This is a huge deal:
The Open Collective Foundation has just announced: "OCF now offers employment options to initiative workers—with health insurance!" https://blog.opencollective.com/oc-news-nov-2021/
If your FLOSS project is on OpenCollective, you can hire a maintainer as an employee! With health insurance & 401(k)!
This is such a huge step forward for open source sustainability, in particular for projects with key contributors in the United States. Let's talk about why! https://www.harihareswara.net/sumana/2021/11/24/0
Open source maintainers in the US now have substantially greater freedom to leave their jobs, go independent, and still protect their health and their future.
@brainwane it took me, no kidding, 15 years of contracting on free software to learn about all this stuff.
This is huge news, and also the best expanation I've ever read of the current system.
@joeyh I'm really grateful for your assessment! I wanted to actually systematically explain the stuff that folks like you and me have had to painstakingly learn over time!
@brainwane I have literally been making long-term plans to move to somewhere outside the US because of basically this exact problem
@technomancy I am certain you are not alone! Huge problem for US workers!
@brainwane
Very nice write-up! Helpful in understanding the healthcare system in the US generally.
Would be interesting to see the uptake of this, how many people are getting employed on open source projects, over time.