Software Stewardship Lab

We just gave $1,000,000 to Open Source maintainers at @sentry.io, up from $750K last year! 🎉️ And this month the @opensourcepledge.com turns 2. Its 37 member companies have now paid $8,421,535 to the people who build the software we all rely on. Read on to find out where the money went.

Around 70% of open source maintainers work alone or in small teams, and most are unpaid. @mirandaheath.website, Director and psychologist at the @stewardshiplab.org on the four drivers of burnout and what AI does to each. @viteconf.org 2026, 15 oct (TODAY) 2pm UTC. Free and online. viteconf.org

Here's a short post with some of my thoughts about digital sovereignty, maintainer burnout, and evolving metrics needs that were common themes throughout the Open Source Summit in Prague last week. I hope you enjoy it! fastwonderblog.com/2026/10/12/o...

if you're at @apache.org's Community Over Code in Glasgow, I would love it if you made it to my talk on Tuesday. it does involve getting up early, but you'll learn about spooky phantoms 👻️

"The people holding up the internet" A good-looking but somewhat depressing exposé about the people holding up current digital infrastructure as a hobby. https://sheets.works/data-viz/holding-up-the-internet

tell Syntax which undersupported and underpaid Open Source folks you are most grateful to 🙏️

Excited to be in Prague for my first #OSSummit! I'll be talking on Burnout in Open Source 11.55 on Friday, come say hi if you're around! 👋 Lots of exciting things in the schedule... bit.ly/3NXx5Zp

Sovereign Tech Resilience relaunches with four new services for critical open source projects: memory safety, post-quantum encryption, supply chain security, and Cyber Resilience Act compliance. www.sovereign.tech/news/resilie... 1/

With help from the amazing @mirandaheath.website, the 2026 State of Devs survey results are now available! 2026.stateofdevs.com/en-US/ This already took a ton of work, and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface of what the dataset could teach us.

So happy to be involved! What a rich picture of what it's like to be a dev in 2026—the good, the bad and the ugly!

The Stewardship Lab has joined the @rustfoundation.org as an Associate Member! 🎉️ To support the Foundation in its mission of stewarding the Rust programming language, we're working to improve software supply chain security and developer education across the Rust ecosystem.

AI moves fast. Critical infrastructure needs support. The OpenSSF Governing Board backs sustainable funding for public package registries: stronger security, reliable services, and continued free access for developers. We’re in. Join us: openssf.org/blog/2026/09...

The critical infrastructure we use every day, like healthcare and transportation, depends on the security of our software supply chains. To protect this infrastructure, we're launching a new lab at NYU that will train the next generation of Open Source security experts.

Daniel (@danielroe.dev) and Matias (@patak.cat) of npmx (npmx.dev) join host Richard (@richlitt.bsky.social) explores community, governance, inclusion, burnout, and sustainability beyond nonstop productivity. Listen at 🎙️ podcast.sustainoss.org/293

I’m proud of what we accomplished with the CHAOSS Practitioner Guides. I’ve written posts about individual guides, but I wanted to talk about how they fit together. This post focuses on building healthy and sustainable projects and is the first in a 4 part series. fastwonderblog.com/2026/08/20/p...

Did you know that a bunch of software packages we all depend on are hidden from dependency trees? I spoke about this at EuroPython 2026 😊️

This is the most important video I've ever made. In this, I explore the negative and positive mental health effects of AI coding, with data and expert commentary. www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPUn...

This was a great conversation! a must listen for anyone interested in OSS funding and sustainability.

Some great people here doing some really interesting stuff.

I really love and support such movements in Open Source. 2026 has already been an amazing year for communities and ecosystems. Looking forward to what's to come 🚀

Package managers support our world's infrastructure, but those who build them have more work on their plate then ever. Companies who rely on this work for their revenue should give something back. It's in these companies' interest to keep this tech sustainable.

Sounds like a great job opportunity for security-minded folks ✨

We’ve saved hundreds of gigabytes of bandwidth per month so far! Reach out if you’re interested in helping! We help with outreach, repo modernization, analysis infra, and data analysis

Excellent work reducing bandwidth usage in the Rust ecosystem 🎉

Homebrew is thriving while other open source projects struggle. Its scarcest resource isn't money: it's maintainer motivation.

Excellent research from @andrewnez.bsky.social 👏

Loving the shares from the back catalog of #FOSSBack! This talk about recruiting contributors from 2023 is particularly relevant today with so many maintainers overworked and burning out. Related: this lovely report on maintainer burnout from @mirandaheath.website stewardshiplab.org/reports/burn...

secret discord server, please ignore…unless you are interested in open source funding 👀 discord.gg/Ay5abGkaxX

I'm at @europython.eu in Kraków, here to talk about binary dependencies, the @stewardshiplab.org and the @opensourcepledge.com. Come say hi!

Hi, friends. The last 6 years have been a blast, but I just don't like being on The Internet anymore. I'm leaving DevRel, and I wrote a little bit about why. Look after yourselves, and each other. Love, Salma

We're grateful to be helping @mu.social and @eurosky.social as a Trusted Verifier of the Open Source community! ✨️ If you have feedback on the verification process, let us know.

Taking Roads and Bridges literally - Reflections on UN Open Source Week 2026 nesbitt.io/2026/06/30/t...

hey that's me

This is how easy it is to migrate to European, nonprofit-governed infrastructure 🥰

We need more package auditing tools like replacements.fyi to make our dependency trees more secure and performant. @e18e.dev is doing great work.

To celebrate companies that pay maintainers, we've created a new website, featuring @danielroe.dev and folks from @ag-grid.bsky.social, @sanity.io, @sentry.io and other great companies. Let's support the tech we depend on. Here's to the next $7 million! 💃

Loving the plural verification thing that's taking off on mu.social. 💖💥 We should never have verification depend on the rules of just one company. That's just not how civilised spaces work.

A new report from Bloomberg explains why companies should move “from passive consumption to active stewardship” of the Open Source packages they rely on: “you cannot have sustainable code without sustaining the humans who write it (…) if you live in the house, you help fix the roof”.

OSS burnout claims another project. On 2 Apr, an entitled user angrily asked the burned-out maintainer of nvim-treesitter to “go switch to something that doesn't require interacting with people”. The maintainer replied “OK” — and archived the repo, stopping development of nvim-treesitter.

join the resistance 🏴‍☠️

Andrew has been building tools to understand the Open Source ecosystem for over a decade, and a new independent paper confirms the effectiveness of his approach to supporting maintainers. I want to celebrate his work today! 🎉

Open Source maintainers need funding. But this means we also need to pay the researchers who create the very tools that allow companies to discover and pay the maintainers they depend on. Research on sustainability should itself be sustainable — otherwise, we'll struggle to get off the ground!

Hello world! We're a non-profit research lab dedicated to ensuring the stability of the global Open Source ecosystem we all rely on.