The Business of Open Source Navigating Risks and Building Open Source Communities with Dawn Foster
Jan 5, 2022
28:07
Dawn Foster, Director of Open Source Community Strategy at VMware, joins me to chat about open sourcing and the potential risks to consider. With 20+ years of experience in business technology, Dawn lends great insight not only as a leader in the realm of open source, but as a champion for measuring project health.
In this episode, Dawn discusses key risks to consider when open sourcing a project and what startups and small companies should think about as they embrace open source technologies. We also explore trust as a currency of open source, donating to neutral foundations, the CNCF Project Health Measurement Guide, and more.
Highlights:
- What companies should consider when open sourcing a project. (00:24)
- Risks associated with open sourcing and the advantage of contributing projects to foundations. (03:59)
- Dawn explores the interrelation between using and contributing to an open source project. (07:26)
- A discussion about evaluating and prioritizing a large number of projects - and why smaller companies should be deliberate about the open source technologies they embrace. (11:49)
- A look at contributor risk with examples of how the risks can vary depending on the project. (17:09)
- The value of trust in the open source - and Kim’s final thoughts on measuring project health. (22:35)
Links:
Connect with Dawn:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawnfoster/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/geekygirldawn
- Fast Wonder Blog: https://fastwonderblog.com/
- VMware: https://www.vmware.com/