The future of the widespread core JavaScript library is uncertain since its developer was detained after a fatal road accident last year. Core is a standard modular JavaScript library with functions for performing general operations. Often used for poly fills to implement contemporary browser functionality in older, less powerful browsers.
It is not the first time that the maintenance of an established project abruptly breaks down. In this case, the sudden end of maintenance would not be a drama, but an orderly transition in responsibility would have been helpful in this case as well. Open source developers of common projects should response to acting proactively in the foreseeable absence and setting the status to absent.
Encouraged Popular Projects From Personal Account To An Organization
To access to advanced community management capabilities, adding at least one other co-owner ensures that the project can continue even if a single responsible person is not available. The risk of a stroke of fate, an accident or a legal dispute is particularly high in projects in which a single person is responsible for the maintenance and updating of the open source code. This can have reaching consequences for large code libraries and the software that depends on them.
Repositories can be researched, so that a vital split occurs in the footsteps of the repository that broke down. In general, accounts can also be transferred, for example in the event of illness, relatives, employees or business partners. Especially in times of the corona pandemic, the topic digital estate regulation stimulates: The current crisis raises old and new questions about the ownership of individuals versus shared responsibility and open source code in the hands of communities and organizations.
