Solving the Maker-Taker problem | Dries Buytaert

"How open source projects can balance Makers and Takers: lessons from Drupal's contribution credit system" by the founder of Drupal, in reaction to the Wordpress/WP Engine debacle, tackling "two key challenges that many open source projects face" and which could impede the development of opensource:

1. "The imbalance between major contributors and those who contribute minimally...
2. The lack of an environment that supports the fair coexistence of open source businesses."

The Maker-Taker problem in a nutshell is a game theory problem:

• "creators of open source software ("Makers") see their work being used by others, often service providers, who profit from it without contributing back in a meaningful or fair way ("Takers")"
• The Takers' "unfair advantage" mean Makers need to divert resources away from supporting the open source project: "Takers can turn Makers into Takers."

"Drupal's approach: the Contribution Credit System... encourage organizations to become Makers ...[underpinned by] a key insight... customers are a "common good" for an open source project, not a "public good"... open source projects grow faster when commercial work flows to Makers and away from Takers. "

Hence open source communities must distinguish between the two, and support the Makers, even if they cost more. Hence the contribution credit system, administered by the non-profit Drupal association, which "operates independently, free from control by any single company within the Drupal ecosystem":

• "transparently tracks contributions
• Each contribution earns credits
• [which translates into] more visibility on Drupal.org... and at events like DrupalCon"