activities.

Jeffro also points out that he didn't 'need' to support himself with income from his website-work ... he simply needed to support himself, 'somehow'. He would have been happy to accept an adequate income that had as it's only major qualification, that it did not interfer too much with what he really liked doing - ie, contributing to the greater WordPress community.

There's a lot of room online, for people who don't care that they will never make a dime off the hours & years they happily spend participating in & contributing to open source culture & projects. Many are financially poor, but many thousands of quite successful Information Technology professionals also freely contribute large amounts of their quality expertise, to maintain & advance Open Source infrastructure.

It's cool that you are able to make a living in your own business, doing custom web-work. It's true that large commercial entities tend to Assimilate the small-fry, and reduce the opportunity for gainful enterprise on an independent basis. I too lament this outcome & state of affairs.

But journalism - bereft as it can seem to be - remains very much a going concern ... and Open Source continues to thrive, more as an evolving, constructive adaptation to, rather than merely 'despite' the economic trends in play.