Payment by getting hired from a company interested in the OSS - probably for business critical parts of their products. Employment might range from 100% to 20% work on the OSS. Employers might nudge the development into a direction that benefits them but hinders other companies / their competition. Often these are normal employments as on-site or remote developer but longer freelancing contracts are possible and generate mostly recurring income.
Requires:
- Either finding a company willing to hire or be approached by one
- Negotiation of an employment contract (esp. between different countries)
Variants & Options:
- Employment: Standard employment with social security contributions (country-specific)
- Freelancing: Commissioning by the company as a legal entity
- Deel (Handles Employment between different countries)
| Characteristics | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Effort to set-up | Weeks | Negotiating contract between different countries |
| Effort to maintain | Low | The contract could be terminated if OSS support is deemed no longer important |
| Cost to set-up | None | |
| Cost to maintain | None | |
| One-time Income | Medium | Only if freelancing for a solution / feature |
| Recurring Income | Medium | Probably in the range of a normal salary in the employer's country |
| Income Predictability | High | Depends on the contract |
| Full income Threshold | 1+ | |
| Recipient | I | |
| Additional Work | Medium | Might vary between 0 and 80% - depends other work for the company. |
| Visibility | Low | Notice on website to hire a maintainer are easy to overlook |
| Necessity to pay | Low | Complex contracts; Voluntary but might bring good PR to company |
| Entry Threshold | Low | Similar to other employees of the company |
| Countervalue | Work | |
| Scalability | None | Probably one one employment possible (part-time or freelancing might be used) |
| Effort for marketing | High | Finding a 100% job is very hard; When working partially for company's product is easier (due to War for Talents) |
| Competitors | M | Another maintainer might be a competior for a (remote) job |
| Software types | All |