CHAOSScast Episode 122: Meet the 2025 CHAOTICS of the month!
Thank you to the folks at Sustain for providing the hosting account for CHAOSSCast!
CHAOSScast – Episode 122
In this episode of CHAOSScast, host Georg and co-host Alice introduce a special feature showcasing the “CHAOTICS of the Month” who are members recognized for their exceptional contributions to the CHAOSS open source community. Today, they chat with David Lippert, Victoria Ottah, and Cali Dolfi. David Lippert, Director of the Open Source Program Office at George Washington University, discusses his journey into academia and open source with a focus on public interest technology. Victoria Otta, a UX designer and accessibility advocate, shares her experiences and contributions to the CHAOSS community, particularly in accessibility auditing and inclusion of people with disabilities in open source. Cali Dolfi, a senior data scientist at Red Hat, talks about her work in community data analysis and the Data Science Working Group. Hit download now to hear more!
[00:01:42] Georg highlights the purpose of the today’s episode that includes three guests from the “CHAOTICS of the Month” series.
[00:01:56] The first CHAOTIC guest is David Lippert. He shares his background being a former software and data engineer, now in academia, and works under a Sloan Foundation grant supporting university OSPOs.
[00:05:17] Georg addresses the lack of open source awareness among faculty and encourages integration of open source into academic programs.
[00:06:37] David shares his connection to CHAOSS, joining through the CURRIOSS network of academic OSPOs and talks about working with the UN SDG Working Group to measure global impact through open source. He mentions two GWU students won a UN hackathon related to open source data management.
[00:10:56] David talks about how metrics vary based on context ( IT department vs. researcher focus).
[00:12:44] The next CHAOTIC guest is Victoria Ottah. She shares her background and her journey into CHAOSS, which is the first open source community she joined. CHAOSS provided clarity and mentorship since she was initially struggling as a designer and mentions having early support from Ruth and other maintainers.
[00:16:18] Victoria discusses the need to make GitHub and contribution platforms more welcoming to designers and suggests simplified onboarding and linking repositories to Figma or design workspaces.
[00:17:45] Victoria’s career goals and focus for 2026 is being a certified accessibility advocate to CHAOSS web projects and advocates for including people with disabilities early in the open source design and development process.
[00:20:39] Find out where you can connect with Victoria online.
[00:21:33] The last CHAOTIC guest is Cali Dolfi. She shares her background, starting as a data science intern in 2020, and focused on community analytics. She works with CHAOSS tools Augur and 8Knot for data visualization and analysis.
[00:25:26] Cali is really excited about working in the Data Science Working Group, collaborating with researchers to explore methods for analyzing open source communities, and developing Practitioner Guides to help organizations interpret metrics effectively.
[00:28:03] Cali encourages new contributors to start by joining working groups aligned with their interests and notes that groups are small and welcoming, offering mentorship and practical work.
Value Adds (Picks) of the week:
- [00:30:40] Georg’s pick is drying garden herbs in a dehydrator to make tea.
- [00:31:06] Alice’s pick is tending a backyard pond and raising goldfish.
- [00:33:03] David’s pick is hosting a movie night featuring, The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz, to inspire ethics in open source*.*
- [00:34:59] Victoria’s pick is being proud of reaching her fitness goals.
- [00:35:23] Cali’s pick is celebrating recovery from ACL surgery and returning to running and playing volleyball after two years.
Panelists:
Georg Link
Alice Sowerby
Guests:
David Lippert
Victoria Ottah
Cali Dolfi
Links:
CHAOSS
CHAOSS Project X
CHAOSScast Podcast
CHAOSS YouTube
CHAOSS Slack
podcast@chaoss.community
Georg Link Website
Alice Sowerby LinkedIn
David Lippert Bluesky
David Lippert GitHub
Victoria Ottah Website
Victoria Ottah LinkedIn
CHAOSScast Podcast episode featuring Victoria Ottah
Cali Dolfi LinkedIn
CHAOSScast Podcast episodes featuring Cali Dolfi
CHAOTIC of the Month - David Lippert (CHAOSS Monthly-GitHub)
CHAOTIC of the Month – Victoria Ottah (CHAOSS Monthly-GitHub)
CHAOTIC of the Month - Cali Dolfi (CHAOSS Monthly-GitHub)
CURIOSS
CHAOSS United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG) Working Group
CHAOSS Data Science Working Group
The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz
Special Guests: Cali Dolfi and Victoria Ottah.