  Due to the increasing number of attacks targeting open source library
ecosystems, assisting maintainers has become a top priority. This is especially
important since maintainers are usually overworked. Although the motivation of
Open Source developers has been widely studied, the extent to which maintainers
assist libraries that they depend on is unknown. Surveying NPM developers, our
early results indicate a difference in motivation between maintaining their own
library (i.e., more person driven), as opposed to professional factors (i.e.,
focus on skills and expertise) when contributing to the software ecosystem.
Finally, our thematic analysis shows different motivations and barriers
developers face when contributing to the ecosystem. These results show that
developers have different motivations and barriers depending on the role they
play when making contributions to the ecosystem.
