Donations to Open Sources projects and more, freelancers meet on 22nd Jan

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On 22nd January 2025, 11 freelancers met in the Lord Nelson pub in Brighton to talk all things self employment and tech. This is some of what we talked about:

  • Donations to Open Source projects as funding for programming
  • Government Digital Services is being revamped
  • Musk’s “salute” at Trump’s inauguration
  • Getting a rat mat to protect your car
  • Handling comms with potential clients
  • Looking for work in Rust
  • Trump and Melania’s shitcoins
  • What happens now with the UK economy?
  • Puppy!
  • Trying to disengage from an old workplace
  • Pubbl app – credits at some pubs in Brighton
  • Abandoned tube stations
  • “That’s a gateway drug to a kebab”
  • Being at Hatton Gardens while the heist was going on
  • Brighton Fibre is a great ISP

Open Source funding

In freelancing, there are a lot of different ways to find work. One that came up this week is a member who is a major contributor to an Open Source project that others use. They are able to tap into the thousands of Pounds of funding that the project receives from donations in order to pay for their time improving the project. It’s far from their full time income, but it’s a help and lets them spend time programming that would otherwise be harder to justify in their life.

It is relatively unusual to get to this position with a project and not one I’d say every freelancer can bank on, but if you are building a project that lots of companies use within their work, this is a way you can fund some of your time. If it’s a particularly popular project or one that is filling a dire need, potentially all of your time. If you’re looking to go freelance, this isn’t something you should expect to happen, it will need effort to get there, but on the flip side, do not expect to never make money from a project you are “giving away.” It definitely can be done.