React Foundation Leader on What’s Next for the Framework

Better bootcamps, helping underserved React communities and — yes, React devotees — a merchandising store are all on Seth Webster’s to-do list as the first executive director of the new React Foundation.

“It’s really funny that one of the top requests I’ve gotten since people found out about the React Foundation is, when is the merch store launching?” Webster said. “If you didn’t get to the conference — and it’s very limited attendance at conference, we capped tickets like 600 or 700 —that’s the only way you can get the swag. People around the world are like, ‘I want a React jacket, I want a React hoodie, I want React this’.”

The newly created React Foundation, announced Oct. 7, will be the new home for React, React Native and some supporting projects such as JSX. It will be established under the umbrella of The Linux Foundation.

The foundation has been a long time in the making. Internally, Meta employees Webster, Matt Carroll, Joe Savona, Eli White, Sophie Alpert and Rick Hanlon spent four years laying the groundwork and preparing React to leave its Meta nest.

Why Meta Agreed to a React Foundation

Meta is laser-focused on AI internally, a fact that’s become pretty clear from its public actions, Webster noted. But that doesn’t mean there’s less interest in React internally, he said.

“In fact, most, if not all, of the tools at Meta built for the process of us working internally on AI, and the stuff we’re using to prototype externally with AI, are built with React,” Webster said.

But it’s become evident that both React and React Native have outgrown their Facebook roots.

“The thing that’s become really evident is that over the past decade, but really in the past six years or so, React has become an indispensable part of the way that the web is built and runs, [the way that] Chrome works and the way that mobile apps are built,” he said. “It’s become more important than a single team should be responsible for maintaining.”

Meta is definitely not abandoning React. It’s still important to the social media company’s future, Webster said. Meta has contributed the most to spinning up the foundation and has committed to it for over five years, he added. It will have a supermajority on the corporate governance committee for the first two and a half years as well, a situation that will likely give it heavy sway over where React heads in the near term.

“It’s more like our focus is changing: Let’s make sure that we involve all these other companies in a way that’s much more compatible with keeping React healthy for the long term, “ he said.

React Foundation Business Governance Plan

The business side of the React Foundation’s governance is in the process of being ratified now with the corporate partners, who pay a sponsorship fee to be on that board, providing a second source of income for it.

So far, those business partners are:

• Meta;
• Amazon;
• Callstack, a React consultancy based in Poland and a core contributor to React Native;
• Expo, a full-stack React Native framework and infrastructure company;
• Microsoft;
• Software Mansion, software development firm; and
• Vercel, a frontend infrastructure platform.

The technical side of governance has been taking place much more in the open than it once did, with requests for comments and proposals, Webster said. Those ideas go through a set of stages before reaching the canary stage, when the public can start using them. That process likely will continue as is, he noted.

React Foundation Technical Governance

As for who will sit on the technical governance committee, that’s still in the works.

”We do have people on the slate for taking on technical governance jobs with the React Foundation,” he said. “I’m not going to say names today, but I’m excited about that.”

The technical roadmap will likely stay very similar to what it is now, he added.

As for Webster, he will remain an employee of Meta and be an unpaid employee of The Linux Foundation, a situation that he said is common.

Webster’s Goals for the Foundation

Webster has a list of goals for the Foundation out of the gate. His first objective is to invest in React hubs around the world, though he declined to specify which community hubs.

“I want to make investments in those communities, so that we can continue to see them flourish,” he said. “Especially if we can find great communities that are in underserved areas, because React — as dominant as it is in the world — it’s still a long way to go in terms of helping with my north star, which is to change the economic trajectory of people’s lives by helping them bring their ideas to life.”

He hopes to “put gas in the tank” of smaller communities to help them flourish. The foundation will also help shore up communities that might be doing well but could be doing better, he added.

Another goal is to offer help the bootcamps teaching React. That includes funding scholarships, but it also means improving how the bootcamps teach React.

“We have lots of boot camps out there that are doing their best, but they’re also sending people out into the world misinformed about how React works.”
– Seth Webster, executive director of the React Foundation

“We have lots of boot camps out there that are doing their best, but they’re also sending people out into the world misinformed about how React works,” he said. “React is very hard to teach, so let’s fix that part of React so that it’s actually not so hard to teach.”

There are also cohorts such as meetups and local groups that could be assisted, he continued. One meetup actually lead to the creation of the conference React Native London, he said.

“They’re still not for profit, but they are able to do that, break even and do this beautiful community event,” he said. “There’s those kinds of cohorts where we want to help the local, independent developer meetup become something that has food, drinks and great speakers.”

For instance, the React Foundation could help bring in some of the React core team or representatives from the React Foundation or The Linux Foundation to teach the community and help get everyone aligned, he explained.

He also hopes to reach out to the numerous vendors who host React-branded conferences. Specifically, he wants to ensure these events adhere to React’s code of conduct or, if they prefer not to, that those conferences are rebranded as something other than React.

“Many of those are totally aligned with our values, and we love what they’re doing and [will] continue to help those communities,” he said. “Then there are some of those that we don’t like so much how they show up and represent the community.”

Finally, the foundation will look at expanding the annual React Conf. Some of what the conference was able to do was restricted because it was under Meta, he said. For instance, the conference couldn’t have a merchandise store when Meta ran it, but now it will, he said.

While React Conf is one of the “few conferences that actually makes a profit,” he said, it basically only paid for itself. Now, the conference will become the third funding wheel for the React Foundation.

Reaching More People with React

Overall, the ultimate goal is to make React more accessible to more people and even to bring some frontend developers back to the fold.

“There’s been a lot that we’ve done that’s alienated parts of the community and caused people to work on competing frameworks and so forth,” he said. “That’s a huge part of what makes innovation so successful is having that pressure, so I’m really happy to see that. But, I also want to do everything we can to make sure that everybody feels as welcome and heard and a part of the React community as they should.”

Editor’s Note: Updated Oct. 21 at 4 p.m. EST to add Eli White and Sophie Alpert to the team who worked to create the React Foundation and to correct the spelling of Rick Hanlon.