As the open source author of a popular project (5 years old and over 5K stars on GitHub), I can relate the problem but at the same time, I think that some solutions could make the problem even worse.
There are actually two 'fairness' issues in open source and from my experience each one is as bad as the other:
1. Fairness in terms of projects getting the amount of attention that they deserve.
2. Fairness in financial terms.
If corporations start donating and drawing attention to some projects more than others, it will cause both problems to worsen. This is because open source projects which are backed by a lot of funding and have strong connections with corporations tend to naturally draw more attention and thus funding because developers and bloggers are more likely to talk, write and tweet about them (regardless of actual merit). It reinforces the importance of social connections and turns an otherwise honorable and altruistic pursuit into a social-climbing financial scheme.
TBH, I'd prefer it if corporations did not get involved at all. If they did, I could only pray that my project would get its fair share of funding. The unfortunate reality of capitalism is that some people will get very lucky but it's just not going to be you. Luck is often paid for at the expense of others; if your competitor gets lucky and walks into a pile of a few million dollars, that's very bad luck for you. Corporations already took the meritocracy out of tech startups, it would be a shame if they also took the meritocracy out of open source (more than they already have).
Open source is very far from a meritocracy but it's probably the closest thing possible to it in the tech industry and we should keep it that way. The best way to do this is to keep the big money out.
There are actually two 'fairness' issues in open source and from my experience each one is as bad as the other:
1. Fairness in terms of projects getting the amount of attention that they deserve.
2. Fairness in financial terms.
If corporations start donating and drawing attention to some projects more than others, it will cause both problems to worsen. This is because open source projects which are backed by a lot of funding and have strong connections with corporations tend to naturally draw more attention and thus funding because developers and bloggers are more likely to talk, write and tweet about them (regardless of actual merit). It reinforces the importance of social connections and turns an otherwise honorable and altruistic pursuit into a social-climbing financial scheme.
TBH, I'd prefer it if corporations did not get involved at all. If they did, I could only pray that my project would get its fair share of funding. The unfortunate reality of capitalism is that some people will get very lucky but it's just not going to be you. Luck is often paid for at the expense of others; if your competitor gets lucky and walks into a pile of a few million dollars, that's very bad luck for you. Corporations already took the meritocracy out of tech startups, it would be a shame if they also took the meritocracy out of open source (more than they already have).
Open source is very far from a meritocracy but it's probably the closest thing possible to it in the tech industry and we should keep it that way. The best way to do this is to keep the big money out.