Ecosystems, Not Projects: Rethinking Open Source Foundation Funding
UD2.218A | Day 1 | 17:00 - 17:30 | Speakers: Bill Mulligan, Patrick Masson
Abstract
Open source foundations face growing demands, more projects, more users, more scrutiny, while still relying on fragile funding models built around grants, sponsorships, and donations. This talk argues that the problem is not funding open source projects, but funding them in isolation.
Drawing on experiences from the Apereo and the eBPF Foundations, this session explores a shift from project-centric funding to ecosystem-level investment. Using eBPF as a case study, it shows how funding efforts like security audits, upstream kernel work, directed development, face-to-face collaboration, and ecosystem marketing can strengthen many projects at once and deliver far greater impact per dollar.
The talk also introduces Apereo's self-sustainability model, in which foundations, even projects, support themselves through services rooted in community expertise, such as training, events, audits, and operational support, rather than perpetual fundraising. The goal is not to create more foundations, but ones more focused on ecosystems that are resilient by design, and able to support open source as shared infrastructure rather than a collection of individual projects.
Speakers
Bill Mulligan is a cloud native pollinator, community builder, and maintainer for Cilium and ebpf.io. He has given talks, written articles, and appeared on podcasts on a wide range of topics around cloud native. While at CNCF he restarted the Kubernetes Community Day program and he is currently at Isovalent growing the Cilium and eBPF communities and serves as a member of the eBPF Foundation Governing Board.
Patrick Masson joined The Apereo Foundation as Executive Director in 2023. Before Apereo, Patrick served as General Manager for the Open Source Initiative after working within higher education IT for over twenty years, including roles as CIO within the State University of New York and CTO at the University of Massachusetts' Office of the President. Before these roles, Patrick was the Director of Technology at the SUNY Learning Network and the UCLA Media Lab.
Patrick is an adjunct instructor with SUNY Albany's College of Computing and Information and speaks frequently on topics related to open source software, open education, and educational technology. Patrick is the co-founder of EDUCAUSE's "Openness" Constituency Group and served on his local school board from 2014 to 2018.
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