Many developers often find several aspects of establishing an open source project to be overwhelming. Apart from building up the software itself, open source project developers have to build up their community, establish their brand, and protect their intellectual property. They also have to think about the costs that come with their operations, and the ways by which they can somehow monetize their efforts.
It can be a challenge for new open source projects to get the help they need because they are still widely unknown, but there is one thing that could help them greatly, and that’s joining an open source software foundation.
Open Source Software Foundations (OSSF) are groups of people and companies that jointly develop community open source software. They are non-profit organizations that are established primarily to support open source activities without any commercial or profit purposes.
Software development firms and projects commonly join OSSF to save on costs and gain other financial advantages, but these are definitely not the only benefits that projects can gain from joining OSSF.
Legal Entities
Open source projects are technically virtual entities not legal entities, which means that they cannot hold copyrights or carry out contractual agreements. Projects need these in order to secure their intellectual property. This is where OSSF can be of valuable service. OSSF become the legal entities that can assist open source projects in holding and defending community assets, providing resources, balancing interests among different stakeholders and overall, achieving long-term goals.
Vendor Neutrality
Vendor neutrality is one of the most attractive qualities of open source projects as it means that adopters aren’t beholden to any particular vendor or organization. When a project is dominated by certain organizations or vendors goals, contributions and practices may be limited to those that the specific organizations see fit. Vendor neutrality is key to making an open source project truly open, and being part of an OSSF lets them achieve this.
Financial Assistance
As we’ve stated above, this is one of the most common reasons why projects join OSSF and it is a significant one. Projects can save on the costs of software development by spreading them over the participating parties in the foundation. Also, they are able to receive more donations and tax exemptions.
Successful Operations
OSSF can do many other things for open source projects that are essential for project success. This includes helping to establish a governance model, managing their brand, giving the project credibility and generally assisting and advising on how to operate the project successfully. With such advantages, it would be wise for projects, particularly those that are still finding their footing to associate themselves with a particular OSSF.
The best way to contribute to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) is to get involved with one of our many Apache project communities. The best way to ask general questions about community involvement is to read about Community Development at Apache .