AI's unexpected maintainer burden

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CHAOSScast – Episode 125

In this final episode of the year from CHAOSScast, hosts Alice Sowerby and Harmony Elendu welcome members of the CHAOSS Board, Sean Goggins, Anita Ihuman, Georg Link, and Elizabeth Barron, for an in-depth discussion on the project's developments and future. They share their reflections on key events and trends in the open-source community over 2025. Topics include the impact of AI on open source, shifts in funding, community engagement, and the importance of psychological safety. The panelists also spotlight various CHAOSS working groups, including education, design, and technical writing, while sharing their wishes for the CHAOSS Project in 2026. Press download now!

[00:00:49] The hosts and guests introduce themselves and their backgrounds.

[00:02:28] Georg announces CHAOSScon in Brussels, Jan 29, 2026, Co-located with FOSDEM.

[00:04:51] The guests talk about factors affecting OSS communities in 2025.

[00:11:39] We hear where CHAOSS grew the most in 2025 such as regional chapters, global reach, CHAOSS Asia, with shout-outs to Divvya Mohan and Rowland Mosbergen, how metrics are being used, Design Working Group, accessibility, Practitioner Guides, and two new working groups.

[00:19:45] The panel shares project and working groups they’re most proud of: Package Management, AI Alignment, Alice and Harmony for keeping CHAOSScast podcast active and alive, Paul and Peachtree Sound for editing the podcast and keeping episodes on track, Education Project, Practitioner Guides, and shared ownership of community growth.

[00:28:55] What is some work that went under the radar in 2025? The guests talk about DEI Working Group, DEI Badging, Harmony and the Technical Writers Working Group, and AI’s impact on maintainers.

[00:35:41] Georg and Sean have additional thoughts on AI identity and bots. Current tooling assumes human contributions, but AI agents and bots break those assumptions and there’s a need for better identity solutions and metrics that distinguish humans, bots, and multi-account actors.

[00:39:33] Elizabeth would love people to give CHAOSS more feedback on engagement for newcomers to make onboarding smoother and encourages people to use the Education Project as a starting point.

[00:42:07] Georg, Sean, and Anita talk about CHAOSS board priorities for 2025-2026.

[00:45:25] Everyone shares their wishes for CHAOSS in 2026.

[00:48:52] If anyone has any ideas, topics, questions, and guests for future CHAOSS episodes please send us an email. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Panelists:

Alice Sowerby

Harmony Elendu

Guests:

Sean Goggins

Anita Ihuman

Georg Link

Elizabeth Barron

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

CHAOSS YouTube

podcast@chaoss.community

Georg Link Website

Harmony Elendu X

Alice Sowerby LinkedIn

Sean Goggins X

Elizabeth Barron X

Anita Ihuman GitHub

CHAOSScon 2026 Brussles, Belgium

FOSDEM 2026

CHAOSS Education Project

CHAOSS Onboarding Courses-GitHub

CHAOSS Practitioner Guides

First Person Project White Paper

The Road Ahead For Identity Management In Open Source: Humans, Bots, AI Agents-And The Future Of Attribution by Diane Mueller (Bitergia)

CHAOSScast Podcast-Episode 121: Package Metadata Working Group with Andrew Nesbitt and Damián Vicino

CHAOSScast Podcast-Episode 100: Celebrating 100 episodes of CHAOSScast

CHAOSScast Podcast-Episode 76: CHAOSS Goals for 2024 and Beyond

CHAOSScast Podcast-Episode 71: What’s New in CHAOSS: Podcast Reboot Episode

CHAOSScast Podcast-Episode 49: CHAOSS Community Year 2021 in Review

CHAOSScast Podcast-Episode 1: Hello, World!

Peachtree Sound

Special Guest: Anita ihuman.

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