Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software Highlight

Patronage is an emerging funding system for online creators today, but it’s frequently conflated with the concept of “donations.” Patronage isn’t motivated by altruism but by an interest in following a creator’s future work, based on their current reputation. It’s more like a subscription than a donation. When an individual sponsors an open source developer, then, they’re ideally not paying for code but to feel closer to the person who writes the code.