[Dries Buytaert]

"Addressing the Maker-Taker challenge is essential for the long-term sustainability of open source projects. Drupal's approach may provide a constructive solution not just for WordPress, but for other communities facing similar issues."

Dries lays out a constructive approach to crediting open source contributors. There's no stick here: just a series of what amount to promotion and status levels in return for making contributions like "code, documentation, mentorship, marketing, event organization" and so on.

I've certainly had to deal with the maker-taker problem too, although not at the magnitude that either Drupal or WordPress need to consider it. When I worked on Elgg, the open source ecosystem was relatively underdeveloped, and I don't remember it being much of a problem. In contrast, Known plugged into a significantly more advanced ecosystem. The solution Dries lays out makes a ton of sense to me, and I wish we'd done more along these lines in both cases.

#Technology

[Link]