How to convince your boss to sponsor Open Web Docs
Does your organization rely on MDN?
Do you often need to check compatibility tables on MDN or caniuse.com?
Do you use developer tools like browser DevTools and VSCode in your daily work?
If so, you rely on the work that Open Web Docs does very directly, and should consider sponsoring them. Here is how to convince your boss to sponsor OWD!
Is this for me?
Any organization which finds itself in either of the below cases has a highly strategic interest in the health of the web platform, and therefore in the availability of its developer documentation and compatibility data:
- Organizations which depend on the web platform to build their products. This is basically most organizations today, whether they're building websites, web apps, native apps that use web technologies, or even server-side applications that use web runtimes.
- Or organizations which directly participate in advancing the web platform (such as browser vendors).
What's MDN and OWD?
MDN is the de facto center of gravity for web platform docs and compatibility data. It is critical infrastructure for the developer community on the web, and there is no comparable equivalent. This resource is vendor-agnositic, up to date, and high-quality.
While MDN, the website itself, is owned and maintained by Mozilla, the content and data that appears on it is the result of multiple actors. One of the most prominent of which is Open Web Docs (OWD).
OWD protects the health of MDN's content and data, while preserving the core value of vendor-agnosticism and insulating the community from potential risks that could be introduced by Mozilla's shifts of strategy with their website.
There's more to OWD than MDN
Furthermore, the content and data which OWD creates reaches far beyond the MDN Web Docs website:
- Compatiblity data is used to power caniuse.com, which is another critical resource for web developers.
- Content and data is integrated in more and more developer tooling solutions, such as VSCode, WebStorm, linters, build tools, and browser DevTools.
- Baseline, which has grown to be a critical resource for web developers, is also based on MDN's compatibility data.
- AI agents, which developers rely more and more for coding, are also trained on MDN's documentation, and MCP servers that fetch content, compat data, and Baseline information are used to provide up-to-date information to these agents.
OWD not only writes docs and keeps data up to date, it also runs and maintains the infrastructure that ensures that it remains up to date.
What's in it for our organization?
Sponsoring OWD gets you the following benefits:
- It ensures that the content and data on MDN, and in many other places, continues to be high-quality and up to date.
- It can get your organization a seat on the OWD steering or governing committee, which allows you to partner directly with OWD on the next challenges for web documentation.
- It publicly demonstrates your commitment to the health of the web and the developer community.
Playing devil's advocate: what would happen if OWD were not to be sponsored?
Not sponsoring OWD comes with significant long-term risks:
- MDN content and data slowly becoming outdated, lower quality, and not representative of the web platform as a whole. This would have a significant impact on developers productivity, and their ability to build on the web platform.
- Out of date compatibility data would break production websites, tools, and ultimately developer trusts in the web platform.
But wait, couldn't we just write our own docs, or contribute to MDN directly?
Alternatives, such as writing your own technical documentation, or contributing to MDN directly, aren't as effective:
- Documentation platforms other than MDN have nowhere near the same reach or credibility and have higher ongoing maintenance costs.
- Contributing to MDN directly is of course very much encouraged, but getting your engineers or PMs to write docs, or hiring your own writers with limited experience will have substantially worse return on investment than working with professional writers who already have extensive industry experience and deep connections with browser vendors and standards bodies.
How do I become a sponsor?
One simple way is to donate money to ensure that OWD is able to continue its work. There are two ways to do this:
But if your organization relies on the work OWD does in a longer term strategic way, you should seriously consider becoming a Silver, Gold, or Platinum sponsor. To learn all about it, check out the Membership page.