Shared by Lance Albertson, director of OSUOSL, the future of the Open Source Lab is in jeopardy. A funding deficit that has persisted over the past few years has now escalated due to recent changes in university funding, potentially dealing a massive blow to the initiative.
If you didn't know, the Oregon State University Open Source Lab (OSUOSL) is a non-profit organization under Oregon State University that provides hosting, infrastructure, and development support to numerous major open source projects.
A Funding Deficit: What's Going On?
Original pic courtesy of OSUOSL, edited by me.
Currently, they are lacking a sizable $250,000 in funds, which would be used for paying the staff ($150k), the students who work there ($65k), and other organization/infra-related expenses ($35k).
They’ve already approached their largest corporate sponsor to get extra support, but the proposal is still under review. Sadly, Lance shares that even if the plan is approved, it might not be enough to close the funding gap.
If this gap isn't filled soon, Open Source Lab may be forced to shut down later this year, affecting major open source projects like Gentoo, Fedora, Debian, phpBB, OpenID, Buildroot, and Drupal. The closure would disrupt critical infrastructure that these projects depend on, halting essential services such as hosting, continuous integration, and version control.
Additionally, smaller open source projects, many of which rely on the lab's affordable and reliable hosting, could be left without a dependable infrastructure, making it difficult for them to maintain their operations.
Can You Help? 🧐
If you can, consider directly donating to the OSUOSL from their donation page. If you can't, then spread the word as wide and far as possible, and if you are an organization that can support the initiative, drop a mail at [email protected].
Lance has until May 14 to provide university leadership with an update on the funding situation.
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