Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software

by Nadia Asparouhova

The cycle looks something like this: Open source developers write and publish their code in public. They enjoy months, maybe years, in the spotlight. But, eventually, popularity offers diminishing returns. If the value of maintaining code fails to outpace the rewards, many of these developers quietly retreat to the shadows. A developer who’s employed at a private company works primarily with their colleagues. A developer who writes code in public must work with thousands of strangers: literally, anybody with an internet connection who cares to comment on their code. The lack of financial reward is a symptom, perhaps, of misaligned incentives, but this inevitable cycle of churn seems to hint at something deeper.