

Contributor
Eric Anderson
The origin story behind the best open source projects and communities.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Mar 2, 2022 • 41min
Deephaven with Pete Goddard
Eric Anderson (@ericmander) sits down with Pete Goddard (@pete_paco) to talk about Deephaven, the open-core query engine built for real-time streams and batch data. Pete is the CEO of Deephaven Data Labs, and comes to the data world from a background in capital markets trading. Deephaven originally addressed a need for real-time data infrastructure in the finance world, but the team realized how useful their technology could be in a wider variety of verticals. Join us for Pete’s unique perspective on reaching out into alternate industries and use cases through community development.
In this episode we discuss:
How Pete transitioned from Wall Street to open-source software
Selling investors on open-source
Two questions people always ask Pete
The luxury of Deephaven’s incremental update model
Barrage, Deephaven’s API for streaming tables that extends Apache Arrow Flight
Links:
Deephaven
Barrage
Apache Kafka
Apache Arrow Flight
Eclipse Jetty
Other episodes:
TensorFlow with Rajat Monga

Feb 16, 2022 • 39min
Meltano with Douwe Maan
Eric Anderson (@ericmander) and Douwe Maan (@DouweM) chat about Meltano, the open-source DataOps operating system. Meltano provides the connective tissue that allows teams to treat their data stack as a single software development project. Tune in to learn how Meltano is trying to bring software development best practices into the data world.
In this episode we discuss:
Meltano’s origins as a side project at GitLab
How Meltano glues together open-source technologies like Singer, dbt and Airflow
Douwe’s experience wearing many different hats in the early days of Meltano
Meltano’s shift from an ELT solution to an operating system
The Love-Tap Fest community event, starting right after this episode’s release!
Links:
Meltano
Love-Tap Fest - February 17-24th, 2022
GitLab
Singer
dbt
Apache Airflow
Apache Superset
Terraform
People mentioned:
Taylor Murphy (@tayloramurphy)
AJ Steers (@aaronsteers)
Other episodes:
Great Expectations with Abe Gong and Kyle Eaton
Dagster with Nick Schrock
Prefect with Jeremiah Lowin

Feb 2, 2022 • 39min
Penpot & Taiga with Pablo Ruiz-Múzquiz
Eric Anderson (@ericmander) and Pablo Ruiz-Múzquiz (@diacritica) examine the intersection of open-source, agile development, and UI/UX design at the heart of two applications, Penpot and Taiga. Penpot is a design and prototyping platform intended for cross-domain teams, while Taiga is a popular agile project management software. These products comprise the heart of Pablo’s innovative company, Kaleidos Open Source, which was founded in Spain more than a decade ago. Listen to today’s episode for one of the industry’s most unique perspectives on open-source code and design.
In this episode we discuss:
An internal crisis and a major pivot for Kaleidos
How Penpot was born from Kaleidos’ signature personal innovation week
Designing a design tool that can be used to design itself
Bringing design, code and people closer together
Why Pablo asserts that designers care about open-source
Links:
Penpot
Taiga
Kaleidos Open Source
Other episodes:
Blender with Dalai Felinto

Dec 22, 2021 • 39min
DockerSlim with Kyle Quest
Eric Anderson (@ericmander) and Kyle Quest (@kcqon) discuss DockerSlim, the open-source optimization and security tool for Docker container images. Kyle initially created DockerSlim as a humble hackathon project, and now supports it with his company, Slim.AI. Tune in to learn how DockerSlim is redefining DevOps with application intelligence and a backwards compatible vision of the future.
In this episode we discuss:
Bridging the gap between application and infrastructure
Emerging from the cloud native stone age
Application intelligence rather than artificial intelligence in Slim.AI
DockerSlim integrated into CI/CD pipelines, embedded systems, and robots
How Slim.AI aims to become ‘Google for containers’
Links:
DockerSlim
Slim.AI
Terraform
Serverless
Sigstore

Dec 8, 2021 • 29min
Unleash with Egil and Ivar Østhus
Eric Anderson (@ericmander) is joined by Egil (@EgilCo) and Ivar Østhus (@ivarconr), brothers and co-creators of the open-source feature management platform, Unleash. It’s a real family business, with Egil acting as CEO and Ivar the CTO of the company. Over beers and burgers, the two decided to bring their strengths together for a feature toggle tool that transforms DevOps and continuous deployment pipelines.
In this episode we discuss:
Ivar as a pioneer in the trunk-based development space
Word of mouth and old colleagues bringing Unleash to new companies
Assessing a contributor’s personality and mindset
Resolving a deadlock scenario on a feature launch day without impacting customers
Why feature flagging is fundamental to true DevOps
Links:
Unleash

Nov 24, 2021 • 27min
Kubescape with Shauli Rozen
Eric Anderson (@ericmander) invites Shauli Rozen (@shaulir) to share about his work on Kubescape, the first open-source Kubernetes security testing tool that is compliant with NSA & CISA hardening guidelines. Despite the project’s recency, Kubescape has seen explosive growth on Github and recognition from the Kubernetes community. Tune in to learn how the team at ARMO built a successful open-source security tool for DevOps.
In this episode we discuss:
Why Kubescape uses guidance from the NSA & CISA
Correcting the misconception that developers don’t care about security
Providing value in the first five minutes of using the tool
ARMO’s detailed approach to community feedback
Shauli’s thoughts on security roles of the future
Links:
ARMO
Kubescape
Terraform

Nov 10, 2021 • 36min
Blender with Dalai Felinto
Eric Anderson (@ericmander) connects with Dalai Felinto (@dfelinto), development coordinator at Blender. Blender is a free and open-source 3D graphics toolset with a unique story spanning nearly 30 years. The project is used professionally for animation, video games, scientific visualization, and much more. Join us for a very special episode of Contributor as we take a deep dive into one of the most dedicated, robust communities in open-source history.
In this episode we discuss:
When the dotcom crash landed Blender in the hands of community members
Taking open-source beyond the toolset with open movie projects
Dalai’s transition from burgeoning architect to Blender developer
How you can use Blender’s new Geometry Nodes for AI training
Solving organizational challenges with full-time staff and contributors
Links:
Blender
Blender Studio
Big Buck Bunny
Elephants Dream
Sprite Fright
People mentioned:
Ton Roosendaal (@tonroosendaal)

Oct 27, 2021 • 32min
Great Expectations with Abe Gong and Kyle Eaton
Eric Anderson (@ericmander) interviews Abe Gong (@AbeGong) and Kyle Eaton (@SuperCoKyle) about Great Expectations, the open-source framework that aims to create a shared standard for data quality. Abe is a core contributor to the project, and the CEO and co-founder of Superconductive, the team backing Great Expectations. Kyle is Growth Lead at Superconductive, and Community Manager of Great Expectations. The team at Superconductive have just launched the new Expectation Gallery to connect contributors and carve out vertical spaces in this ecosystem. Tune in to find out why Great Expectations is the leading open-source project for eliminating pipeline debt.
In this episode we discuss:
How the Expectation Gallery enables new modes of community engagement
Superconductive’s pivot from healthcare data consulting to open-source data validation
Collaborative conversations with other data companies
Abe’s advice to future open-source founders on segmenting value
The vision of Great Expectations as a protocol-level open standard
Links:
Great Expectations
Superconductive
Down with Pipeline debt
Cascade Data Labs
Flyte
Dagster
Databricks
pandas
People mentioned:
James Campbell (@jpcampbell42)
Other episodes:
Dagster with Nick Schrock

Jul 28, 2021 • 34min
Bolster with Abhishek Dubey
Eric Anderson (@ericmander) sits down with Abhishek Dubey (@abhishekdubey), co-creator of Bolster, the fraud prevention platform powered by deep-learning. Bolster is used by clients like LinkedIn, Uber and Dropbox for its cutting-edge detection and takedown technology. Abhishek and his co-founder built Bolster around the real-time URL-scanning tool CheckPhish, which analyzes phishing sites for free. On today’s episode, learn how Abhishek and the team at Bolster have found success by focusing on building their business out of passion, and giving back to the community.
In this episode we discuss:
A second mortgage and a startup garage
Discovering 100 Fortune 500 companies were using CheckPhish
How Bolster snagged LinkedIn without a proof of concept
Bolster’s secret sauce, that sets them apart from other security companies
Comparing the community focus of Bolster to a traditional open-source model
Links:
Bolster
CheckPhish
Hacker Dojo
Twilio
People mentioned:
Shashi Prakash (@skiddzo)

Jul 14, 2021 • 41min
Sanity with Magnus Hillestad and Even Westvang
Eric Anderson (@ericmander) sits down with Magnus Hillestad (@MHillestad) and Even Westvang (@even), co-founders of the unified content platform Sanity. The team at Sanity helps businesses organize their structured content as data, allowing distribution from a single source of truth. Tune in today’s episode to learn how Sanity aims to change the way people think about content.
In this episode we discuss:
The open-source editing environment and CMS, Sanity Studio
From content as data, to coffee table books
How Sanity differs from a traditional CMS
Why the Sanity team turned down a contract with the United Nations
Building a team that can scale to a vision of ubiquity
Links:
Sanity
Sanity Studio
Figma
Brex
Netlify
People mentioned:
Simen Svale Skogsrud (@svale)
Øyvind Rostad (@rostad)