Guest Malvika Sharan Panelist Richard Littauer Show Notes In this episode, host Richard has a conversation with guest Malvika Sharan, a senior research associate and open source community manager at The Turing Way. Malvika gives fascinating insights into the journey and rationale behind The Turing Way, which is a data science guide and community collaborative project, seeking to make data science more open, accessible, and inclusive. The Turing Way is also much more than its curated guides, serving as a space for enthusiasts to exchange ideas and contribute to the project. Richard and Malvika dig deep into the importance of effective recognition for contributions, Malvika’s commitment to financial compensation within the constraints of the system, along with the persistence of volunteerism in open source work. Amid her busy year, Malvika is preparing for this chapter of The Turing Way’s journey to enter an exciting 2024 and 2025 phase as they look to engage more directly with organizations that haven’t yet adopted open source collaborative practices advocated by The Turing Way. Press download not to hear more! [00:01:17] Malvika explains The Turing Way as a collaborative book project on open science and data science, founded by Kristie Whittaker in 2019, which has evolved significantly with her as co-lead. Also, The Turing Way started as a book on GitHub aimed at making data science more open. [00:04:09] Richard clarifies that The Turing Way is a Jupyter book, and Malvika discusses the evolution of The Turing Way and its role in advocating for open source practices within data science projects. [00:05:55] Richard asks why there isn’t a specific guide for open source, and Malvika explains that The Turing Way integrates open source principles throughout and addresses concerns about open practices in sensitive areas. [00:08:07] Richard inquires about the name, The Turing Way, an Malvika recounts its origin relating to the Alan Turing Institute and the idea of reproducibility. [00:09:26] The discussion turns to community involvement in The Turing Way. Malvika talks about different types of community events and how individuals become part of the community through collaboration and self-identification. [00:12:15] The concept of “emergent strategy” from the book by Adrienne Maree Brown is explained as an influence on the community aspect of The Turing Way. [00:13:13] Richard inquires about the sustainability of The Turing Way as an open source project and its funding and staff structure. Malvika explains that it’s funded by the Alan Turing Institute and discusses the Institute’s support and staff dedicated to the project, including a new project manager. [00:16:16] Richard asks how The Turing Way collects feedback and demonstrates its impact on sustainability for projects that use it. Malvika shares experiences of community members using The Turing Way to influence their organizations and mentions collaborations like The Environmental Data Science book project. [00:18:03] Malvika talks about how she launched The Turing Way Practitioners Hub to gather and share evidence. [00:19:42] Richard questions what it means to adopt The Turing Way, and Malvika clarifies that it refers to adopting the practices of open and collaborative data science. [00:20:16] They address the breadth versus depth of The Turing Way’s content and the idea of creating sector-specific resources. [00:24:00] Malvika speaks about outreach through talks and workshops, and highlights the diversity of narratives within The Turing Way community, such as activism for [00:26:20] Richard notices the lack of Welsh language resources in The Turing Way and wonders why it’s not included. Malvika acknowledges this as a shortcoming due to underrepresentation in the community. [00:27:19] How does The Turing Way support careers of its contributors? Malvika talks about the importance of recognition, mentioning the All Contributors Bot for immediate recognition, chairing working groups, and listing significant contributors in the book. [00:30:31] Richard asks how The Turing Way supports contributors financially. Malvika stresses the value of volunteerism for skill-building and personal growth. She also talks about The Turing Way’s efforts in compensating contributors through grants and mentions the limitations of institutional funding structures. [00:33:58] Malvika tells us where you can find updates and involvement opportunities on The Turing Way, and where you can follow her online. Quotes [00:05:08] “The project itself is built on a lot of open source technology.” [00:06:00] “The Turing Way is a sneaky open source.” [00:09:48] “Sometimes it happens that you don’t think you’re a part of a community, but you are part of a community, it’s just someone didn’t tell you that you are part of the community.” [00:24:27] “I think of The Turing Way as an extension of digital commons that people should use and fare, but also maintain and support.” Spotlight [00:35:31] Richard’s spotlight is the Montpelier Library in Montpelier, Ohio. [00:36:11] Malvika’s spotlight is Laurah Ondari, a wonderful podcaster, and her podcast, The Science In Real Life. Links SustainOSS SustainOSS Twitter SustainOSS Discourse podcast@sustainoss.org SustainOSS Mastodon Open Collective-SustainOSS (Contribute) Richard Littauer Mastodon Malvika Sharan X/Twitter Malvika Sharan Website The Turing Way The Turing Way start page The Turing Way X/Twitter Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by Adrienne Maree Brown The Alan Turing Institute AI UK The Environmental Data Science book-GitHub The Turing Way Practitioners Hub Emergent Strategy: Organizing for Social Justice (Forte Labs) All Contributors Montpelier Public Library Laurah Ondari LinkedIn The Science In Real Life Podcast Credits Produced by Richard Littauer Edited by Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree Sound Show notes by DeAnn Bahr Peachtree Sound Special Guest: Malvika Sharan.Support Sustain

Angie Byron, Director of Community at Aiven, discusses overseeing 11 open source projects, prioritizing tasks by impact, and using a 'start at the end' goal-setting exercise. She highlights challenges of transparency in open source projects and the importance of involving community members. The podcast also delves into strategies for corporate involvement in open source, decision-making processes, and promoting meetups for learning about technologies like Kafka and Postgres.

Guest Bolaji Ayodeji Panelist Richard Littauer Show Notes In this episode, host Richard has a conversation with and guest, Bolaji Ayodeji, Software Engineer, Content Creator, Community Engineer, and an organizer of the OSCA (Open Source Community Africa), the biggest open source conference in Africa. Bolaji highlights the Sustain conference at OSCA, emphasizing the recent summit’s wide range of workshops, significant attendance, and the introduction of new working groups, particularly in mental health and data science. The importance of self-care and workload management in the open source community is a key topic, and Bolaji shares some strategies to maintain physical health while functioning in high-demand roles. Looking forward, they are making plans for the 2024 festival with a hope of attracting a more diverse group of attendees! Hit download now to hear more! [00:01:20] Bolaji tells us OSCA’s been around four years, with the conference itself being three years old, and he mentions the first Sustain in Africa happened in 2020, following the one in Belgium. [00:02:00] The conversation shifts to the Sustain conference at OSCA, which includes a variety of workshops. Bolaji details this year’s Sustain summit, the duration of the event, the number of working groups, and attendance. [00:03:25] Bolaji describes the format of the sessions at Sustain, his role with the timer, and the facilitation process. [00:04:21] Richard appreciates the work put into organizing the event and Bolaji shares his excitement about introducing new working groups focused on areas like mental health and data science. [00:06:33] Bolaji explains that the reports from the event are being prepared and will be published on the SustainOSS website. [00:07:19] The conversation turns to the challenge of organizing workshops on burnout and the focus of these sessions. Bolaji talks about the burnout and mental health session, discussing the importance of self-care and managing workload. [00:09:35] Richard and Bolaji discuss the scale of OSCA and the proportion of attendees who contribute to open source as a full-time job versus a side project. [00:10:31] Bolaji provides a few tips on maintaining wellbeing while contributing to open source, including prioritizing tasks, having a life outside work, and ensuring rest and relaxation. [00:12:44] Richard asks Bolaji about any surprises from the Sustain sessions, and he notes that there was a varied interest in different working groups, with more interest in some than others. [00:14:18] Will there be future events coming up? Bolaji confirms that there will be another Open Source Festival and Sustain Summit in 2024, but no specific details yet. [00:14:38] If you can’t attend but want to be involved, Bolaji mentions the Open Source Community Africa Discord server where the discussions continue, where the report will be shared, and he talks about volunteering opportunities. Quotes [00:06:01] “Sustainability is not just about the project itself, it’s about the people who manage the projects.” [00:07:37] “You’re already burnt out form your normal job, and then you have to figure how to contribute to open source.” [00:11:32] “Sometimes you need to touch the grass.” Links SustainOSS SustainOSS Twitter SustainOSS Discourse podcast@sustainoss.org SustainOSS Mastodon Open Collective-SustainOSS (Contribute) GitHub Sustainers Website Richard Littauer Mastodon Bolaji Ayodeji X/Twitter Bolaji Ayodeji LinkedIn Bolaji Ayodeji Website SustainOSS Events Open Source Community Africa Discord OSCA Community Credits Produced by Richard Littauer Edited by Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree Sound Show notes by DeAnn Bahr Peachtree Sound Special Guest: Bolaji Ayodeji.Support Sustain

Guests Karthik Ram | James Howison Panelist Richard Littauer Show Notes In this captivating episode of Sustain, host Richard welcomes returning guest, Karthik Ram, Senior Research Scientist at the Berkeley Institute for Data Science, and his colleague James Howison, an Associate Professor from the School of Information at the University of Texas, Austin. Today, they delve into their recent research report, “‘Research Software Visibility Infrastructure Priorities,” commissioned for the Australian Research Data Commons. They discuss their eight key recommendations about sustaining open source for the long haul, including ways to recognize software contribution, implement web analytics, and offer low friction ways for researchers to link software. Karthik and James also touch on the future of software citations in academic recognition systems, and the importance of universities valuing diverse academic outputs. Don’t miss this fascinating conversation! Press download now! [00:01:36] Richard brings up a paper written by Karthik and James. Karthik explains the report titled, “Research Software Visibility Infrastructure Priorities,” produced for the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC). He describes the process of creating the report and the report’s relevance beyond Australia. [00:06:24] Richard asks how this is related to open source, and James relates the recommendations, focusing on citing software in publications and creating software bill of materials for research papers. [00:08:02] James and Karthik discuss recommendations, focusing on citing software in publications and creating software bill of materials for research papers. [00:12:02] Richard endorses the use of SBOMs for citing all software used in research, aiming to counter the issue of only popular projects getting noticed, but he questions how SBOMs account for the varying importance of different software dependencies. Karthik clarifies the SBOMs are not meant to create equal value citations for all software but to understand the scientific infrastructure that supports research. [00:15:28] Richard suggests that SBOMs could be useful in industrial contexts for security purposes and infrastructure visibility. Karthik agrees, stating that SBOMs have a broader application and were originally created for security reasons to track vulnerabilities. [00:17:41] James introduces the third recommendation to create software use infrascope as an observatory based on software mentions publications. He discusses the challenge of identifying software mentions in publications and the work done towards building comprehensive view of software in academia. [00:22:34] Karthik introduces the fourth recommendation to create detailed use cases for research tools aimed at different skill levels, addressing the challenge researchers face when selecting software tools. [00:24:29] Richard highlights the necessity of allocating time in research planning for writing documentation and tutorials, which James agrees is crucial for making software tools more accessible to researchers. [00:26:30] James discusses the fifth recommendation, which is to support existing technology for software archiving, such as Zenodo or Software Heritage, rather than creating new repositories at the institutional level. [00:28:28] Karthik talks about sixth recommendation and supporting communities of practice like hackathons and other collaborative spaces, which have shown to have a positive impact on research productivity. James describes the need for third spaces that are neither too local nor too public. Where researchers can comfortably ask questions and share insights within a focused community. [00:31:08] James introduces the seventh recommendation which is about implementing web analytics to gain insights into software usage, as citations alone do not reflect the full impact of research software. [00:33:48] James acknowledges the need for infrastructure to enhance insight from SBOMs and mentions the necessity of funding to maintain services that provide such data. [00:35:53] Richard highlights the eighth recommendation, which suggests providing an easy way for researchers to link to software alongside data submissions. James directs listeners to the Softcite GitHub organization and mentions the upcoming blog post about their report on the URSSI Blog. [00:36:16] Karthik and James tell us where you can find out more about their work and find them on the web. Quotes [00:08:40] “Absolutely every piece of software that you use in your whole stack should be cited, but I’ve had some issues with that in publications.” [00:09:04] “What we identified was that different fields have different norms for what rises to the level of contribution for actually being mentioned formally in the publication.” [00:14:40] “The researchers are experts in scientific explanation and they’re going to pick packages to mention that pertain to understanding the research that’s done in the paper, whereas the SBOM is going to give us insight into the software infrastructure that made the research possible.” Spotlight [00:38:26] Richard’s spotlight is iNaturalist. [00:39:00] Karthik’s spotlight is Kyle Niemeyer at Oregon State. [00:39:34] James’s spotlight is Eva Brown and her Council Data Project. Links SustainOSS SustainOSS Twitter SustainOSS Discourse podcast@sustainoss.org SustainOSS Mastodon Open Collective-SustainOSS (Contribute) Richard Littauer Mastodon Karthik Ram Website Karthik Ram LinkedIn Karthik Ram X/Twitter James Howison X/Twitter James Howison-University of Texas, Austin Research Software Visibility Infrastructure Priorities Report by Dr. Karthik Ram and Dr. James Howison (Zenodo) Sustain Podcast-2 Episodes featuring Daniel Stenburg Sustain Podcast-Episode 187: Karthik Ram on Research Software Sustainability Depsy Softcite dataset Softcite software mention recognition service Softcite-GitHub SoMeSci-Software Mentions in Science Mapping the Impact of Research Software in Science The Scientific Community Image Forum (Frequently Asked Questions) HackyHour Sustain Podcast-Episode 95: Marko Saric of Plausible Analytics, the most popular Open Source analytics platform URSSI Blog Ecosyste.ms Incentives and integration in scientific software production by James Howison and James D. Herbsleb Python Package Citation Generator-GitHub iNaturalist Kyle Niemeyer Eva Brown GitHub Council Data Project Credits Produced by Richard Littauer Edited by Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree Sound Show notes by DeAnn Bahr Peachtree Sound Special Guests: James Howison and Karthik Ram.Support Sustain

Renowned author and open source lawyer, Heather Meeker, discusses her latest book, From Project to Profit, and the valuable insights it provides for entrepreneurs and developers looking to transform their open source projects into successful businesses. The conversation also delves into the significance of open source, economic analysis, and the mission of the Open Source Initiative. Heather shares her all-time favorite open source project, Audacity, and why she thinks it's a perfect example of an exquisite open source project.

Mohammed Shah, full-stack developer, discusses his involvement in a WhatsApp chatbot project to reduce prediabetes risk. They delve into potential violations of WhatsApp's terms of service and the distressing experience of receiving cease and desist letters. The conversation also explores the challenges faced by open source maintainers and the idea of forming an open source developer union. Mohammed also mentions a climate-related initiative he's working on and a website he set up for tracking corporate environmental destruction.

Joe Castle, Executive Advisor for Strategic Partnerships and Technology at SAS, discusses open source and Code.gov. They explore its history, federal source code policy, challenges, and budget allocation. They also discuss the importance of supporting open source projects and initiatives in different countries and labs.

Dr. Laura Dornheim, CDO of Munich, discusses the city's open source journey, digital initiatives, creating a digital twin of the city, challenges in managing schools, and the importance of open source and public code.

Chad Whitacre, co-founder of SustainOSS and Sentry’s Head of Open Source, shares insights on Sentry’s $500k open source funding, the economic value of open source, and the importance of companies giving back. He also discusses Chad's unique business cards and the connection between licensing and funding in open source, along with book recommendations and personal preferences of the hosts.

Carlos Martinez-Ortiz and Shoaib Sufi talk about the Workshop on Sustainable Software Sustainability, exploring the challenges and solutions in software sustainability. They discuss the crossroads between open source and research software, the importance of funding, and potential refinements for future workshops. The episode emphasizes knowledge exchange, networking, and community building in this evolving field.