Open source runs the world. Who's keeping it alive?
Your phone, your bank, your streaming service, the router in your office: they all run on open source code maintained by people who get paid next to nothing. I know because I was one of them. Simbiosi.org is where I dig into why this keeps happening and what we can do about it.
Free riders and bystanders
Two forces keep open source underfunded. The free rider effect: when something is free and useful, rational actors use it without paying. The bystander problem: when many companies benefit, each assumes someone else will step up. Companies worth billions build their products on code maintained with the budget of a small NGO. The maintainers burn out, and nobody notices until something breaks.
Behavioral researchers have studied these patterns for decades. Mancur Olson described the free rider problem in 1965. Darley and Latane documented the bystander effect in 1968. Nadia Eghbal applied both to open source in her 2016 Ford Foundation report Roads and Bridges. The research is clear. The open source ecosystem is still catching up.
What we do here
Simbiosi wants to make visible the gap between what open source people build and what they get back. Real data, real projects, real numbers. Advocacy for the people doing the work, backed by evidence.
Right now it's mostly me: 30 years in IT, from GNU projects to cloud governance, former FSFE associate, currently volunteering on FreeBSD CRA compliance. But this is meant to be a community effort. Bring your expertise to:
- Case studies - Financial analysis, donor data, public filings. Show how the value these projects create compares to the support they receive
- Fundraising and UX - Donation page redesign, grant writing, behavioral research. Skills that help projects get funded
- Policy and compliance - CRA analysis, regulatory impact, documentation. The EU is creating new obligations for open source stewards
The name
Simbiosi: symbiosis. Two organisms living together, both benefiting. That's what open source should be: companies and communities sustaining each other. Not extraction. Not charity. Mutual benefit.