💡 Open Source’s One-Sided Relationships Are Breaking It
A compelling take that reframes open-source burnout and sustainability as social inequity, not just a money problem—echoing real tensions between community ideals and corporate dependence.
The essay argues that the open-source world is built on unbalanced, parasocial relationships—users and corporations rely on volunteer developers without offering real support. It urges maintainers to stop seeing unpaid work as an obligation and calls for a more sustainable, reciprocal model to ensure FOSS longevity.
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💰 Bureau of Meteorology’s Website Blowout Sparks Public Outrage
A classic example of public-sector digital failure—bloated budgets, minimal testing, and weak accountability undermining public trust in government technology.
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology’s new website ended up costing $96.5 million instead of the initially announced $4 million. Users criticized its poor design and missing data, prompting government intervention and a rollback to the old version. Officials have ordered an internal review amid political backlash and safety concerns.
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🧩 Rethinking the XKCD “Dependency” Comic
A nuanced reflection on dependency and responsibility—connecting systemic cloud fragility with the quiet heroism of small open-source maintainers.
This piece challenges the overuse of the famous XKCD dependency comic when describing modern cloud outages. It argues that large-scale failures at AWS or Google Cloud differ from the fragility of single-maintainer open-source projects, highlighting how both corporate giants and small developers form distinct but interconnected pillars of the software ecosystem.
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