As you already know, March is open source month at StackShare. We’ve now officially released brand new Stack Profiles - a new way for you to share all the open source technology in your stack and why you chose those tools. To add to the open source action, today, we're excited to announce that we have partnered with the Linux Foundation to support the launch of CommunityBridge! 🎉 It's a new platform that empowers developers — and the individuals and organizations who support them — to advance sustainability, security, and diversity in the open source community.
Whether it's a car, refrigerator, phone, or TV, there is a good chance it relies on open source software. So, it shouldn't surprise you that open source powers more than 80% of the technology we all use every day, yet many developers and critical open source projects don't have the resources they need to secure, maintain and advance their code. CommunityBridge is "a multi-service tool designed to help address these challenges and drive future innovation by providing a crowdfunding platform for open source projects that includes daily vulnerability and dependency scanning and mentorship programs to increase diversity in open source communities and help developers of all levels advance their careers - and much more."
When the Linux Foundation told us about their vision for CommunityBridge, we were immediately onboard. Our mission at StackShare is to make developers more productive by helping them learn about technology through the people and companies they trust. That is exactly what we are furthering with this partnership.
The reason StackShare exists is because one of the most important factors when deciding whether or not to use an open source project, is "who's using it?" Some projects will tell you in a README, on their site in the form of a list, or if they happen to have the resources, they'll do case studies. However, most projects that need funding don't do this; in the cases where they do, the information isn't updated very often nor is it easy to update. This is where StackShare comes in.
StackShare is powering the 'Stacks' on CommunityBridge open source project profiles. This means that any project that is looking for funding can automatically list out their customers (companies and developers) that have publicly shared their stack on StackShare. Meaning as you're browsing CommunityBridge, you'll see stacks that the project you're viewing is included in.
While we're starting with a simple API integration, we see many more opportunities for us to help further Linux Foundation's mission of building sustainable ecosystems around open source projects.
Go check out the CommunityBridge platform to learn more about how you can raise or contribute funds to open source projects or sign up to become a mentee/mentor. The Linux Foundation is providing early access to the platform for select projects, members, and organizations. The early access application can be found on communitybridge.org
Also check out some of the tools added by the Linux Foundation. If you use any, add them to your stack(s)!