Episode 109: Dries Buytaert of Drupal on Balancing Makers and Takers to Scale and Sustain Open Source

Guest Dries Buytaert Panelists Richard Littauer Show Notes Hello
and welcome to Sustain! The podcast where we talk about sustaining
open source for the long haul. We’re very excited about our guest
and even though Richard is the only panelist today, it’s going to
be a great episode. Joining us today is Dries Buytaert, who’s the
Founder of Drupal, as well as the Founder and CTO of Acquia, which
is a very successful open source company that helps out Drupal. We
learn more about Drupal and why it’s so successful, as well as how
Acquia was born and how it differs from Drupal. Dries goes in depth
about a blog post he wrote, _Balancing Makers and Takers to scale
and sustain Open Source, _and he shares one of the biggest
challenges that we need to figure out in open source sustainability
and explains how the work of Elinor Ostrom ties into it. Go ahead
and download this episode now to find out more! [00:01:42] Dries
details how it all started for him and how he ended up with Drupal.
[00:03:25] Find out how many contributors Drupal has and how many
websites are served by Drupal. [00:05:16] We learn about Acquia,
how it differs from Drupal, and the donation Drupal made to the PHP
Foundation. [00:09:20] Dries explains why Drupal is so successful.
[00:10:46] Richard mentions a blog post to check out that Dries
wrote. Dries goes in depth about what he means by the ‘Fairness
Principle,’ and explains the takers, makers, and the credit system
they use to encourage the makers. [00:20:57] Richard brings up the
Algorithm in Drupal and Dries talks more about it. [00:22:51] Dries
shares advice to people who may be interested in setting up to
invest in foundations and the story of how he started Acquia.
[00:27:50] Richard asks Dries what his views are on both digital
infrastructure and government involvement in open source.
[00:31:50] Dries explains some challenges for open source
sustainability and talks about the work of Elinor Ostrom.
[00:38:20] Dries fills us in on some experiments they’re doing in
the Drupal project. [00:38:55] Find out where you can follow Dries
and his work online. Quotes [00:14:15] “Open source is also a
common good.” [00:29:51] “I do think we need to think about how we
institutionalize the operations of the project.” [00:38:03]
“Sustainability is often a coordination problem.” Spotlight
[00:40:07] Richard’s spotlight is Rachel Lawson. [00:40:37] Dries’s
spotlight is a shout out to all the open source diversity and
inclusion communities. Links SustainOSS (https://sustainoss.org/)
SustainOSS Twitter
(https://twitter.com/SustainOSS?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
SustainOSS Discourse (https://discourse.sustainoss.org/) Dries
Buytaert Website (https://dri.es/) Dries Buytaert Twitter
(https://twitter.com/Dries?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
Drupal (https://www.drupal.org/) Acquia (https://www.acquia.com/)
Balancing Makers and Takers to scale and sustain Open Source (blog
post by Dries Buytaert)
(https://dri.es/balancing-makers-and-takers-to-scale-and-sustain-open-source)
PHP Foundation (https://opencollective.com/phpfoundation)
Drupal-GitHub (https://github.com/drupal) Rachel Lawson- Sustain
Podcast: Episodes 35 and 88
(https://podcast.sustainoss.org/guests/rachel-lawson) Danese
Cooper-Sustain Podcast: Episode 54
(https://podcast.sustainoss.org/guests/danese) Governing the
Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action by
Elinor Ostrom
(https://bookshop.org/books/governing-the-commons-the-evolution-of-institutions-for-collective-action/9781107569782)
Greg Bloom LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbloom/)
SustainOSS Working Group: Community Principles & Ostrom Redux
(Greg Bloom) (https://sustainoss.org/working-groups/ostrom/)
SustainOSS Working Group: Licensing
(https://sustainoss.org/working-groups/licensing/) Rachel Lawson
Twitter (https://twitter.com/rachel_norfolk) Open Source Diversity
(https://opensourcediversity.org/) Credits Produced by Richard
Littauer (https://www.burntfen.com/) Edited by Paul M. Bahr at
Peachtree Sound (https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Show notes by
DeAnn Bahr Peachtree Sound (https://www.peachtreesound.com/)
Special Guest: Dries Buytaert.