Finite Source Machines: Contribution for Busy Humans

The ubiquity, depth, and intersections of the open source software landscape inspire and frustrate, deliver and delay. We’ve come to rely on these projects to power the modern world. Our dependence is welcome, undeniable, amorphous, liberating, and under threat. It can feel intimidating and thankless. We need not buy into fatalistic perspectives of unsustainable outcomes. Where does one even begin?

Participation in open source as a movement takes all of us working in whatever capacity we can. Increasingly that capacity is strained and distracted. But this isn’t a time for guilt—this is cause for celebration! I promise you, there are a lot of avenues to engage. It’s the contributions, large and small, sustained and one-time, that add up to change.

You are participatory in the ecosystem, as a user. You are part of something larger than our current issue, project, role, or company. You don’t need permission to do your job; you have agency to act upon the full spectrum of engagement. Leave with firmer footing than ever that open source needs you, and that you are enough to sustain it.