Dries Buytaert Urges Governments to Fund Open Source as Essential Digital Infrastructure

Dries Buytaert, founder of the Drupal open-source project, is urging governments to begin treating Open-Source software as public infrastructure and to fund it accordingly.

In a recent post, Dries outlined how Open Source has evolved over the past 15 years from volunteer-driven beginnings to commercial sponsorship, and now requires government support to remain stable and secure. He argues that governments rely heavily on Open Source to deliver public services but rarely contribute back, creating a long-term risk to critical digital systems.

Dries cites a 2024 Harvard Business School study that estimates the cost of replacing widely used open-source software at $8.8 trillion. He points out that 96% of that value depends on just 5% of contributors—many of whom lack stable funding.

“Maintaining Open Source isn’t free,” he writes. “Governments need to shift from consumption to contribution.”

He proposes several policy steps: tracking the health of critical Open Source projects, committing to long-term funding, updating procurement policies to reward upstream contributions, and adopting “Public Money, Public Code” policies to ensure publicly funded software is released as Open Source.

Countries like Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland are already implementing such strategies. International institutions, including the UN and the EU, have also taken steps toward recognising and supporting Open Source as a public good.

Dries concludes that without broader government involvement, the digital infrastructure behind essential public services remains fragile.

“This is not about replacing the role of companies or volunteers,” he writes. “It’s about making sure the foundation is strong enough to support them all.”