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Filippo Valsorda

What Filippo Valsorda thinks about open source

@filippo-valsorda · 12 positions · 0 changes of mind

Cryptographer, formerly of the Go team at Google, and since 2022 a full-time professional open source maintainer. He maintains the Go cryptography libraries, age and mkcert, and founded Geomys, a firm of professional maintainers funded by retainers from the companies that depend on their projects. Writes at words.filippo.io.

Filippo Valsorda did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

8 dated positions, 2023 to 2024, in their own words. Our reading of what Filippo Valsorda has said — not written or endorsed by them.

  1. Our readingCompanies are willing to pay for their critical open source dependencies; what is missing is a legible way for projects to sell it to them.

    Their wordsI started with a rather non-consensus hypothesis: companies want to pay for their critical open source dependencies, but most projects are not selling them a legible way to do so.

    ↗Geomys, a blueprint for a sustainable open source maintenance firmwords.filippo.io 1st of 3 in this piece

  3. Our readingOpen source maintenance can be a mature profession organised into small specialist firms, the way law and medicine already are.

    Their wordsFrom the onset, I envisioned small firms of professional maintainers with thematic portfolios, accommodating diverse maintainers and project sizes, just like the specialized firms of other professionals.

    ↗Geomys, a blueprint for a sustainable open source maintenance firmwords.filippo.io 2nd of 3 in this piece

  5. Our readingThe thing open source can actually sell is not the code but access to its maintainers’ attention and expertise.

    Their wordsClients still pay a fixed monthly retainer to ensure the professional maintenance of the whole portfolio, and to get access to the expertise of all of Geomys’ maintainers.

    ↗Geomys, a blueprint for a sustainable open source maintenance firmwords.filippo.io 3rd of 3 in this piece

  6. 17 months earlier

  7. Our readingMaintainers of widely used open source software are not adequately funded, and that is a real and unsolved problem.

    Their wordsThis experiment started from the observation that despite being critical for the functioning of the Internet—and, by extension, the economy—the role of open-source maintainer has not yet found a sustainable manifestation.

    ↗I’m Now a Full-Time Professional Open Source Maintainerwords.filippo.io 1st of 5 in this piece

  9. Our readingFoundations, on the whole, do not pay the maintainers of the projects they exist to support.

    Their wordsVirtually all maintainers are either volunteers or full-time employees of large companies. Foundations on average don’t pay maintainers.

    ↗I’m Now a Full-Time Professional Open Source Maintainerwords.filippo.io 2nd of 5 in this piece

  11. Our readingVolunteering cannot sustain critical software, because a volunteer’s life circumstances change and the project’s need does not.

    Their wordsVolunteerism is self-evidently not sustainable, as people’s life circumstances change.

    ↗I’m Now a Full-Time Professional Open Source Maintainerwords.filippo.io 3rd of 5 in this piece

  13. Our readingA dependency you would need engineer-months to replace or fork is a critical one, and retaining its maintainer is straightforward business sense.

    Their wordsThis is how I frame it: if the effort required to replace or fork a dependency should it go unmaintained is measured in engineer-months, that’s a critical dependency and retaining its maintainers probably makes good business sense.

    ↗I’m Now a Full-Time Professional Open Source Maintainerwords.filippo.io 4th of 5 in this piece

  15. Our readingEmploying a maintainer inside a large company breaks down exactly when the project succeeds: the workload grows while its value to the employer stays flat.

    Their wordsAs a project gets more popular in the ecosystem, the workload increases but the value of that project for the company stays the same, so resources don’t increase accordingly.

    ↗I’m Now a Full-Time Professional Open Source Maintainerwords.filippo.io 5th of 5 in this piece