Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
There are numerous non-profits in free software. Some of them we know by heart, such as the Free Software Foundation. When I was reviewing the OpenZFS Foundation, I came across another foundation named Software in the Public Interest. Interesting enough the Debian Project created the Software in the Public Interest, after the Free Software Foundation stopped supporting it. This non-profit started in New York, United States of America in the year of 1997. Their mission is to overtake the non-technical, legal aspects of important projects.
There are currently 40 projects sponsored by Software in the Public Interest. Some of these projects range from games to Arch based distros. In order for a project to be sponsored, it has to be approved by the Foundation’s Board. The projects can be hardware or software in nature, as long as it follows the open source mantra.
The major work stream is holding or distributing funds, holding substantial funds, holding intangible assets, signing contracts, legal assistance, and technical services.
If there is a special request above their standard service, the board might review it to see how reasonable it is.
Membership to Software in the Public Interest offers two membership levels: contributing and non-contributing. The non-contributing members are those that live in the spirit of using free and open software. Contributing members are defined as those who actively participate in the free and open software. In other words, typically users of Linux qualify as the non-contributing members.
It is interesting to see the dedicated purpose of helping software developers with the non-coding side to open software projects. I just wonder how many projects would still be operating if they utilized these services.
Until next month…I still have to find a topic for next month.