Bloomberg Supports FOSS With Funding
Having realized that the open source community is what makes the web work, Bloomberg, a major player in the global financial markets as well as a major source of financial news and analysis, has pledged its support by establishing a sustainable funding scheme.
That statement above is so true. Open Source Software powers everything, from modern servers, to IoT, to the desktops at work.
The discovery of the Heartbleed bug was a wake-up call for the world about the security of open source software. It also revealed the extent of our reliance on open source software and this realization motivated big industry names to support open source with proper funding.
It is amazing to think that the OpenSSL Software Foundation which is responsible for the maintenance of the OpenSSL library, the cornerstone of safe transactions on the Internet used by millions of websites and organizations, was receiving just $2000 of donation money per year and had only ONE full-time employee working on the library.
This is not an isolated incident, but rather a reflection of the broader issue of underfunding in the open source community. Open source projects are often run by volunteers who donate their time and expertise, but there are many instances where some amount of money would be most welcome, such as when:
