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### Title
<!-- A short, pithy title for the proposal. -->
### Short description
<!-- A short, one-sentence description of the proposal. -->
### Author
<!-- Put your GitHub username(s) here. The proposal author will "own" the proposal and will be able to accept future changes to it. -->
### Proposal body
<!-- Explain your proposal. Add as much as you want, within reason! -->
### Due diligence
<!-- Please answer the following due diligence questions; it's okay to answer "N/A" if you don't know yet. -->
1. **What related work has already been done in this area?** <!-- Insert answer here -->
2. **How is this proposal innovative -- what distinguishes it from other related work?** <!-- -->
3. **Who is your doer -- who will execute the proposed work?** <!-- Insert answer here -->
4. **How might this work be sustained long-term after an initial seed grant?** <!-- Insert answer here -->
### Resources needed
<!-- What resources are needed (grant money, advisors, expertise, etc.) to realize this proposal? -->
### Other links and resources
<!-- Add any other links, images, or resources that are relevant to the proposal -->

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# Open Source Software Virtual Incubator
👋 Hi there! We'd like to try a little experiment to help source and improve the best ideas to improve OSS sustainability, in a public way. Rather than a traditional RFP process, where the submissions are private, we hope a public submission process creates a resource for the entire community to give feedback on, improve, and collect proposals together. - [@epicfaace](https://github.com/epicfaace)
## tl;dr
1. We want **ambitious and innovative ideas** to systemically improve the sustainability of the OSS ecosystem.
2. You can **submit a proposal** by making a PR or filling out this form: [TODO].
3. You can **get or give feedback** and help refine these ideas through changes and comments on this GitHub repository.
4. We plan to provide **further support**, such as grants / funding, to promising ideas and proposals.
## 1. Ideas wanted
Like roads and bridges for the digital world, open source software (OSS) makes up much of our digital infrastructure and underlies many critical software systems, both public and private. Sometimes referred to as "free and open source software" (FOSS), OSS can be used, modified, and shared by the public according to its terms of distribution.
However, OSS faces a sustainability problem. While some OSS projects are well-resourced by companies and non-profit organizations, other OSS code is maintained and released by people who struggle to monetize their work. Moreover, flaws in OSS has been used to mount supply chain attacks such as [Heartbleed](https://heartbleed.com/) and, more recently, [log4j](https://blog.cloudflare.com/how-cloudflare-security-responded-to-log4j2-vulnerability/). Traditional methods of resourcing OSS development and maintenance – such as corporate or philanthropic donations, [crowdsourcing](https://babeljs.io/blog/2021/05/10/funding-update), or [volunteer time](https://twitter.com/FiloSottile/status/1469441487175880711) – may not be enough.
**We are seeking the most ambitious and innovative ideas to systemically improve the sustainability of the OSS ecosystem.** We welcome ideas from around the world, and they can range from specific technical improvements to institution-building to policymaking ideas. Here are some (not exhaustive) examples: "implement X feature in a certain package manager", "perform dependency mapping of the OSS ecosystem", "create a training program for OSS maintainers to learn how to apply to grants", "create a mechanism for the US National Science Foundation to better fund critical OSS libraries", "use X web3 mechanism to create incentives to fund OSS tools".
## 2. Submit a proposal
If you'd like to submit a proposal yourself, you have two options:
1. Fork this repo and make a copy of [PROPOSAL-TEMPLATE.md](PROPOSAL-TEMPLATE.md). Write up your proposal in the `proposals` directory, then make a pull request to this repository.
2. If you'd rather just use a form, fill out this form: [TODO]. We will copy over your proposal to this GitHub repository.
## 3. Get or give feedback
By sharing the proposals publicly on this GitHub repository, we hope this will allow you to get feedback on your proposals, give feedback on / learn from other proposals, and collectively refine and fine-tune the proposals based on feedback. You can use [GitHub Discussions](https://github.com/PlaintextGroup/oss-virtual-incubator/discussions) to organize these discussions.
## 4. Further support
Promising proposals will be selected for further support, including further feedback from policy and technical experts, access to a community of policymakers and technical engineers to help them realize their idea, and grant money from us or other partners / funders to help realize the idea.
## FAQ
### Why did you start this?
We'd like to fund systemic improvements in the open source software ecosystem – rather than just funding a specified list of OSS projects, we'd like to take risks on novel ideas that may have an outsize impact and improve sustainability for a wide variety of projects within the open source software ecosystem. Rather than a traditional RFP process, where the submissions are private, we hope a public submission process creates a resource for the entire community to give feedback on, improve, and collect proposals together.
### What is Plaintext Group?
<img width="300" alt="Highlight_1@2x" src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1689183/130452345-dd163756-08a9-491b-994f-1d04da98fda5.png">
Plaintext Group is a technology innovation policy initiative being developed by <a href="https://schmidtfutures.com/">Schmidt Futures</a>. Schmidt Futures' incubation of Plaintext Group is part of our effort to take on important public problems where systemic solutions may be available, by creating interdisciplinary institutions of exceptional people.
If you are interested in collaborating with us, drop us a note at [ashwin@plaintextgroup.com](mailto:ashwin@plaintextgroup.com).
### I'm a funder and would like to collaborate with you. How can I help?
Please drop us a note at [ashwin@plaintextgroup.com](mailto:ashwin@plaintextgroup.com).
### I have more questions.
Please file a GitHub Issue or [send us an email](mailto:ashwin@plaintextgroup.com)!

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### Title
<!-- A short, pithy title for the proposal. -->
Securing Open Source Software at the Source: Creating a Center for Open Source Software Infrastructure and Security
### Short description
<!-- A short, one-sentence description of the proposal. -->
Congress should establish a Center for Open Source Software Infrastructure and Security for 1) identifying and cataloging critical software in need of support and 2) funding critical improvements in open source software security.
### Author
<!-- Put your GitHub username(s) here. The proposal author will "own" the proposal and will be able to accept future changes to it. -->
@epicfaace
### Proposal body
<!-- Explain your proposal. Add as much as you want, within reason! -->
Congress should create a Center for Open Source Software Infrastructure and Security within DHS that does the following:
1. Identify and catalog critical software in need of support
Congress should initiate an effort to systematically identify the most critical open source software components and develop criteria for determining the criticality and vulnerability of open source software. This effort can be coordinated with CISA, through the National Risk Management Center (NRMC), to determine the open source software components most important to the nation’s critical infrastructure sectors and National Critical Functions.18 This effort should also engage NIST to determine guidelines for the criticality and vulnerability of open source software, creating criteria analogous to the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).19 The effort should result in an ongoing catalog that could be made available to other agencies as well as the public, analogous to the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) program.
2. Congress should establish a process for funding OSS components that are determined to be both critical and in need of support, as well as improvements to the general ecosystem. Such funding could include:
- An emergency fund that supports short-term and narrowly scoped security work, such as bug bounty programs for finding high-severity vulnerabilities or grants for fixing particularly critical vulnerabilities or hardening specific software. For example, qualifying grant proposals could be similar in nature to the Django Fellowship, which helped hire full-time developers to focus on triaging bugs and managing security releases for the open source web framework Django.23
- A fund for non-software-related strategic initiatives or research that may improve the security health of the entire open source ecosystem. For example, this could include events to improve education around security practices in the OSS ecosystem or research initiatives to better understand how open source developers approach dependency management.
### Due diligence
<!-- Please answer the following due diligence questions; it's okay to answer "N/A" if you don't know yet. -->
1. **What related work has already been done in this area?** <!-- Insert answer here -->
2. **How is this proposal innovative -- what distinguishes it from other related work?** <!-- -->
3. **Who is your doer -- who will execute the proposed work?** <!-- Insert answer here -->
4. **How might this work be sustained long-term after an initial seed grant?** <!-- Insert answer here -->
### Resources needed
<!-- What resources are needed (grant money, advisors, expertise, etc.) to realize this proposal? -->
Legislative advocacy
### Other links and resources
<!-- Add any other links, images, or resources that are relevant to the proposal -->
Paper published summarizing this idea: https://www.plaintextgroup.com/reports/securing-open-source-software-at-the-source