[OSGeo-Discuss] are there any unpaid developers?

[Andrew Turner]

Ian Turton wrote:
> One of my students was asking today about the open source development
> process (with special reference to geospatial projects). One question
> I'm left with is are there any OSGEO developers who are doing this
> just for the fun and fame? I know that a lot of us have fun developing
> but everyone I could think of (GeoTools, GeoServer, uDig) gets paid to
> have that fun.
>
>    
What is interesting is that many people I know that are now paid weren't 
when they first started using Open-Source (geo and non-geo). I for one, 
was able to first start as a hobby, then consult, then build businesses 
around open-source tools precisely because there was no initial capital 
costs, as well as a community to converse with. Over time, as my skills 
improved jobs also came through that I could begin tackling.

So while there are many people that develop open-source purely for 
hobby, I imagine there is a very large number that started out unpaid 
and became paid as both their skills grew, the tools became more 
widespread, and customers adopted, or opted, for open-source.

In Academia, students have many tools, many with expensive licenses, 
available 'for free', so the capital costs are not a limiting factor.

Andrew
@ajturner
> Ian
>
> --
> Ian Turton
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