Sustain

Guest Tobie Langel Panelists Richard Littauer Show Notes Hello and welcome to Sustain! On today’s episode, we have an amazing guest back for a second time, Tobie Langel, who is an open source strategy consultant and Founder of UnlockOpen. He’s a really great resource for learning about the ins and outs of how open source works, with his common-sense approach to dealing with common issues that we have with open source licenses. One of the reasons he is here is to talk about a wonderful Tweet he sent out about “this” graph of what is and what is not open source. Download this episode now to learn much more as Tobie goes in depth about each quadrant of the graph. [00:02:02] Tobie explains what he meant by “this” that he refers to in the Tweet. [00:04:08] Tobie talks more about licenses and compliance in using open source in corporations. [00:07:06] Richard brings up Tobie’s Tweet about the grid with a Y and X axis and he describes what’s in each quadrant. [00:14:04] We learn what’s in the bottom right quadrant of the graph. [00:17:29] Richard shares his ideas on the early days of open source and Tobie expands on them. [00:24:02] Tobie talks about the role of OSI and how he imagines OSI looking at this going forward. [00:30:16] Richard explains what he thinks about when he thinks of OSI and how the graph is a really useful way of talking with people to figure out where they are. [00:32:24] Find out where you can follow Tobie on the internet. Quotes [00:04:50] “The other thing that corporations really care about are security of the software and the other aspect is community health. Why? And what’s interesting, that security itself has to do really closely to community health.” [00:19:06] “We say that copy left is a hack on copyright, but to some degree open source is a hack on copyright too. It’s a hack on being able to cross sort of corporate borders.” Spotlight [00:33:50] Richard’s spotlights are ICQ, AIM, IRC, and AOL. [00:34:37] Tobie’s spotlight is a book he read called, How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens. Links Tobie Langel Twitter Tobie Langel Linkedin Tobie Langel Graph UnlockOpen Sustain Discourse OSI ICQ New AIM (Software) IRC AOL Credits Produced by Richard Littauer Edited by Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree Sound Show notes by DeAnn Bahr at Peachtree Sound Special Guest: Tobie Langel.Support Sustain

Guest Deb Nicholson Panelists Eric Berry | Justin Dorfman | Alyssa Wright | Richard Littauer Show Notes Hello and welcome to Sustain! Today, we are incredibly privileged to have as our guest, Deb Nicholson, who is Interim General Manager and Interim Executive Director at the Open Source Initiative, as well as a founding organizer of the Seattle GNU/Linux Conference (SeaGL). Deb tells us how she founded SeaGL and what she did in legislature before open source. We learn about a blog post that Elastic wrote, how Deb feels about it, and how OSI is addressing it. Also, we learn how open source is looked at differently by the community and by lawyers, and a talk Deb did about all the different patent clauses in licenses. Find out what Deb is currently doing as the Interim General Manager at OSI and why being kind is so important to her. As well, if you haven’t seen the Seagulls video on YouTube, you have to watch it! Download this episode now to find out more! [00:02:23] Deb tells us the story of how she founded SeaGL, when the next conference will be, and how many people come to it. [00:05:39] Justin brings up a blog post that Elastic wrote recently and asks Deb what her feelings are about it and wonders how OSI is addressing it. Alyssa wonders if there was any direct conversation with somebody from Elastic. [00:09:20] Deb explains the two groups of people, the community and lawyers, and the differences between what they think open source means. [00:11:20] Eric asks Deb if Elastic deserves all the bad press and negative feelings. Deb also tells us what approach Elastic should have taken. [00:14:22] Alyssa asks Deb to speak more about lawyers sit in the community now and what lawyers and people with legal expertise can do to be a part of open source creation and sustainability. [00:16:40] Deb tells us what she did in legislature before open source. [00:17:40] Alyssa asks Deb how she found clarity around all these licenses, was she ever confused about how to navigate, and if she could help people understand and navigate through them. She mentions she did a talk about all the different patent clauses in licenses. [00:20:52] Deb explains how she ended up as the Interim General Manager at the OSI and what she’s currently doing there. [00:22:14] Find out why being kind so important to Deb. [00:25:13] Deb talks about the process of the Cryptographic Autonomous License. [00:26:54] Richard wonders Deb’s thoughts on setting best practices for open source in general, not just licensing, in particular other countries. [00:28:25] Find out where you can follow Deb on the Internet. Quotes [00:06:23] “Basically, we didn’t really think our business model through. We decided we were going to do one thing and then whoops, because we didn’t think it through, now we have to change.” [00:23:24] “It also means that when you go out and you talk to people about your mission you sound like a person that hasn’t had a conversation with someone about anything other than your work five years, because you kind of haven’t.” [00:24:35] “There might be other decisions I could affect, but like you end up sounding really out of touch and it’s not good for your organization and for promoting your mission if you never have perspective.” [00:24:44] “Unfortunately, Deb, you’re one of our guests, and this happens occasionally with our guests who are so eloquent that I can’t even imagine a question ‘cause you just wrapped everything up in such a nice bow that it’s like yes, that’s exactly the problem, that’s a really good point, I totally agree, we should all have more time off!” [00:25:05] “Take a vacation! Never forget! Even if it’s a staycation, because, you know, pandemic.” [00:25:36] “So we don’t draft licenses, that’s the thing we don’t do, but we do look at new licenses, and last year we approved the Cryptographic Autonomous License.” Spotlight [00:29:33] Alyssa’s spotlight is the launch of FundOSS. [00:30:38] Eric’s spotlight is Exercism. [00:31:43] Justin’s spotlights are “The Onion seagull beach interview,” and Katacoda-Interactive Learning and Training Platform we are using for Curiefense. [00:32:33] Richard’s spotlight is WaffleJS. [00:32:49] Deb’s spotlight is a project called Spritely. Links Deb Nicholson Twitter SeaGL.org Opensource.org Elastic- “Doubling Down on Open.” SEAGULLS (Stop it Now) – A Bad Lip Reading of The Empire Strikes Back-YouTube LibrePlanet 2021 Open Source Initiative-The SSPL is Not an Open Source License Social Linux Expo SCaLE19x-March 2022 Mill City Triatholon Podcast-SustainOSS-Episode 62 with Richard Fontana Podcast-SustainOSS -Episode 23 with Josh Simmons Podcast-SustainOSS-Episode 37 with Patrick Masson “Don’t Fear the Patent Clause,” with Deb Nicholson-YouTube Cryptographic Autonomy License-GItHub FundOSS.org Open Collective/Fund OSS Exercism.io The Onion-Seagull beach interview Katacoda Curiefense WaffleJS Spritely Project Credits Produced by Richard Littauer Edited by Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree Sound Show notes by DeAnn Bahr at Peachtree Sound Special Guest: Deb Nicholson.Support Sustain

Guest Jory Burson Panelists Justin Dorfman | Alyssa Wright | Richard Littauer Show Notes Hello and welcome to Sustain! On this episode our special guest is Jory Burson, who is celebrating her birthday with us today! She is the Community Director of OpenJS Foundation, which is a non-profit foundation dedicated to serving the open source JavaScript ecosystem. Today, we will learn all about what Jory does as the Community Director at OpenJS, what the OpenJS Foundation is, why it was formed, and what it formed to do. Also, Jory tells us why she couldn’t imagine working on the web without MDN (Mozilla Developer Network) Web Docs and what the future holds for MDN. In addition, find out what Jory is most excited about going forward at OpenJS. Download this episode now to find out more! [00:01:20] Jory tells us about the OpenJS Foundation and what she means by “home.” [00:03:01] We learn why OpenJS was formed and what it formed to do. [00:06:25] Jory gives a brief history of how she got involved into these dynasties, also the kind of work she does at the Community Director at OpenJS. [00:10:37] Richard asks Jory what she is doing to make sure the projects have a longer life cycle and the work that they do is sustainable in the long term. [00:13:46] Jory tells us what her role is with MDN and she talks about how they restructured the organization. [00:17:27] Justin asks Jory about the future of MDN. [00:19:37] Jory talks about what they’re doing right now with working with MDN and other people to build out a shared roadmap of priorities to make MDN more useful and better than it is today. [00:22:40] Alyssa asks Jory what the balance is and most powerful partnership between these centralizing forces, these other entities, other projects, other contributors that are more distributed, and how do we relate with one another in powerful ways in order to sustain open source. [00:25:33] Jory tells us what’s she most excited about going forward at OpenJS. [00:27:19] Find out where you can follow Jory on the internet. Quotes [00:08:24] “It just blew my mind that there was that consensus of that population of people that’s that subgroup of people was going to make a choice that affected everybody.” [00:08:42] “And so at that point, from that point on, I just became very obsessed with understanding how those decisions got made and how people work together in a group to reach technical decisions and sort of how to make the human interoperability component of our technical interoperability discussions more effective.” [00:10:52] “So first, let me say out loud, that I am not convinced that the objective of any project should be to stick around as long as possible.” [00:11:49] “I think the objective is to help the project understand what is its scope, what is its end game, and how can it effectively move through different life cycles of startup phase, of growth phases, of the sustained phases, or maintenance phases.” [00:12:55] “But instead, because it was a part of the foundation, we were able to find and support new maintainers who could and did have the energy to drive that forward and how it’s really thriving.” [00:16:42] “And so, what we decided to do was find a solution and that’s what we did, we found I think a polyfill for MDN.” [00:20:24] “It’s interesting and kind of unfortunate that this process of moving the content off of the Wiki to GitHub has been a multi-year sort of project.” [00:24:51] “To understand JavaScript you have to understand the whole universe is maybe too much, so how can we and at what point is it appropriate to break those layers down so people can like not have to recreate the whole world.” Spotlight [00:28:28] Justin*’*s spotlight is Buffer.com [00:28:47] Alyssa’s spotlights are a shout-out to Jory’s birthday and the move to build things together to support the ecosystems. [00:30:36] Richard’s spotlight is the Boston JavaScript community of 2016, Jim Kang, Aria Stewart, Jory Burson, Boaz Sender, Gregor Martynus, Ashley Williams, and everyone else. [00:31:13] Jory’s spotlight is three people, Chris Mills at MDN, Dom at W3C, and Michal at jQuery. Links Jory Burson's Twitter Jory Burson's Website Jory Burson's Linkedin OpenJS Foundation MDN Web Docs JavaScriptLandia Standards Working Groups Buffer W3C Credits Produced by Richard Littauer Edited by Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree Sound Show notes by DeAnn Bahr at Peachtree Sound Special Guest: Jory Burson.Support Sustain

Guest Anna Pojawis and Tyler Maran Panelists Eric Berry | Justin Dorfman | Alyssa Wright | Richard Littauer Show Notes Hello and welcome to Sustain! On today’s episode, we have two guests joining us, Tyler Maran and Anna Pojawis, the founders of Rysolv, a crowdfunding platform for open source development. They tell us all about Rysolv and what their motivation was behind starting this company. Find out what types of people respond to bug bounties and what sort of incentives are given to the developers to stick around. We find out if Tyler and Ana are working with companies to help with their program to get more money to build better bounties. Also, find out where to find projects that they are funding, where to find these bounties, and where they want this to go in the future. Download this episode to find out much more! [00:01:08] Tyler and Anna tell us all about Rysolv, how it works, and how they came up with the idea. [00:03:36] Eric wonders what their motivation was behind this company. Tyler shares with us when they began, to where there are now, and the challenges that they face, how they are generating more users, and how they’re advertising and marketing their product. [00:06:40] Tyler talks about what he’s learned around the types of people that respond to bug bounties. [00:08:18] Anna and Tyler explain what they do to incentivize the developers to stick around. [00:10:52] Richard wonders if they are doing anything interesting to look at how to onboard users collectively involving bounties in ways that make sure they stick around, and Justin wonders what their expectations are for the first year. [00:13:27] We learn what qualifies Tyler and Anna and motivates them to be able to run this type of business, and how they are going to solve the financial problems. Tyler makes a reference to a xkcd comic. [00:17:28] Alyssa wonders what an open source community looks like for these projects that are working with bounties and if the people will ever be not paid contributors to the work. Also, she wonders how money is playing within the sustainability of these open source communities. [00:21:08] Richard wonders if Tyler and Anna are working with companies to figure out how to get money shuffled into their program to build better bounties, and how they’re pitching this to people who may have the wallet steep enough to sustain long-term contributions or sustain people to have repeat issues. [00:23:48] In talking about a great moment of getting money into the hands of a developer, Anna tells us about one of the issues that recently got resolved and how they felt after. Tyler and Anna tell us what they each do at Rysolv and Anna tells us what her stack of choice is. [00:26:17] Tyler tells us where you could find projects that he’s funding and where to find these bounties. [00:28:03] Richard asks Tyler to share his hopes and dreams, where he wants this to go in the next six months, and if he wants a unicorn floating in a pool outside of his house.☺ Also, find out where you can get involved and where to follow Tyler, Anna, and Rysolv. Quotes [00:20:13] “We want to build upon the platform so that it can be more like long-term, more sustaining, and have some community building aspect about it.” [00:20:28] “As far as adding financial incentives, we think that open source work should not have to be volunteer work. People should get financial contributions for the amount of work that they put in to sustaining the modern internet.” [00:22:40] “So we’ve got what’s best for the company giving the money, and then you’ve got what’s best for the maintainer.” Spotlight [00:32:52] Justin’s spotlight is Git History Extension for VS Code. [00:33:15] Eric’s spotlight is daily dev, a Daily Chrome Extension. [00:33:57] Alyssa’s spotlight is virtual FOSDEM 2021. [00:34:55] Richard’s spotlight is a tool on npm called License. [00:35:36] Tyler’s spotlight is The Awesome Foundation. [00:36:47] Anna’s spotlight is Discourse. Links Tyler Maran Linkedin Tyler Maran Website Anna Pojawis Linkedin Rysolv Rysolv Twitter Rysolv-GitHub xkcd-A Webcomic of Romance, Sarcasm, Math, and Language Intex Mystic Unicorn Inflatable Spray Pool-Amazon Git History daily.dev FOSDEM 2021 License-npm The Awesome Foundation Discourse-GitHub Credits Produced by Richard Littauer Edited by Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree Sound Show notes by DeAnn Bahr at Peachtree Sound Special Guests: Anna Pojawis and Tyler Maran.Support Sustain

Guest Eriol Fox Panelists Eric Berry | Justin Dorfman | Alyssa Wright | Richard Littauer Show Notes Hello and welcome to Sustain! Today, we welcome regular Sustainer Eriol Fox, the Head of Design at Open Food Network, who is working on a fully funded PhD at Newcastle University, and also one of the hosts of Sustained Open Source Design Podcast. What is a design, and how does design fit into open source? Eriol tells us their thoughts on programming and one important thing you need as a user experience designer. Find out some of Eriol’s favorite toolsets, what Open Food Network is, and all the other things Eriol thinks about as a community-first person. Download this episode now to find out much more! [00:01:26] Eriol tells us what they mean by a Design PR. They also explain what they mean by design, since there are a lot of opinions on what design is. [00:04:36] Alyssa asks Eriol what’s the best way to speak about design and what’s the best way to speak about it without offending anyone. [00:09:47] Eriol tells us their thoughts about programming and if it requires an additional level of talent that just might come natural to some people and not to others. [00:14:33] Having been involved for over ten years in seeing the evolution of technologies come about, Eric asks Eriol if they have any preferences, and if they see the direction of technology leading to a way where everything is going to become modularized components. [00:10:06] Justin wonders what Eriol uses day to day for their tool set and if they only use open source tools. They mention one of their favorites being Penpot. [00:24:46] Alyssa wonders how Eriol applies these design guidelines when they think about map design. They mention checking out a fantastic designer, Justin Scherer. [00:27:57] Eriol tells us all about Open Food Network where they currently work. [00:30:20] Eriol tells us what else they like to do besides what they do now. [00:34:36] Find out all the places you can find Eriol online. Quotes [00:03:07] “And I think it does it a disservice to really talk about it as just a UI uplift ‘cause that really plays into this false narrative that design is just about making things look better. But what it is also doing is improving the experience for these users of a backend system, which is deeply complex.” [00:11:00] “And also I remember I was so fond of one of the backend developers I worked with in my first job, but he routinely would ask me what I was coloring in that day, which is tricky to hear as a designer, especially when you want to engage with a wider community of developers and people that do cool stuff with tech.” [00:12:17] “I really do think, and I know that there are some designers especially that would disagree with me, but I do think that one of the things that you really need, one of the only things you really need as a user experience designer is a curiosity for solving human problems and thinking about why people do the things that they do.” [00:13:03] “So you can operationalize a lot of the empathy process as well, so it’s not something that’s innate skill.” [00:29:15] “I’ve had conversations recently, as recent as this week, with my team about how when lots of PR’s get pushed by contributors or paid members of staff, they actually might be solving Tech Debt, but they might actually be creating user experience debt (UX Debt), and this was a very new term for them.” [00:31:02] “To get a bit mushy for a second, it really gave me the same kind of feelings that I had when I was really involved in my local community development project. So that’s why it felt incredibly natural to be part of the open source community and maybe why it feels like I’ve been around for a long time.” [00:34:11] “Maybe one day we’ll see as many projects that are design related in Outreachy and Google Summer of Code, and maybe even at some point we’ll see a whole scheme which is just for designers in open source.” Spotlight [00:35:47] Eric’s spotlights are the Open Source Design website and his 3D printer. [00:37:08] Justin’s spotlight is a notifier for GitHub browser extension by Sindre Sorhus. [00:37:47] Alyssa’s spotlight is Open Collective Open Web Docs. [00:38:28] Eriol’s spotlight is a piece of open source software called Jamulus. [00:39:45] Richard’s spotlight is one of his best friends, Simon Vansintjan Links Eriol Does Design Eriol Fox Twitter Penpot Justin Scherer Twitter Open Food Network Sustain Open Source Design Podcast Sustain Open Source Design Podcast-Episode 1 FOSS Backstage Open Source 101 Eriol Fox- GitHub Human Rights Centered Design Open Source Design Notifier for GitHub browser extension by Sindre Sorhus Open Collective Open Web Docs Jamulus Credits Produced by Richard Littauer Edited by Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree Sound Show notes by DeAnn Bahr at Peachtree Sound Special Guest: Eriol Fox.Support Sustain

Guest Hong Phuc Dang Panelists Pia Mancini | Richard Littauer Show Notes Hello and welcome to Sustain! Our guest today is Hong Phuc Dang, an awesome open source contributor and long-term member of Sustain. She is also the Founder of FOSSASIA and works with Zalando, a clothing manufacturer and store in Europe. We will learn all about what Hong Phuc does at Zalando. Also, she tells us more about what FOSSASIA is, how many people are in it, how many countries are represented, tensions to deal with, and so much more. And listen here to find out more information on the FOSSASIA Summit 2021, which is happening soon. Download this episode now to find out much more! [00:01:29] Hong Phuc tells us what she does at Zalando and how she works on open source with them. [00:02:52] We learn what FOSSASIA is. [00:03:55] Hong Phuc explains how she found the early reaction of the companies and the general kind of business ecosystem about false principles. [00:07:12] Pia asks Hong Phuc how internationalization compares with the type of projects she is seeing in Asia and how the relationship is. [00:10:01] Richard brings up FOSSASIA and how it has grown, and Hong Phuc tells us how she got from where she was to where she is now, also how many people are in FOSSASIA and how many countries are represented. [00:13:40] Richard asks Hong Phuc if there any tensions in FOSSASIA and if she has to deal with having people from different countries that may not always like each other, working together under the same umbrella. [00:16:07] Hong Phuc talks about the English spoken as the main communication, but how meetings are different in other countries. [00:16:56] Hong Phuc gives us her opinion on insights on India Stack and what they’re building there. [00:18:52] Richard is curious how FOSSASIA compares to Linux Foundation or Open Forum Europe and if Hong Phuc has any interest in setting policy for open source in governments in Asia or in large organizations. [00:20:53] We learn a little more about the FOSSASIA Summit 2021, when it is, what’s going to happen, and how many speakers. [00:22:30] Find out where you can follow Hong Phuc on the internet. Spotlight [00:23:12] Pia’s spotlight is a project called Pi Guard. [00:23:56] Richard’s spotlight is Open Source Café. [00:24:38] Hong’s spotlight is eventyay. Links Hong Phuc Dang Twitter Hong Phuc Dang Linkedin FOSSASIA FOSSASIA Twitter FOSSASIA Linkedin FOSSASIA Instagram FOSSASIA Summit 2021 Zalando Tech Twitter Pi Guard Open Source Cafe eventyay Credits Produced by Richard Littauer Edited by Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree Sound Show notes by DeAnn Bahr at Peachtree Sound Special Guest: Hong Phuc Dang.Support Sustain

Guest Avi Press Panelists Justin Dorfman | Alyssa Wright | Richard Littauer Show Notes Hello and welcome to Sustain! Our guest today is Avi Press, Founder and CEO of Scarf. We learn all about what Scarf is, why it’s called Scarf, and how it works. We also find out how Avi convinced investors to get on board with him and how Scarf is helping open source software developers use data effectively. Find out if there will be any cost for maintainers to join and about the newest product called Scarf Gateway. Download this episode now to find out more! [00:01:00] Avi tells us what Scarf is, what it entails, and how it works. [00:02:41] Avi tells us how the documentation insights work. [00:04:03] Alyssa wants to know why it is called Scarf and Avi tells us how he is dealing with privacy concerns. [00:07:30] Justin asks Avi how he convinced investors to get on board with him. Also, he tells us about the Head of Sales position they are looking for and what this position entails. [00:10:18] Avi talks about how the maintainers have been using the data to date. [00:11:55] Alyssa asks Avi if he can share the differences made to a certain project that he’s seen or if these are still working in a hypothetical space. [00:14:05] Justin saw on GitHub that Avi’s main project, Scarf, is Apache 2.0 and he noticed that is becoming the go-to license when there is a VC involved. He asks Avi if this was chosen before or after the investment. [00:16:23] Since Scarf provides data to open source software developers, Richard asks Avi how he is helping them use that data effectively. [00:18:25] Richard wonders if Avi is going to be batching their clients or is he marketing for them individually. [00:19:54] Richard asks Avi: how do you make that money sustainable to the point where you don’t need to keep going out and asking people, and how do you turn it into a business? [00:22:35] Avi talks about dual licensing. [00:24:44] Richard is curious if Scarf is doing a federated or a decentralized registry and Avi explains about the new product, Scarf Gateway. [00:26:51] Richard asks Avi if this will ever cost maintainers money to join and use his network. [00:28:02] Find out where you can learn more about Scarf and Avi. Spotlight [00:29:21] Justin’s spotlight is CII Best Practices Badge Program. [00:30:07] Alyssa’s spotlight is the Igalia’s Open Prioritization experiment. [00:31:17] Richard’s spotlight is Goal Zero. [00:32:08] Avi’s spotlight is the project Org-roam. Quotes [00:05:02] “And really our thesis here is that currently open source just means sharing code, but we’re trying to say the benefits of that openness can go much beyond the code and actually the data about how that code is used and how that code is interacted with.” [00:07:45] “I want people to be thinking more about how the companies that run open source infrastructure are funded. It’s really important to know, and we’re no exception. So, Scarf is a VC funded company.” [00:10:46] “That’s one really important way is to validate your project by showing real usage of the tool, of the code, etc.” [00:11:07] “By being able to allow maintainers to be proactive rather than reactive there’s just a whole slew of opportunities that are now unlocked for maintainers, instead of having to be reactive to everything.” [00:11:27] “And by being able to let maintainers be more proactive, we’ll have less burnt out maintainers because they’re not constantly feeling like they’re just drowning under the weight of the popularity of their software.” [00:14:38] “And that really, I think is a point that I’d like to underline as well, which is that if you have an open source project and there’s a lot of commercial use and there is a business opportunity there, a lot of developers, they’re not lawyers, they’re not enterprise salespeople, they’re not all the other things that are needed to build a business around an open source project, and that’s what we really want to provide to open source maintainers.” [00:21:42] “And unfortunately right now until Tidelift, if and when they really grow their business out, right now you have a lot of maintainers that are really just competing for that same pie, and the pie is not getting a lot bigger very quickly.” Links Avi Press Website Avi Press Twitter Avi Press Github Avi Press Linkedin Scarf Scarf Twitter Scarf Linkedin CII Best Practices Badge Program Open Collective/Open Prioritization Open Collective/focus-visible in WebKit Goal Zero Org-roam Credits Produced by Richard Littauer Edited by Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree Sound Show notes by DeAnn Bahr at Peachtree Sound Special Guest: Avi Press.Support Sustain

Guest Michael Nolan Panelists Pia Mancini | Richard Littauer Show Notes Hello and welcome to Sustain! The podcast where we talk about sustaining open source. On today’s episode, our special guest is Michael Nolan, Director at the Federation of Humanitarian Technologists and the Assistant Director at Open@RIT. We learn all about what the Federation of Human Technologists is and what they do, and find out what Mike is doing at Open@RIT. He also tells us about his current project on GitHub called Coalesce, that he’s working on in London. Also, did you know Mike has a podcast? Download this episode now to find out much more! [00:00:50] Mike tells us about the Federation of Humanitarian Technologists. [00:03:35] There’s a lot of non-governmental organization (NGOs) in the aid sector that need help, and Mike fills us in on what else is out there to do this sort of open source work to help them out. [00:08:12] Pia wonders how Mike is getting funding and if he’s planning on building a membership organization fee. [00:10:51] Pia poses a great question to Mike about why there isn’t a company that is doing this in a way that is profitable. Mike talks about the Digital Impact Alliance as a great example. [00:12:34] Mike is part of the Ethical Source Working Group at Sustain and he tells us about how this plays into what he’s doing. [00:14:43] Mike explains his GitHub project called Coalesce, a Volunteering Platform, and he also tells us why he is spending his time building it and the reasons they chose this project. He talks about South East Rivers Trust as one of the organizations they work with. [00:23:38] Find out where you can get involved in the Federation of Humanitarian Technologists. [00:24:45] Mike tells us about his new position at Open@RIT, what it is, and what he’s doing there. [00:31:25] Richard mentions Mike has a podcast called the Ethics in Open Source Podcast that you should check out. Spotlight [00:28:00] Pia’s spotlight is a productivity app called WorkFlowy. [00:28:44] Richard’s spotlight is a paper that came out called, “Crisis MT: Developing A Cookbook for MT in Crisis Situations.” [00:29:43] Mike’s spotlights are the Ethical Source Working Group and the Open Mind Project. Links Mike Nolan Twitter Mike Nolan Website mike@federationof.tech Federation of Humanitarian Technologists Federation of Humanitarian Technologists YouTube Open@RIT Open Technology Fund Digital Impact Alliance The Ethical Source Movement South East Rivers Trust Coalesce Impactful Open Source OpenMined WorkFlowy “Crisis MT: Developing A Cookbook for MT in Crisis Situations.” Open Mind Project Ethics in Open Source Podcast Credits Produced by Richard Littauer Edited by Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree Sound Show notes by DeAnn Bahr at Peachtree Sound Special Guest: Michael Nolan.Support Sustain

Panelists Pia Mancini | Alyssa Wright | Richard Littauer Guest Kevin Owocki Show Notes Hello and welcome to Sustain! This is a special edition episode we are doing today. We have the most enthusiastic guest and returning champion Kevin Owocki with us to talk about quadratic/democratic funding, which is a completely new concept, and how we're using it in FundOSS. What is FundOSS? Well, we have a really exciting announcement to make today, so be sure to listen. We are discussing what the fund is and how it works. Also, we will talk about funding open source maintainers and doing it a new way with more money, some of which is coming out of Sustain. Download this episode now to find out what this excitement is all about! [00:01:25] Kevin starts off by explaining the project they are working on called FundOSS.org. We also learn how this is different from traditional matching that happens. [00:06:10] Pia tells us why they are doing this and the main benefits, and Kevin tells us about the crowdfunding campaign and how much money they raised over a two week period. [00:08:47] Kevin explains quadratic funding, a pilot they did, and Bitcoin grants. [00:10:47] Pia asks Kevin to talk a little bit about the funding of the commons and the radical markets framework to it. He mentions a paper written about quadratic funding. [00:14:38] Alyssa asks Kevin to talk about how collectives that are participating can make this a successful campaign for themselves and their budgeting, and the projects that may not be as visible what they can do. [00:16:20] Pia tells us about how Sustain put money towards this fund, how they got to that decision, and what enabled them to do this. [00:17:58] Kevin tells us all the other large sponsors of the work. [00:20:06] Richard wonders who is funding this since they are all here, and if there is an amount of that matching fund that goes towards the owners. Alyssa tells us this is a joint venture with Gitcoin integrating with open source collective. [00:23:00] Richard wonders if any of the money goes towards dependencies or is it only towards really cool project TM, and Alyssa explains. [0025:32] Kevin addresses Richard’s point about only the popular projects getting funded and that being a problem. [00:26:34] Richard tells us everywhere you can follow Kevin on the internet and Alyssa shares one final point about call to actions. Spotlight [00:28:57] Pia’s spotlight is Zanga.tech. [00:29:41] Kevin’s spotlight is Ethereum. [00:30:43] Alyssa’s spotlight is thanking a few people from FundOSS, Zach Herring, Sanchay Mittal, and Octavian Todirut. [00:31:24] Richard’s spotlight is the Low Resource Languages GitHub repo's links. Quotes [00:10:37] “So we’re really trying to adjust the behaviors in the ecosystem to move more towards working on the digital infrastructure that people care about as opposed to projects with private gain associated with them.” [00:11:11] “From what I understand is that public goods, which are goods that are non-excludable in non-rival risks. So, things like clean air, clean water, privacy, open source software is a public good, suffer from something called a free rider problem, which is basically like well this good is non-excludable and non-rivalrous, why should I support it, why should I give it my all? There’s no paywall for open source software.” [00:13:37] “I think it’s just as important that we have a broad sense of distribution of those projects that people don’t know about.” [00:22:51] “Trust the open street maps person to know all about geographies.” Links Kevin Owocki Twitter Kevin Owocki Website FundOSS.org Sustain Podcast-Episode 50-Gitcoin, Quadratic Funding, and how Crypto can sustain Open Source with guest Kevin Owocki Gitcoin A Flexible Design for Funding Public Goods- by Vitalik Buterin, Zoe Hitzig, E.Glen Weyl Open Collective Fund OSS Gitcoin- WTF is Quadratic Funding-video Zanga.tech Ethereum Zach Herring Twitter Low Resource Languages-GitHub Credits Produced by Richard Littauer Edited by Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree Sound Show notes by DeAnn Bahr at Peachtree Sound Special Guest: Kevin Owocki.Support Sustain

Panelists Richard Littauer Guest Ryan Sipes Show Notes Hello and welcome to Sustain! On the episode today, our special guest is Ryan Sipes, the Community and Business Development Manager for Thunderbird, as well as the Treasurer on Thunderbird’s governing body. We learn all about what Thunderbird is and an interesting story of how Ryan ended up there. We also find out when Thunderbird was spun out of Mozilla, the aftermath Ryan had to deal with assuring people it was not dead, and that there were people still working on it. Even though COVID hit this year, Thunderbird has been super successful in obtaining donations, and Ryan shares how they did this. Also, we learn how Ryan gives back for open source projects that Thunderbird uses and find out what Ryan is most excited about in the future for Thunderbird. Download this episode now to find out much more! [00:00:46] Ryan tells us an interesting story how he ended up at Thunderbird, how he applied for the position, and mentions Foss Jobs as a great resource. [00:03:58] Richard asks Ryan how large the contribution base is, how many people he has as active contributors, and if they are contributing on GitHub. [00:05:56] Ryan explains the governance model, where the council fits in, and how they’ve managed to grow during COVID. [00:08:26] We find out how many people use Thunderbird. [00:09:47] Ryan tells us about getting spun out from Mozilla, which happened before him, and living with the aftermath of that when he was there. [00:12:28] Richard asks Ryan how he would have done things differently if he was Mozilla’s leadership board. [00:13:46] We find out when Ryan was brought on as a Bus Dev, what did he initially start doing and what else did he did to help make sure the project had more money in time. [00:17:27] Richard asks if Ryan sees any differences in the kind of users who use Thunderbird and if he’s trying to cater to them in particular, as opposed to people who just use Gmail for their day to day purposes. [00:22:43] Richard wonders how Ryan asks for money so effectively and if he has any tips on how to get donations since he does it so well. [00:29:03] Ryan tells us how he gives back for his open source projects that Thunderbird uses. [00:31:06] Ryan talks about what he’s most excited about in the future for Thunderbird. [00:32:41] Find out where you can follow and find out more about Ryan and Thunderbird. Spotlight [00:33:42] Richard’s spotlight is mailing list by Martin Edwardes called the EAORC (Evolutionary Anthropology Online Research Cluster). [00:34:37] Ryan’s spotlights are two projects called EteSync and Etebase. Quotes [00:07:10] “When I was looking at the coronavirus, I was very worried because 99.9% of our funding comes from in-kind gifts, from donations.” [00:16:02] “One thing that really, I guess made us successful at the level we are, like this year we’re going to do $2.3 million in donations, and so, that’s reasonably good. But so much of that came from explicitly letting users, letting donors know that we need the support in order to produce a really high-quality piece of software.” [00:25:46] “I thought, well, maybe the thing is we just have to ask, and be very upfront about it, and it seemed like such a small thing but I told my team we have got to ask people as soon as they download, and it says your download has started, and then the ask, and we did that, and immediately donations went up substantially.” Links Ryan Sipes Website Ryan Sipes Twitter Thunderbird Twitter Thunderbird Foss Jobs EAORC (Evolutionary Anthropology Online Research Cluster) by Martin Edwardes EteSync Credits Produced by Richard Littauer Edited by Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree Sound Show notes by DeAnn Bahr at Peachtree Sound Special Guest: Ryan Sipes.Support Sustain