GitHub Sponsors: Exploring a new way to contribute to open source

GitHub Sponsors, launched in 2019, enables donations to individual open source software (OSS) developers. Financial support for OSS maintainers and developers is a major issue in terms of sustaining OSS projects, and the ability to donate to individuals is expected to support the sustainability of d...

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Main Authors: SHIMADA, Naomichi, XIAO, Tao, HATA, Hideaki, TREUDE, Christoph, MATSUMOTO, Kenichi
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Language:English
Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2022
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Online Access:https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/8833
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sis_research/article/9836/viewcontent/icse22a.pdf
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Institution: Singapore Management University
Language: English
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spelling sg-smu-ink.sis_research-98362024-06-06T09:07:49Z GitHub Sponsors: Exploring a new way to contribute to open source SHIMADA, Naomichi XIAO, Tao HATA, Hideaki TREUDE, Christoph MATSUMOTO, Kenichi GitHub Sponsors, launched in 2019, enables donations to individual open source software (OSS) developers. Financial support for OSS maintainers and developers is a major issue in terms of sustaining OSS projects, and the ability to donate to individuals is expected to support the sustainability of developers, projects, and community. In this work, we conducted a mixed-methods study of GitHub Sponsors, including quantitative and qualitative analyses, to understand the characteristics of developers who are likely to receive donations and what developers think about donations to individuals. We found that: (1) sponsored developers are more active than non-sponsored developers, (2) the possibility to receive donations is related to whether there is someone in their community who is donating, and (3) developers are sponsoring as a new way to contribute to OSS. Our findings are the first step towards data-informed guidance for using GitHub Sponsors, opening up avenues for future work on this new way of financially sustaining the OSS community. 2022-05-01T07:00:00Z text application/pdf https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/8833 info:doi/10.1145/3510003.3510116 https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sis_research/article/9836/viewcontent/icse22a.pdf http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems eng Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University GitHub Sponsors Open Source Sponsorship Software Engineering
institution Singapore Management University
building SMU Libraries
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider SMU Libraries
collection InK@SMU
language English
topic GitHub Sponsors
Open Source
Sponsorship
Software Engineering
spellingShingle GitHub Sponsors
Open Source
Sponsorship
Software Engineering
SHIMADA, Naomichi
XIAO, Tao
HATA, Hideaki
TREUDE, Christoph
MATSUMOTO, Kenichi
GitHub Sponsors: Exploring a new way to contribute to open source
description GitHub Sponsors, launched in 2019, enables donations to individual open source software (OSS) developers. Financial support for OSS maintainers and developers is a major issue in terms of sustaining OSS projects, and the ability to donate to individuals is expected to support the sustainability of developers, projects, and community. In this work, we conducted a mixed-methods study of GitHub Sponsors, including quantitative and qualitative analyses, to understand the characteristics of developers who are likely to receive donations and what developers think about donations to individuals. We found that: (1) sponsored developers are more active than non-sponsored developers, (2) the possibility to receive donations is related to whether there is someone in their community who is donating, and (3) developers are sponsoring as a new way to contribute to OSS. Our findings are the first step towards data-informed guidance for using GitHub Sponsors, opening up avenues for future work on this new way of financially sustaining the OSS community.
format text
author SHIMADA, Naomichi
XIAO, Tao
HATA, Hideaki
TREUDE, Christoph
MATSUMOTO, Kenichi
author_facet SHIMADA, Naomichi
XIAO, Tao
HATA, Hideaki
TREUDE, Christoph
MATSUMOTO, Kenichi
author_sort SHIMADA, Naomichi
title GitHub Sponsors: Exploring a new way to contribute to open source
title_short GitHub Sponsors: Exploring a new way to contribute to open source
title_full GitHub Sponsors: Exploring a new way to contribute to open source
title_fullStr GitHub Sponsors: Exploring a new way to contribute to open source
title_full_unstemmed GitHub Sponsors: Exploring a new way to contribute to open source
title_sort github sponsors: exploring a new way to contribute to open source
publisher Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University
publishDate 2022
url https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/8833
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sis_research/article/9836/viewcontent/icse22a.pdf
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