OSS + ELC EU 2026

I'm a psychologist and researcher at the [Software Stewardship Lab](https://stewardshiplab.org/). Moved by the extent of burnout among Open Source developers, I have written what I believe to be the most comprehensive report to date on burnout in Open Source. This entailed a review of the academic literature, a qualitative analysis of online discussion in the OSS community, and interviews with OSS maintainers.

I present 5 factors my research identified that contribute to developer burnout: difficulty getting paid, workload and time commitment, maintenance work as unrewarding, toxic community behaviour and hyper-responsibility. I discuss 3 structural changes we can make to address developer burnout: make it easier for OSS developers to get paid, distribute maintenance responsibilities, and strengthen developer community, solidarity and capacity for advocacy. Finally, I preview the findings of a follow-up study I am currently undertaking exploring the impact of the rise of AI coding on OSS developer burnout, including where it is exacerbating existing causes of burnout, and where it might help alleviate them.