Amazon, Amex To Fund Software Developers in New GitHub Program

Amazon.com, American Express, Daimler AG and Stripe are among those joining a new GitHub program that will let companies directly fund open-source projects and software developers that are key to their businesses. From a report: It's an expansion of GitHub's Sponsors program, which previously let individuals support software projects and the millions of developers who use the digital platform to collaborate on, share and store code. GitHub, whose parent company Microsoft will also participate in the new service announced Tuesday, expects the change to dramatically increase the number of contributions. The year-old sponsors service has already generated enough money for some developers to rely on it as full-time work, said Devon Zuegel, GitHub's director of product for the communities department.

The logical next step after independent contractor

[Night Goat]

Now, instead of hiring an independent contractor, they can just get the work that the contractor would have done. Another way to avoid the messy "human" side of the workforce and just capitalize off the results of the labor. I wish I could say I was surprised by this, but it seems like the way of the world these days.

Re:

[fermion]

More like a cheaper way to acquire products. When a business pays huge sums to acquire a another firm with tools they need, they often pay for in structure they donâ(TM)t need or goodwill that is of no value. In an extreme, think of the 4.4 billion spent to acquire AOL.

This way the can help develop a product, let it e itâ(TM)s in the wild, and have the opportunity to use it.

Re:

[douglasfir77]

Sounds like a software GIG economy platform. Its the new "Uber" of software. LOLZ

CoC

[cygnusvis]

Expect more contributions based not on merit now that there is money involved. Imagine two pull requests to solve the same problem, where both work but one is objectively better than the other.... The one from the underrepresented person will get pulled weather it is the better one or not and the quality of the code may suffer from it.

Re: CoC

[BAReFO0t]

You mean CoC suckers?

Re:

[Jastiv]

CoC is going to kill all innovative technology. You can't get anything done with a workforce of unhappy people.

You mean make them dependent.

[BAReFO0t]

Those type of people don't do.anythinf without wanting something in return. Because they know how little they give in return to other people's money.

Nobody is crazy enough to believe they ae doing this out of the goodness of their hearts.

Uber good

[unixcorn]

At what point will the contributors seek to become full-time employees with all benefits? After all, we can't have folks doing the jobs they want, when they want, can we? California will have a shit fit over this.

Re: Uber good

[drinkypoo]

If you treat them like contractors, no one will complain. That is not what Uber et al were doing. Unfortunately, money speaks loudest.

Re:

[jrumney]

Don't worry, since Microsoft is involved, I'm sure they are working on some github metrics to ensure funded developers spend 8 hours a day interacting with github in order to qualify for their funding. All microbreaks spent doing productive work instead of using github will be excluded from payment.

Re:

[Jastiv]

There is no benefit to working in California. They just like people there so they can abuse them. The so called "big" salaries they pay them don't go very far. It would be far more efficient to hire from anywhere else and let them work remotely, and they could have a fabulous lifestyle for less money. Open Source Developers are the pioneers of remote work, and if they already have project contributions, it is almost guaranteed that you will get someone who can do the job.