Most of us are familiar with carbon credits, which are often utilized to fulfill emissions goals established by governments and various entities. However, after conducting minimal research on Google, I have yet to come across any carbon offset initiatives that specifically prioritize the following:
- Making algorithms efficient
- Minimize the number of computations
- Use efficient data structures
- Optimizing code
Imagine if public and private organizations could purchase carbon credits that incentivize maintainers to write more efficient software, thereby reducing emissions.
How would it work? Well, that's a great question because I have no idea how the carbon credit industry works. However, here is my feeble attempt:
- Foundations like Apache, LF, Eclipse, etc. sell credits
- They use that money to pay maintainers to optimize code
- Everyone is happy
If things could only be that simple.
A bunch of links I have been hoarding
- Best practices for open source ecosystems researchers
- A Plea for Fairness for Non-profit Developers of Open Source Software
- The penumbra of open source: projects outside of centralized platforms are longer maintained, more academic and more collaborative [PDF]
- World of Code: Enabling a Research Workflow for Mining and Analyzing the Universe of Open Source VCS data
- I Am Ready For My Next Role
- THE 2023 TIDELIFT State of the open source maintainer report
- New(ish) Fellowship: How Sequoia is Supporting Open Source
- Polar gives open source maintainers a better and funded backlog based on what drives the most impact within their community
- The Most Efficient and Environment Friendly Programming Languages (2022)
- Thanks, David Peter (sharkdp)!