Sometimes, you have incredibly valuable assets in your ecosystem that run quietly and successfully in the background. So quiet, in fact, that you almost forget that they’re there. Until they’re in need of help. I haven’t written about the Oregon State University Open Source Lab in quite some time. But now, they’re in need of our help.
I am writing to inform you about a critical and time-sensitive situation facing the Open Source Lab. Over the past several years, we have been operating at a deficit due to a decline in corporate donations. While OSU’s College of Engineering (CoE) has generously filled this gap, recent changes in university funding have led to a significant reduction in CoE’s budget. As a result, our current funding model is no longer sustainable and CoE needs to find ways to cut programs.
Earlier this week, I was informed that unless we secure $250,000 in committed funds, the OSL will be forced to shut down later this year. I have reached out to our largest corporate sponsor and they are working to increase their support as we update our contract, but that still may not be enough.
If you’re not familiar with OSL — which you may not be given that they don’t make a ton of noise — you may wonder why it’s worth saving. Well, for one thing:
The lab, in partnership with the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Oregon State University, provides hosting for more than 160 projects, including those of worldwide leaders like the Apache Software Foundation, the Linux Foundation and Drupal. Together, the OSL’s hosted sites deliver nearly 430 terabytes of information to people around the world every month. The most active organization of its kind, the OSL offers world-class hosting services, professional software development and on-the-ground training for promising students interested in open source management and programming.
By enabling innovative projects and distributing software to millions of users globally, the lab is working to accelerate the growth of high-impact open source software projects and promote an open source culture of accessibility and increased productivity around the world. The lab partners with industry leaders and policy makers to bring open source technologies to new sectors, including education, health and government.
So if you care about open source, you should care about the future of the OSL.
For more information on the situation and how you may be able to help, please visit “Future of OSL in jeopardy.”
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