Episode 60: Erik Rasmussen on the hard work of maintaining, marketing, and funding open source libraries

Panelists Allen "Gunner" Gunn | Eric Berry | Justin Dorfman |
Richard Littauer Guest Erik Rasmussen Show Notes Hello and welcome
to Sustain! Our special guest today is Erik Rasmussen, who’s the
creator of Redux Form and Final Form, two of the most popular form
state management libraries in the React ecosystem, which we will
learn more about. Erik talks about his blog post on, “Open Source
Sustainability,” which he wrote out of frustration. He has such a
passion and positive attitude for open source, but there are things
that bother him as well, which he discusses. We learn that looking
for contributions from larger organizations is an issue without the
marketing aspect and maybe what can be done to help. Also, Eric
Berry shares his vision of the future in open source which is
pretty awesome! Download this episode now to find out more!
[00:01:06] Erik tells us what he does and how he got invited on
this podcast. We also learn what Redux Form and Final Form do.
[00:05:13] Find out what Erik meant when he said it “balloons and
it was too much,” but he also said he enjoys maintaining open
source. He also talks about his blog post he wrote a couple of
months ago and what bothers him about open source. [00:08:52] Eric
wonders if the sustainability of open source depends on people like
Erik because of his positive attitude and have any large companies
reached out to him to support him in any way. [00:10:14] Justin
asks if Erik if his library is on a dependency tree or people go
NPM and install your library. Also, Justin wonders what Erik’s
going to do to improve in getting the message out there that he’s
looking for contributions from larger organizations. [00:16:02]
Eric is curious if money was never part of the equation and if Erik
could never make a dime off of this, how would that change his
outlook on open source and the projects that he puts out, and would
he continue to maintain them. [00:17:24] Eric tells us his vision
of the future in open source. [00:20:25] Richard mentions in one of
Erik’s blog posts he talks about how the donation model doesn’t
work, but works partially for some people, and he also mentions an
insurance model and Erik elaborates his envision. [00:23:57]
Richard asks if Erik has any hope and if he’s going to keep working
on open source. [00:25:20] Erik tells us where we can find him on
the internet. Spotlight [00:26:15] Eric’s spotlight is PgHero by
Andrew Kane. [00:27:02] Justin’s spotlight is Dato, better menu bar
clock with calendar and time zones for macOS. [00:27:43] Richard’s
spotlight is Etymonline.com. [00:28:20] Erik’s spotlight is the
GraphQL Code Generator. Quotes [00:04:10] “And then as a
maintainer, this was really my first foray into open source, I made
some rookie mistakes of trying to please everyone.” [00:06:26] “I
love open source and the fact that I can see that it is sort of
rotten at its core bothers me, and what I mean by that is the
incentives are misaligned from all sides.” [00:22:51] “It’s a
little bit how our medical system, especially in the U.S. is
broken, that your doctor makes more money the sicker you are, and
it should be the opposite. We should pay doctors to keep you well
and if you get sick then the doctor has to do some work. Same thing
with open source, people should be paying for there not to be bugs,
and if there are bugs expect because of that contract that they
will be immediately fixed.” Links Erik Rasmussen Twitter
(https://twitter.com/erikras) Final Form (https://final-form.org/)
Redux Form (https://redux-form.com/8.3.0/) “Open Source
Sustainability” blog post by Erik Rasmussen
(https://dev.to/erikras/open-source-sustainability-3pjf)
PgHero-GitHub (https://github.com/ankane/pghero) Dato
(https://sindresorhus.com/dato) Etymonline
(https://www.etymonline.com/) GraphQL Code Generator
(https://graphql-code-generator.com/) Open Collective-SustainOSS
(https://opencollective.com/sustainoss#budget) Open Collective-Ford
Foundation General Support Grant
(https://opencollective.com/ford-general-support-grant) 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 at Peachtree Sound
(https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Special Guest: Erik Rasmussen.