The Cathedral and Bazaar panel: The role of money in Open Source

Date and time

Friday 2 February, 15:30 – 16:00 EET (UTC+3)

Abstract

The role of Open Source for the global economy is huge. In “The Cathedral and the Bazaar” 20 years ago, Open Source was introduced as a development alternative to proprietary solutions. How have the economic incentives developed since, for various stakeholders? What are the ways to make money on open source? And what are the implications for the ideals and principles? This group of people at varying distances from MariaDB Server is in a unique position to shed light on the questions.

The panel is lead by Patrik Backman, Managing Partner at Open Ocean Capital. In his predictions for 2024, Patrik calls this The Big Open-Source Reckoning.

2024 will be the year Big Tech faces the consequences of its exploitation of the open-source community. New licensing approaches will emerge to sustainably monetise open-source software. Developers are realising maintaining high-quality open source requires reasonable restrictions, not total freedom. This will lead to healthier open-source ecosystems that better reward contributor efforts.

MariaDB Foundation relies on the existence of sponsors and contributors with a thriving business model, or innovation around MariaDB Server will cease. We welcome a debate amongst our distinguished panelists.