Software users
Users who are aware of some of the open source projects they use.
Relationships With Other Aspects
Timescale aspect changes: long,
Scope of aspect: very small,
Relationship with other aspects: project, company,
Primary focus: project
Every computer user is using open source software. The important question is: does the user know what open source is? Does the user know how important open source components are to their computer’s functioning?
While users are rarely involved directly in open source projects, some users end up becoming contributors. Similarly, users who know of the importance for open source have the chance to help advocate for sustainability topics in open source, even outside of the typical “buy a software license” realm.
Sustainability Questions
Could education campaigns for users help drive donations to non-profit foundations or projects as a funding source?
How do we build systems that encourage and allow non-technical users to feel more connected to the open source communities of products they use? This is a two-way effort: guidelines for how projects can be welcoming to non-code contributions, and how users can more easily understand that “open source project” means contributions of all kinds are wanted.