Investing in Open Source: The FOSS Contributor Fund

Chapter 2. Voter Eligibility

The second blueprint component is voter eligibility. At this point, you have some nominations for projects. Now, you need to decide who is eligible to vote on the nominations. The pool of voters that you identify will have a direct impact on the goals of your FOSS Fund. The ability to cast a vote will be an incentive for people. This incentive will encourage behaviors that have effects beyond your immediate organization. Since you are encouraging these behaviors, it’s important that you are clear about who is in your pool and why you selected them.

Voter Eligibility Goals and Behaviors

Your FOSS Fund can do more than help you identify supportable projects and open source enthusiasts. You can use the voter eligibility criteria as a way to encourage open source participation and an open source mindset within your organization.

If your organization is small, or if you are trying to encourage broad participation and discussion, you could decide to allow anyone in your organization to vote. In a larger organization, you might decide to limit voter eligibility to only those people who have made contributions to open source communities or to specific projects. If you are trying to build engagement between your office and another business unit, you might limit voter eligibility to specific people or business units.

Regardless of your larger goal, you need to consider two important outcomes when setting voter eligibility criteria: the effects within your ...