Public-private funding models in open source software development: A case study on scikit-learn
It addresses funding challenges for open source software developers, governments, and companies, offering incremental insights based on a specific project.
This study investigated how open source software developers assess the benefits and drawbacks of governmental funding, using scikit-learn as a case study with interviews of maintainers and funders, and provided empirical findings and practical lessons on funding models.
Governments are increasingly funding open source software (OSS) development to support software security, digital sovereignty, and national competitiveness in science and innovation, amongst others. However, little is known about how OSS developers evaluate the relative benefits and drawbacks of governmental funding for OSS. This study explores this question through a case study on scikit-learn, a Python library for machine learning, funded by public research grants, commercial sponsorship, micro-donations, and a 32 euro million grant announced in France's artificial intelligence strategy. Through 25 interviews with scikit-learn's maintainers and funders, this study makes two key contributions. First, it contributes empirical findings about the benefits and drawbacks of public and private funding in an impactful OSS project, and the governance protocols employed by the maintainers to balance the diverse interests of their community and funders. Second, it offers practical lessons on funding for OSS developers, governments, and companies based on the experience of scikit-learn. The paper concludes with key recommendations for practitioners and future research directions.