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

by Nadia Asparouhova

Overall, I’d expect to see in the news industry something similar to what happened in open source: a “dumbbell”-shaped distribution of contributors. On one end are purely casual contributors (breaking news, casual punditry, and commentary on the news), who post on social media because it’s low-effort with the potential for a bit of upside, and no expectation of maintenance, funding, or having to make ongoing contributions. On the other end are the maintainers (news columns, investigative journalism, and features): those with in-depth knowledge of their topic, who make highly non-fungible contributions, and who will make money off their reputations. For those in the latter category, the name of the game is building highly targeted audiences and optimizing for fewer people paying more money, rather than shilling for page views. Podcasts, newsletters, and longform writing are attractive these days because they help creators filter for niche audiences, rather than losing potential value to broad reach on public channels. Instead of maximizing for likes, these creators maximize for meaning. An interesting implication here is that a creator’s relevance (to some niche audience) matters more than quality or trust on a global scale. Early newspaper and media brands built their reputations on the promise of truth and “objectivity,” whereas it seems more likely that future media brands will build their reputations on the promise of relevance. I’d argue that the reason this funding sh...