CHAOSScast – Episode 132
We don’t have an episode for you today, because CHAOSScast will be taking a break for a few months.

During the break we will be evaluating how CHAOSScast supports the goals of the CHAOSS project. And to help us to do that, we would like to invite you to take a short survey by going to the link:

https://forms.gle/zrvanrRArgzc3wDD9

The survey closes on Friday, May 15th 2026.

In this short recording we go through the survey questions to get you thinking about your answers before you go ahead and take it, and first we share with you the goals of the CHAOSS project so that you have some extra context to help you answer in an informed way.

CHAOSS aims to:

• Establish metrics and models for measuring open source community health
• Produce open source software and initiatives for measuring community health
• Develop programs for deploying metrics beyond trace data
• Work with global partners to shape how we understand open source community health

The survey is quite short, but it’s really meaningful to helping us know how the podcast contributes to achieving CHAOSS’s goals.

We are especially interested in honest feedback, even if you rarely listen.

Thanks for helping.

Your CHAOSS community.

00:00 Podcast Break Announcement
00:13 Why We Need Your Survey
00:28 CHAOSS Project Goals
00:53 Survey Basics and Listening Habits
01:17 How The Podcast Supports Goals
01:44 Impact on Your Actions
02:10 Importance Versus Other Sources
02:21 Unique Value and Improvements
02:42 Thanks and See You Soon

CHAOSScast – Episode 131

In this episode of the CHAOSScast, host Georg Link sits down with guest, Elshad Humbatli, and panelists, Alice Sowerby and Adrian Edwards, to answer the question "How can CHAOSS metrics help you quickly assess the health of an open source project that you might want to use or join?"

Elshad, creator of Repo-Health, explains why he created the tool, and how he used the CHAOSS metrics to produce high-level insights on the health of an open source repo.

The conversation goes further, to discuss breaking down project activity to navigating the rise of AI-generated contributions, and dives deep into the human and technical sides of open source.

Hit download now to hear more!

[00:00:00] – The hosts introduce the episode and welcome the panelists and guest

[00:01:41] – Elshad shares how he discovered CHAOSS metrics and got inspired to build Repo Health.

[00:03:10] – A deep dive into the four pillars: activity, maintenance, community, and documentation.

[00:06:15] – The group debates how different metrics reflect project health and what “community” really means.

[00:10:07] – Elshad explains what Repo Health does and how users can benefit from it.

[00:12:00] – Discussion around the pros and cons of combining metrics into a single health score.

[00:17:01] – Exploring how context and goals shape which metrics matter using the GQM framework.

[00:21:00] – Real-world contributor experiences highlight the importance of documentation and responsiveness.

[00:23:00] – The impact of AI and LLMs on open source contributions and community dynamics.

[00:29:07] – Elshad shares future plans for Repo Health and opportunities for collaboration.

Value Adds (Picks) of the week:
[00:32:00] Gerog's pick is enjoying the in-between time after ending his last job.
[00:33:11] Alice's pick is the vernal equinox.
[00:33:58] Adrian's pick is spending time with friends and new experiences.
[00:34:35] Elshad's pick is low level language coding.

Host
Georg Link

Panelist:

Alice Sowerby
Adrian Edwards

Guests:

Elshad Humbatli

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

CHAOSS YouTube

podcast@chaoss.community

CHAOSS Calendar

CHAOSS Slack

Alice Sowerby LinkedIn

Adrian Edwards LinkedIn
Elshad Humbatli LinkedIn
Georg Link Website

Repo-Health tool

Special Guests: Adrian Edwards and Elshad Humbatli.

CHAOSScast – Episode 130

In this CHAOSScast episode, host introduces Rowland Mosbergen, a research software engineer at Australia’s WEHI, and discusses experiences in CHAOSS Asia and open source community connections. Rowland compares research labs to startups and explains that CHAOSS Asia’s regular online meetings help him engage with the broader open source ecosystem despite not traveling to conferences. They mention tools like the OSC DB directory for finding communities and discuss how Chaos Asia helps share events and CFPs. Rowland describes his “practical diversity and inclusion” approach: embedding inclusion into processes by centering marginalized people, sharing power, creating safe spaces, and offering online, non-exploitative open source internships that assess achievement relative to opportunity. He also describes organizing Research Software Asia Australia (RSAA 26) and supporting new Research Software Africa and Latino America conferences through shared documentation and a large, flexible volunteer committee to prevent burnout. They close with personal value-adds: Rowland’s family time and the host’s move to Bangkok.

00:00 Welcome to CHAOSScast
00:21 Meet Rowland
01:41 Startups and Research Parallels
03:04 Why CHAOSS Asia Matters
03:40 Finding CHAOSS Asia
07:03 Mapping Asian Communities
09:38 Practical DEI in Action
13:31 Internships as Micro PhDs
16:27 Conferences and Global Expansion
20:17 Building Inclusive Frameworks
25:09 Value Adds
28:03 Wrap Up and Call to Action
Panelists:
Leon Nunes
Guests
Rowland Mosbergen
Links
CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

CHAOSS YouTube

CHAOSS Slack

podcast@chaoss.community

https://www.wehi.edu.au/
https://www.solo.io/
[https://equersa.org/]([https://equersa.org/) - Research software Africa and Latin America
https://developers.events/#/2026/calendar - OSCDB
https://chaoss.github.io/oscdb/
https://www.practicaldiversity.org/

Special Guest: Rowland Mosbergen.

CHAOSScast – Episode 129
In this episode of CHAOSScast, host Harmony Elendu is joined by Matt Germonprez and Johan Linåker to explore how Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs) can use metrics to understand and demonstrate impact. The discussion centers around Chapter 6 of the TODO Group’s OSPO book and how organizations can systematically measure the value of their open source engagement.

[00:02:00] Introduction to OSPOs
Johan explains what an Open Source Program Office (OSPO) is: a center of excellence that supports organizations in adopting open source strategically, aligning culture, governance, and business goals.

[00:04:41] The Four Impact Areas
Matt outlines the four key impact dimensions OSPOs should measure:

1. Partner Impact
2. Community Impact
3. Ecosystem (Supply Chain) Impact
4. Organizational Impact

[00:06:29] Partner Impact
How to assess which companies are contributing to the same projects, their level of influence, and how agendas align or conflict.

[00:11:00] Community Impact
Measuring contributor influence, merged pull requests, leadership roles, and employee growth within open source communities.

[00:15:19] Ecosystem & Supply Chain Impact
Why organizations must evaluate upstream dependencies and long-term project viability, especially in light of regulations like the Cyber Resilience Act.

[00:23:00] Organizational Impact & Governance
Aligning open source strategy with business goals, managing risk, automating dependency health checks, and enabling developers to contribute upstream efficiently.

[00:29:31] Metrics Over Time (Not Snapshots)
Why there is no universal red/yellow/green metric set. Context matters, and observing trends over time is critical for meaningful health assessments.

[00:36:00] Resources & Working Groups
Introduction to CHAOSS practitioner guides, OSPO metrics working groups, and research publications.

Value Adds (Picks) of the week:

• [00:39:25] Harmony’s pick is reflecting on old photos.
  
• [00:36:10] Matt's pick is embracing the opportunity to do winter sports.
  
• [00:37:54] Johan’s pick is to enjoy parenting moments.
  

Panelists:

Harmony Elendu
Matt Germonprez

Guests
Johan Linåker

Links
OSPO Book
TODO Group
CHAOSS Project
OpenSSF Scorecard
CHAOSS OSPO Metrics Working Group
Harmony Elendu website
Harmony Elendu LinkedIn

Special Guest: Johan Linåker.

CHAOSScast- Episode 128
Check out the original GR-OSS OUT episode on the GR-OSS OUT podcast:
https://podcast.gr-oss.io/15-openssf-community

In this episode of CHAOSScast, we have a special crossover episode with the GR-OSS OUT podcast, hosted by Tabatha DiDomenico from G-Research and featuring special guest Stacey Potter, Community Manager at the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF).

Stacey shares her journey into open source, which started in software license compliance and marketing before she found her passion in community-building through projects like Weaveworks and the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) ecosystem. Her experience spans the full project lifecycle from early-stage incubation to graduation, giving her a unique perspective on how healthy, sustainable open source communities grow.

A central theme of the conversation is what makes open source communities truly welcoming. Stacey emphasizes the importance of clear documentation, accessible contribution guidelines, well-labeled “good first issues,” and, above all, kindness. Reducing the fear of “doing it wrong” is critical, especially for newcomers who may feel intimidated by contributing code in public. Creating psychological safety helps transform curiosity into long-term participation, and contributors feel mentored rather than judged. Community health, she notes, is fundamentally about people, not just processes or tooling.

The discussion also explores how marketing skills translate into community leadership. Stacey reflects on the difference between top-down messaging aimed at executives and bottom-up engagement with developers. Understanding your audience, meeting contributors where they are, and fostering authentic relationships are essential to building trust. At OpenSSF, she is helping shift perceptions so contributors understand that participation is open to everyone, not just member organizations. She also believes it's important to support education initiatives and strengthen developer experience across projects.

Finally, Stacey highlights several OpenSSF initiatives and projects that could benefit from broader community involvement, including Scorecard, Minder, and OpenVEX. She also previews upcoming events and a new ambassador program designed to make open source security more accessible, and even fun! The episode closes with encouragement for listeners to get involved, contribute to the projects they rely on, and help build secure, welcoming open source ecosystems.

Links:
CHAOSS
GR-OSS OUT podcast
G-Research
G-Research vacancies
Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF)
OpenSSF Training & Education
Linux Foundation
Scorecard
Sigstore
SLSA (Supply-chain Levels for Software Artifacts)
Minder
OpenVEX
Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF)
Flux
Kubernetes
KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America
OpenSSF Community Day Korea

Special Guests: Stacey Potter and Tabatha DiDomenico.

CHAOSScast – Episode 127

In this episode of CHAOSScast, host Alice is joined by Matt Trifiro from the Commercial Open Source Startup Alliance (COSSA) and Daniel Izquierdo, CEO of Bitergia and co-founder of the CHAOSS Community. The discussion delves into the importance of open source community health metrics in shaping successful commercial strategies for startups. Matt shares COSSA's mission to support the growth of venture-funded open source projects by fostering collaboration among founders, investors, and customers. Daniel discusses how community health can influence the sustainability and innovation of projects. They also explore the future goals of COSSA, including establishing a working group to develop standardized metrics for evaluating community contributions and business value. Press download now to hear more!

[00:00:29] Matt and Daniel introduce themselves and their backgrounds.

[00:01:56] Matt explains COSSA’s mission.

[00:02:58] Matt cites evidence that community health can correlate with business outcomes and that investment can improve community indicators, and there’s a discussion on moving beyond vanity metrics like GitHub stars.

[00:05:13] Daniel shares his perspective from the Open Compliance Summit (Tokyo) and the supply chain/corporate lens: organizations want confidence the software will be safe and still maintained years from now, and he talks about measuring health via collaboration networks.

[00:08:34] Matt breaks value into two buckets: Distribution and IP/innovation to explain how open source communities create startup value. Daniel adds that open source and can reduce procurement friction.

[00:12:23] They touch on open source as a path to standards.

[00:14:50] Matt describes how COSSA supports the startups: education, best practices, and measurement and his goal is to “convert community metrics into dollars.” Daniel notes the need for a baseline framework, then customization by industry.

[00:19:38] What’s next for COSSA? Matt shares COSSA is being bootstrapped, received initial Linux Foundation support, and is pursuing seed style funding. His planned membership structure is investors, founders, and customers.

[00:20:36] Daniel and Matt discuss making the metric framework transparent, likely anchored via CHAOSS, and the goal to building a “Rosetta Stone” between investors and community.

[00:25:49] There’s a conversation on rug pulls, incentives, and lack of a shared framework.

[00:28:21] Matt describes the “covenant” concept.

[00:30:34] Alice wraps with mentioning COSSA’s direction is clear, and a working group could be on the ramp for broader community participation.

Value Adds (Picks) of the week:

• [00:31:20] Alice’s pick is visiting outdoor Christmas light displays after dark.
  
• [00:32:27] Matt’s pick is his oldest son’s finishing his first semester in college.
  
• [00:32:58] Daniel’s pick is his son finishing his first quarter at primary school and going to the Open Compliance Summit and thanking Shane Coughlan for all his work for many years running this event.

Panelist:

Alice Sowerby

Guests:

Matt Trifiro

Daniel Izquierdo

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

CHAOSS YouTube

podcast@chaoss.community

Alice Sowerby LinkedIn

Matt Trifiro LinkedIn

COSSA

Daniel Izquierdo LinkedIn

Bitergia

Christmas Lights at Stourhead

Rapturous Delight: after-dark Worcester, Worcestershire

The State of Commercial Open Source 2025 (The Linux Foundation)

Special Guest: Matt Trifiro.

CHAOSScast – Episode 126

On this episode of CHAOSScast, host Alice Sowerby introduces a special episode welcoming Leon Nunes as the new host for the CHAOSS Asia podcast. Leon shares his background in customer success, his work with CNCF, and hardware hacking, along with his role in growing the CHAOSS Asia chapter. Together, Alice and Leon talk about the current state of the Asia community, Leon’s curiosity-driven approach to podcast hosting, the stories he wants to surface from across Asia, and how listeners can get involved or pitch episode ideas. Hit download now to find out more!

[00:00:35] Leon shares his background.

[00:01:24] Leon explains his customer success role, supporting customers running software in production, and his many side interests.

[00:02:48] We learn how Leon started with Raspberry Pi in college, building a motion triggered music stand, being inspired by GitHub badges, and shares a recent side project assembling RGB LED Christmas tree kits and gifting them to people.

[00:05:52] How did Leon find CHAOSS? He traces his path into CHAOSS Asia via a friend doing lots of outreach, and his desire to join open source communities beyond just code contributions. He also helps maintain CHAOSS Asia’s LinkedIn and Twitter.

[00:09:03] Alice asks what drew him to hosting a podcast. Leon shares his love of talking to people and using conversations to understand people.

[00:10:48] Alice connects Leon’s curiosity and his love of talking with podcast hosting, and reviews CHAOSScast episode types.

[00:11:51] What kind of stories does Leon want to tell from Asia? He wants to explore how other communities handle challenges like participation and growth and then apply those learnings to CHAOSS Asia. He suggests inviting active CHAOSS Asia contributors to share their experiences on the podcast.

[00:13:55] Alice agrees on a more exploratory approach, using conversations with active members to both document and strengthen the Asia chapter.

[00:14:48] Find out where you can contact Leon on the internet.

Value Adds (Picks) of the week:

• [00:15:30] Alice’s pick is looking at a way to make Christmas crackers that are reusable.
  
• [00:18:04] Leon’s pick is doing a lot dancing, like Lindy Hop, and his 3D printer.

Panelist:

Alice Sowerby

Guest:

Leon Nunes

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

CHAOSS YouTube

podcast@chaoss.community

Alice Sowerby LinkedIn

Leon Nunes Website

Leon Nunes LinkedIn

Leon Nunes X

CHAOSS Community Chapters

Most recent CHAOSS Asia Chapter meeting- November 13, 2025 (YouTube)

What are Christmas crackers? (YouTube)

Whiteys Lindy Hoppers - Hellzapoppin (YouTube)

CHAOSScast – Episode 125

In this final episode of the year from CHAOSScast, hosts Alice Sowerby and Harmony Elendu welcome members of the CHAOSS Board, Sean Goggins, Anita Ihuman, Georg Link, and Elizabeth Barron, for an in-depth discussion on the project's developments and future. They share their reflections on key events and trends in the open-source community over 2025. Topics include the impact of AI on open source, shifts in funding, community engagement, and the importance of psychological safety. The panelists also spotlight various CHAOSS working groups, including education, design, and technical writing, while sharing their wishes for the CHAOSS Project in 2026. Press download now!

[00:00:49] The hosts and guests introduce themselves and their backgrounds.

[00:02:28] Georg announces CHAOSScon in Brussels, Jan 29, 2026, Co-located with FOSDEM.

[00:04:51] The guests talk about factors affecting OSS communities in 2025.

[00:11:39] We hear where CHAOSS grew the most in 2025 such as regional chapters, global reach, CHAOSS Asia, with shout-outs to Divvya Mohan and Rowland Mosbergen, how metrics are being used, Design Working Group, accessibility, Practitioner Guides, and two new working groups.

[00:19:45] The panel shares project and working groups they’re most proud of: Package Management, AI Alignment, Alice and Harmony for keeping CHAOSScast podcast active and alive, Paul and Peachtree Sound for editing the podcast and keeping episodes on track, Education Project, Practitioner Guides, and shared ownership of community growth.

[00:28:55] What is some work that went under the radar in 2025? The guests talk about DEI Working Group, DEI Badging, Harmony and the Technical Writers Working Group, and AI’s impact on maintainers.

[00:35:41] Georg and Sean have additional thoughts on AI identity and bots. Current tooling assumes human contributions, but AI agents and bots break those assumptions and there’s a need for better identity solutions and metrics that distinguish humans, bots, and multi-account actors.

[00:39:33] Elizabeth would love people to give CHAOSS more feedback on engagement for newcomers to make onboarding smoother and encourages people to use the Education Project as a starting point.

[00:42:07] Georg, Sean, and Anita talk about CHAOSS board priorities for 2025-2026.

[00:45:25] Everyone shares their wishes for CHAOSS in 2026.

[00:48:52] If anyone has any ideas, topics, questions, and guests for future CHAOSS episodes please send us an email. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Panelists:

Alice Sowerby

Harmony Elendu

Guests:

Sean Goggins

Anita Ihuman

Georg Link

Elizabeth Barron

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

CHAOSS YouTube

podcast@chaoss.community

Georg Link Website

Harmony Elendu X

Alice Sowerby LinkedIn

Sean Goggins X

Elizabeth Barron X

Anita Ihuman GitHub

CHAOSScon 2026 Brussles, Belgium

FOSDEM 2026

CHAOSS Education Project

CHAOSS Onboarding Courses-GitHub

CHAOSS Practitioner Guides

First Person Project White Paper

The Road Ahead For Identity Management In Open Source: Humans, Bots, AI Agents-And The Future Of Attribution by Diane Mueller (Bitergia)

CHAOSScast Podcast-Episode 121: Package Metadata Working Group with Andrew Nesbitt and Damián Vicino

CHAOSScast Podcast-Episode 100: Celebrating 100 episodes of CHAOSScast

CHAOSScast Podcast-Episode 76: CHAOSS Goals for 2024 and Beyond

CHAOSScast Podcast-Episode 71: What’s New in CHAOSS: Podcast Reboot Episode

CHAOSScast Podcast-Episode 49: CHAOSS Community Year 2021 in Review

CHAOSScast Podcast-Episode 1: Hello, World!

Peachtree Sound

Special Guest: Anita ihuman.

CHAOSScast – Episode 124

This episode of CHAOSScast kicks off a new Practitioner Guide series focused on “Building Diverse Leadership” in open source communities. Harmony Elendu hosts with co-host Georg Link and guests Dawn Foster and Peculiar Umeh, exploring why diverse leadership matters, how CHAOSS’ practitioner guides turn “walls of metrics” into practical action, and how three specific metrics: Board/Council Diversity, Sponsorship, and Inclusive Leadership, can help projects become more welcoming, representative, and sustainable. Hit download now to hear more!

[00:00:35] Dawn, Peculiar, Georg, and Harmony share their backgrounds.

[00:02:57] Dawn gives us an overview of the Practitioner Guide series and emphasizes that the guides focus on how to improve projects using metrics, not just on measuring.

[00:05:13] Georg asks Peculiar what inspired her to write the “Getting Started with Building Diverse Leadership” guide. She describes working on CHAOSS metrics templates and wanting to help non-data science people use them.

[00:08:09] Harmony connects the topic to broader industry conversations on diversity and inclusion. Peculiar explains that diverse leadership brings different perspectives, experiences, and voices into decision making and uses CHAOSS as an example.

[00:10:30] Dawn expands on how seeing leaders “who look like you” motivates people to participate and aspire to leadership.

[00:11:28] Georg talks about diversity as social justice and explains benefits for the projects: resilience, innovation, and better products for diverse users.

[00:14:25] Peculiar shares the three metrics and why there were chosen. Dawn adds that guides are designed to change projects, not just describe them.

[00:18:09] Georg notes Board/Council Diversity is the most intuitive to measure and Dawn cautions that many aspects of identity are invisible and the guide recommends surveys to ask community members whether they feel represented and heard.

[00:21:03] Georg explains sponsorship vs. mentorship. Peculiar shares her own experience of being advocated for and supported in open source. Dawn tells the story of Danese Cooper sponsoring her showing how sponsorship accelerates careers.

[00:25:27] Georg explains Inclusive Leadership as the governance scaffolding and Peculiar describes what the guide offers.

[00:27:50] Harmony asks how they can implement the guide and monitor progress. Peculiar highlights some implementation steps and Dawn re-emphasizes using recurring surveys as monitoring tools.

[00:33:27] Dawn notes that every practitioner guide includes a Cautions and Considerations section, and Georg reminds us that interpersonal relationships are crucial for understanding how people experience the community.

Value Adds (Picks) of the week:

• [00:35:25] Harmony’s pick is n8n and automations.
  
• [00:36:10] Georg’s pick is looking forward to the holidays with his family.
  
• [00:37:54] Dawn’s pick is watching chunky squirrels play outside her window.
  
• [00:38:24] Peculiar’s pick is taking time to rest.
  

Panelists:

Harmony Elendu

Georg Link

Guests:

Dawn Foster

Peculiar Umeh

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

CHAOSS YouTube

podcast@chaoss.community

Georg Link Website

Harmony Elendu X

Dawn Foster X

Peculiar Umeh LinkedIn

CHAOSS Practitioner Guide: Getting Started with Building Diverse Leadership

About the CHAOSS Practitioner Guides

The Linux Foundation Report -Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Open Source

The Linux Foundation-Decentralized innovation. Built on trust.

Inclusive Leadership: Effecting change: Introduction | OpenLearn-Open University

CHAOSS Data Use Awareness Recommendation: Privacy and Ethics

n8n

Previous Practitioner Guide Episodes:

Episode 85: Introducing CHAOSS Practitioner Guides: #1 Responsiveness

Episode 88: Practitioner Guides: #2 Contributor Sustainability

Episode 89: Practitioner Guides : #3 Organizational Participation

Episode 97: Practitioner Guides: #4 Security

Episode 120: Practitioner Guides: #5 Demonstrating Organizational Value

Episode 123: Practitioner Guides: #6 Sunsetting an Open Source Project

Special Guest: Peculiar Umeh.

CHAOSScast – Episode 123

This episode of the CHAOSScast features hosts Harmony Elendu and Alice Sowerby, along with guests Stefka Dimitrova and Dawn Foster, discussing the process of sunsetting open source projects. Dawn and Stefka share their extensive experiences and the importance of managing the lifecycle of open source projects responsibly. They delve into the specifics of the 'Getting Started with Sunsetting an Open Source Project' guide from Dawn's series of practitioner guides, which aim to help practitioners, not just experts, interpret data and improve their project health. Key topics include identifying inactive projects, the responsible steps for sunsetting, and the crucial role of communication within the community. The episode also touches upon metrics to determine project activity and archive responsibly, highlighting that the process goes beyond simply pressing an 'archive' button. Hit download now to hear more!

[00:00:23] The hosts and guests introduce themselves.

[00:02:09] Dawn explains the purpose of the CHAOSS Practitioner Guides.

[00:04:54] Harmony asks Dawn what inspired her to write the “Getting Started with Sunsetting an Open Source Project” guide. She highlights the problem of inactive, unarchived projects creating security and reputational risks and being inspired by VMware’s internal sunset process let by Stefka when they both worked there.

[00:06:23] Dawn explains why projects shouldn’t remain unarchived and who the guide is intended for.

[00:07:30] Stefka shares her background and how she got started with sunsetting projects while she was at VMware.

[00:10:33] Dawn discusses the three Primary metrics: Change Requests, New Issues, and Technical Forks.

[00:12:10] Harmony asks how to identify a functionally abandoned project and Dawn explains if there’s no updates or security patches it’s likely abandoned.

[00:13:07] Stefka outlines some responsible “sunsetting” steps.

[00:16:16] Harmony asks what to do if an active project decides to wind down and Stefka says it’s better to decide proactively while still active, plan and communicate early, re-evaluate priorities, and prepare alternatives.

[00:17:31] Dawn adds within companies, it must involve PR and customer teams to manage impact and have a transition plan and timeline.

[00:18:20] Alice summarizes the dual responsibility of both OSPOs and maintainers to recognize when it’s time to sunset and Stefka shares an example that was helpful for the teams she worked with.

[00:21:17] Alice reflects that open source is about people as much as technology and managing emotional transitions is vital.

[00:21:58] Final takeaways: Dawn encourages listeners to read the guide and follow its step-by-step approach for responsible project sunsetting and Stefka encourages people to be ready for the sunset form the start of a project and keep the guide handy as a reference for your teams.

Value Adds (Picks) of the week:

• [00:23:36] Dawn’s pick is her 3D printer.
  
• [00:24:47] Harmony’s pick is talking a walk after the rain.
  
• [00:25:52] Stefka’s pick is working with people at the Playback Theatre*.*
  
• [00:26:59] Alice’s pick is Vitamin B3 for skin cancer prevention.

Panelists:

Harmony Elendu

Alice Sowerby

Guests:

Dawn Foster

Stefka Dimitrova

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

CHAOSS YouTube

podcast@chaoss.community

Harmony Elendu X

Alice Sowerby LinkedIn

Dawn Foster X

Stefka Dimitrova LinkedIn

CHAOSS: Practitioner Guide: Getting Started with Sunsetting an Open Source Project

CHAOSS: About the CHAOSS Practitioner Guides

When and How to Deprecate an Open Source Project by Stefka Dimitrova

Deprecating an Open Source Project, Part 2 by Stefka Dimitrova
Simple Steps for a Calm “Sunset”- Stefka Dimitrova’s video from the Open Source Summit in Europe (2022)

Dos and don’ts when sunsetting open source projects (GitHub Blog)

Shutting Down An Open Source Project (TODO Group Guide)

When to Send Flowers? End of Life and End of Support Across the Ecosystem-Allen Friedman’s video Open Source Summit

10 quick tips for making your software outlive your job (white paper)

Playback Theatre Network

Vitamin B3 can help protect against skin cancer. Here’s who may benefit (npr)

Special Guest: Stefka Dimitrova.

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.

CHAOSScast – Episode 121

In this episode of the CHAOSScast, host Alice Sowerby sits down with Andrew Nesbitt and Damián Vicino to discuss the formation and objectives of the new Package Metadata Working Group within the CHAOSS community. They discuss the complex issues surrounding package manager metadata, its interoperability challenges, and how the working group aims to address these through mapping and standardization efforts. They also touch upon the importance of these efforts for various stakeholders, including developers, researchers, and tool builders. The conversation highlights both the immediate and long-term goals of the group and provides information on how interested individuals can get involved. Hit download now to hear more!

[00:00:26] Introductions from Alice, Andrew, and Damián.

[00:02:36] Damián explains how the Package Metadata Working Group started.

[00:04:33] Andrew shares his experience building mappings across multiple package registries and how differing field names, schema structures, and metadata definitions complicate consistency.

[00:10:21] Alice asks about the group’s short and long term objectives and Andrew outlines some immediate goals.

[00:14:52] Damián elaborates on challenges in semantics and timelines. He emphasizes that even identically names fields may carry different meanings and shares an example.

[00:18:46] Alice summarizes Damián’s point saying the group’s role is to provide guidance and analysis rather than enforce standards, helping maintainers make informed metadata decisions.

[00:19:25] Andrew adds that most package managers evolve independently without referencing past ones. The working group’s documentation aims to prevent repeated mistakes and guide new ecosystems toward interoperable designs.

[00:23:06] Damián notes that modern software projects often depend on multiple ecosystems, making license tracking and dependency management exponentially harder without interoperability.

[00:25:02] Andrew explains how researchers waste time rebuilding metadata mapping from scratch across ecosystems and having unified references would accelerate research and tool development.

[00:27:58] Damián discusses how better metadata could support academic credit and funding by enabling easier citation and recognition of open source contributions tied to research projects.

[00:29:39] How can you get involved? Damián invites package manager developers and metadata tool builders to join, and Andrew encourages anyone working with SBOMs or package metadata tools to contribute war stories, mapping, or research use cases.

[00:33:01] Andrew mentions all the places you can join in on the meetings and to share where you are interested in working on.

Value Adds (Picks) of the week:

• [00:35:25] Alice’s pick is apples.
  
• [00:36:17] Damián’s pick is hockey.
  
• [00:37:04] Andrew’s pick is puppy training.

Panelist:

Alice Sowerby

Guests:

Andrew Nesbitt

Damián Vicino

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

CHAOSS YouTube

podcast@chaoss.community

Alice Sowerby LinkedIn

Andrew Nesbitt Website

Andrew Nesbitt GitHub

Andrew Nesbitt Mastodon

Damián Vicino LinkedIn

Damián Vicino GitHub

CHAOSSWG: Package Metadata

CHAOSS Calendar

CHAOSS Slack

Special Guests: Andrew Nesbitt and Damián Vicino.

CHAOSScast – Episode 120

In this episode of CHAOSScast, Harmony Elendu hosts a discussion with Dawn Foster and Bob Killen to discuss their extensive experience in open source and detail the motivations behind the creation of the CHAOSS Practitioner Guides. These guides aim to help practitioners navigate the overwhelming amount of data related to open source projects and understand how to improve project health and sustainability. The discussion covers strategies for communicating the business value of open source efforts to leadership, framing contributions in a way that resonates with organizational priorities, and prioritizing investments in critical projects. Press download now!

[00:00:31] Dawn and Bob introduce themselves and their backgrounds.

[00:02:24] Dawn explains why CHAOSS created Practitioner Guides: to help navigate the “tsunami of data” from open source metrics. The new guide is different and is focused on demonstrating organizational value.

[00:04:36] Harmony asks about the inspiration for the guide. Dawn credits Bob and how the guide was built largely from his talks at KubeCon and the Linux Foundation Member Summit.

[00:05:22] Bob talks about macroeconomic pressures where open source is often first cut. The guide helps orgs tell compelling stories to leadership about open source ROI.

[00:07:14] Bob shares a case study: maintainers reframed contributions in leadership’s language- revenue impact, bug fix turnaround, and resource efficiency and how this secured leadership support. Dawn adds that every organization values different things and provides an example.

[00:11:36] Bob introduces the formula: Priority = Criticality x Health.

[00:13:36] Dawn emphasizes formula helps orgs prioritize strategically critical but under-resourced projects (example: Kubernetes cluster API at VMware). Bob notes criticality differs by company and even department.

[00:16:51] Harmony ask how to report open source value to leadership. Bob explains the importance of framing in leadership’s language, not just raw contribution counts. Dawn warns against poor framing and explains about being careful about how you talk to leadership about your open source efforts.

Value Adds (Picks) of the week:

• [00:20:47] Dawn’s pick is discovery how easy it was to build a static site with GitHub Pages and Jekyll.
  
• [00:21:38] Bob’s pick is dosu.dev.
  
• [00:22:18] Harmony’s pick is exploring AI models for fraud detection and system tracking.

Panelists:

Harmony Elendu

Guests:

Dawn Foster

Bob Killen

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

CHAOSS YouTube

podcast@chaoss.community

Harmony Elendu X

Dawn Foster X

Bob Killen Website

CHAOSS Practitioner Guides

CHAOSS Practitioner Guides (YouTube)

CHAOSS Data Science Working Group: New Guides, Research, and More (Blog Post by Dawn Foster

CHAOSS Practitioner Guide: Getting Started with Sunsetting an Open Source Project

CHAOSS Practitioner Guide: Getting Started with Building Diverse Leadership

GitHub Pages documentation

Jekyll

Dosu

Special Guest: Bob Killen.

CHAOSScast – Episode 119

In this episode of CHAOSScast, we have a special episode from our friends at Sustain. Host Richard Littauer from Sustain is joined by guests Ben Nickolls and Andrew Nesbitt to discuss the ecosyste.ms project. They explore how ecosyste.ms collects and analyzes metadata from various open-source projects to create a comprehensive database that can help improve funding allocation. The discussion covers the importance of funding the most critical open-source projects, the existing gaps in funding, and the partnership between ecosyste.ms and Open Source Collective to create funding algorithms that support entire ecosystems. They also talk about the challenges of maintaining data, reaching out to project maintainers, and the broader implications for the open-source community. Hit the download button now!

[00:03:16] Andrew and Ben explain ecosyste.ms, what it does, and how it compares to Libraries.io.

[00:06:17] Ecosyste.ms tracks metadata, not the packages themselves, and enriches data via dependency graphs, committers, issues, SBOMs, and more.

[00:08:12] Andrew talks about finding 1,890 Git hosts and how many critical projects live outside GitHub.

[00:09:55] There’s a conversation on metadata uses and SBOM parsing.

[00:14:07] Richard inquires about the ecosystem.ms funds on their website which Andrew explains it’s a collaboration between Open Collective and ecosyste.ms. that algorithmically distributes funds to the most used, not most popular packages.

[00:17:03] Ben shares how this is different from previous projects and brings up a past project, “Back Your Stack” and explains how ecosyste.ms is doing two things differently.

[00:20:17] Ben explains how it supports payouts to other platforms and encourages maintainers to adopt funding YAML files for automation. Andrew touches on efficient outreach, payout management, and API usage (GraphQL).

[00:26:54] Ben elaborates on how companies can fund ecosyste.ms (like Django) instead of curating their own lists and being inspired by Sentry’s work with the Open Source Pledge.

[00:30:50] Andrew speaks about scaling and developer engagement and emphasizes their focus is on high-impact sustainability.

[00:34:06] Richard asks, “Why does it matter?” Ben explains that most current funding goes to popular, not most used projects and ecosyste.ms aims to fix the gap with data backed funding, and he suggests use of open standards like 360Giving and Open Contracting Data.

[00:37:04] Andrew shares his thoughts on funding the right projects by improving 1% of OSS, you uplift the quality of millions of dependent projects with healthier infrastructure, faster security updates, and more resilient software.

[00:39:53] Find out where you can follow ecosyste.ms and the blog on the web.

Quotes:

[00:12:36] “I call them interesting forks. If a fork is referenced by a package, it’ll get indexed.”

[00:23:25] We’ve built a service that now moves like $25 million a year between OSS maintainers on OSC.”

[00:34:41] “We don’t have enough information to make collective decisions about which projects, communities, maintainers, should receive more funding.”

[00:35:41] “The NSF POSE Program has distributed hundreds of millions of dollars of funding to open source communities alone.”

[00:37:05] “If you have ten, twenty thousand really critical open source projects, that actually isn’t unachievable to make those projects sustainable.”

Spotlight:

• [00:40:53] Ben’s spotlight is Jellyfin.
• [00:41:38]** **Andrew’s spotlight is zizmor.
• [00:43:39] Richard’s spotlight is The LaTeX Project.

Panelist:

Richard Littauer

Guests:

Ben Nickolls

Andrew Nesbitt

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project Twitter

CHAOSScast Podcast

podcast@chaoss.community

Alice Sowerby LinkedIn

SustainOSS

podcast@sustainoss.org

richard@sustainoss.org

SustainOSS Discourse

SustainOSS Mastodon

SustainOSS Bluesky

SustainOSS LinkedIn

Open Collective-SustainOSS (Contribute)

Richard Littauer Socials

Ben Nickolls LinkedIn

Andrew Nesbitt Website

Andrew Nesbitt Mastodon

Octobox

ecosyste.ms

ecosyste.ms Blog

Open Source Collective

Open Source Collective Updates

Open Source Collective Contributions

Open Source Collective Contributors

Open Collective

24 Pull Requests

Libraries.io

The penumbra of open source (EPJ Data Science)

FOSDEM ’25- Open source funding: you’re doing it wrong (Andrew and Ben)

Vue.js

thanks.dev

StackAid

Back Your Stack

NSF POSE

Django

GitHub Sponsors

Sustain Podcast-Episode 80: Emma Irwin and the Foss Fund Program

Sustain Podcast- 3 Episodes featuring Chad Whitacre

Sustain Podcast- Episode 218: Karthik Ram & James Howison on Research Software Visibility Infrastructure Priorities

Sustain Podcast-Episode 247: Chad Whitacre on the Open Source Pledge

Invest in Open Infrastructure

360Giving

Open Contracting Data Standard

Jellyfin

zizmor

The LaTeX Project

Special Guests: Andrew Nesbitt, Benjamin Nickolls, and Richard Littauer.

CHAOSScast – Episode 118

In this episode of CHAOSScast, host Harmony welcomes guests Maryblessing Okolie, Ileriayo Adebiyi, and Joan Njeri, to discuss their experiences and key moments from recent open source community events in Lagos, Nigeria. These events include CHAOSScon Africa, Open Source Community Africa Festival (OSCAFEST), and KCD Nigeria. The guests share their backgrounds and roles within the open source community, their experiences organizing and attending the events, and the importance of building relationships. They also discuss impactful talks and sessions from the events, highlighting topics such as open source program offices (OSPOs), onboarding systems for open source projects, and the role of passion in the tech industry. Hit download now!

[00:00:43] Harmony and our guests introduce themselves and their backgrounds.

[00:02:54] The guests tell us which conferences they attended.

[00:04:22] Maryblessing reflects on her experience organizing CHAOSScon Africa.

[00:08:48] Ileriayo, one of the organizers of KCD Nigeria, shares his experiences with planning the event that took two years.

[00:11:31] Joan shares her point of view as an attendee of OSCAFEST, being inspired by the energy and collaboration at the events and built partnerships with Eclipse Foundation and others for Kenya projects.

[00:13:24] Harmony and our guests discuss their favorite talks they attended.

[00:21:46] Joan and Ileriayo explain the cultural exchanges they experienced at the events (e.g. food, Pidgin language, networking, traffic, and cross-continent collaboration.)

Value Adds (Picks) of the week:

• [00:27:13] Harmony’s pick is connecting with people.
• [00:27:31] Joan’s pick is connecting with people.
• [00:28:18] Ileriayo’s pick is relationships and people.
• [00:29:19] Maryblessing’s pick is Anime.

Panelist:

Harmony Elendu

Guests:

Maryblessing Okolie

Ileriayo Adebiyi

Joan Njeri

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

CHAOSS YouTube

podcast@chaoss.community

Harmony Elendu X

Maryblessing Okolie Mastodon

Maryblessing Okolie LinkedIn

Maryblessing Okolie GitHub

Ileriayo Adebiyi Website

Ileriayo Adebiyi X

Ileriayo Adebiyi LinkedIn

Joan Njeri X

CHAOSScon Africa 2025

OSCAFEST 2025

KCD Nigeria 2025

Eclipse Foundation

One Piece (1999 TV series)

Special Guests: Ileriayo Adebiyi, Joan Njeri, and Maryblessing Okolie.

CHAOSScast – Episode 117

In this episode of CHAOSScast, Georg Link and Sean Goggins welcome guest Vicky Brasseur, author of Business Success with Open Source and Forge Your Future with Open Source. The conversation explores Vicky’s early journey into open source, starting from discovering Project Gutenberg in the early '90s to using Linux for the first time, the challenges companies face when using open source software, and how organizations can better leverage it strategically. The discussion also delves into her book, Forge Your Future with Open Source, which addresses common questions about contributing to open source projects. Vicky highlights the gaps in strategic open source usage within organizations and offers insights on how companies can better utilize open source software to reduce business risks. The conversation wraps up with practical advice for making a compelling business case for open source contributions and the importance of speaking the language of decision-makers. Press download now!

[00:01:05] Vicky introduces herself, shares her journey into open source, and introduces Project Gutenberg, LibriVox, and the value of community contributions to open knowledge and public domain resources.

[00:06:44] Vicky shares how her first book, Forge Your Future with Open Source, helps newcomers start their contribution journey and why she wrote it to be reused across audiences.

[00:10:54] There’s a discussion on how open source opens career path globally, especially in underserved economics.

[00:12:46] Vicky shares some advice from her book for new contributors: Don’t start with Linux and find a project in an area you love (e.g., music, cars, sewing) to maintain long-term motivation.

[00:15:18] Sean and Georg share their personal origin stories in open source.

[00:19:23] Georg introduces Vicky’s second book, Business Success with Open Source, and she discusses the premise of the book and the “Three Part Framework.”

[00:26:08] Vicky argues that even Linux Foundation member companies often don’t understand open source at an organizational level.

[00:29:19] Vicky is available for consulting, following her layoff. She encourages listeners to reach out via her website.

[00:33:55] Why do projects fail? Vicky shares failures come from poor communication and unchecked assumptions across industries, not just tech.

[00:35:36] Vicky criticizes companies for chasing vanity metrics like GitHub stars and praises the CHAOSS Project but notes most companies misuse metrics or don’t tie them to strategic goals. Also, “Script kiddie” is explained.

[00:40:13] Vicky explains how to ethically influence execs by speaking their language, use Power Points and show cost comparisons (e.g., OpenStreetMap vs Google Maps), and she emphasizes to use “TL;DR” (Too Long; Didn’t Read) friendly presentations to connect open source financial and operational outcomes.

[00:44:27] There’s a special discount code for everyone to use on Vicky’s eBooks and audiobooks on The Pragmatic Bookshelf website and the code is VBCHAOSS **for 30% off **through Oct 2025.

[00:45:16] Find out where you can follow Vicky and her work on the internet.

Value Adds (Picks) of the week:

• [00:46:07] Sean’s pick is the movie, Multiplicity (1996) starring Michael Keaton (not Carbon Copy as stated.)
• [00:47:29] Vicky’s pick is sharing her joy in spinning wool with a vintage spinning wheel.
• [00:49:35] Georg’s pick is going to an amusement park with his family.

Panelists:
Georg Link
Sean Goggins

Guest:

VM (Vicky) Brasseur

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

CHAOSS YouTube

podcast@chaoss.community

Georg Link Website

Sean Goggins X

VM (Vicky) Brasseur Website

VM (Vicky) Brasseur Blog

VM (Vicky) Brasseur LinkedIn

VM (Vicky) Brasseur Mastodon

Project Gutenberg

LibriVox

Forge Your Future with Open Source by VM (Vicky) Brasseur (Code: VBCHAOSS)

Business Success with Open Source by VM (Vicky) Brasseur (Code: VBCHAOSS)

Nora McDonald (College of Engineering and Computing)

Zotero

Failure: Why It Happens & How to Benefit from It by VM (Vicky) Brasseur

Script kiddie

Kevin Mitnick

Multiplicity

Spinning wheel

Special Guest: VM (Vicky) Brasseur.

CHAOSScast – Episode 116

In this episode of CHAOSScast, host Georg Link is joined by guests Sarina Canelake, Feanil Patel, and Felipe Montoya from the Open edX community, to discuss their experiences with the GrimoireLab tool and the launch and growth of their maintainer program.  The conversation dives into the history and impact of the Open edX project, the evolution of their maintainer program, and the use of metrics to track and improve community health. The guests also share personal stories and provide insights into the challenges and successes they’ve encountered along the way. Press download now!

[00:00:34] Sarina, Feanil, and Felipe introduce themselves and their backgrounds.

[00:02:02] Feanil and Sarina explain the origins of the maintainer program, the mix of Python and JavaScript repositories, and how maintainers influence code direction.

[00:04:02] Feanil explains the history of Open edX, being open sourced in 2013 by edX (MOOC platform) and how Axim Collaborative took over stewardship in 2021.

[00:07:04] We hear Felipe’s journey into the project from student to TA to community contributor and leader since 2012. He details the empowerment and pressure of receiving merge access in the Core Contributor program.

[00:13:09] Sarina Explains why merge rights were initially limited to edX staff, and how the shift to community-led merging happened post 2020.

[00:15:26] Feanil describes how the Maintainer Program now distributes ownership and improves repository health.

[00:17:12] Feanil talks about his incremental metrics philosophy: starts with presence, then track responsiveness.

[00:21:34] Georg asks how maintainers use GrimoireLab dashboards and filters. Sarina explains the use of Backstage ownership metadata for filtering dashboards by maintainers or groups and Feanil emphasizes the need for flexible tooling due to overlapping team memberships.

[00:24:50] Felipe describes using dashboards to monitor his team’s participation and accountability.

[00:25:40] Sarina asks Felipe about dashboards he uses on Bitergia to track team contributions.

[00:28:26] Sarina shares how she tracks Elephant Factor and trends in commit and LOC volume and Georg highlights the value of identity reconciliation in data.

[00:30:45] Felipe talks about monitoring Slack, issues, and commits to ensure ecosystem health post-company transitions and Sarina notes challenges of mapping Slack/Discourse identities in Sorting Hat for deeper engagement metrics.

[00:34:11] There’s a discussion on syncing internal onboarding identity forms with Sorting Hat manually for now.

[00:35:35] Georg raises concerns about metric misuse in performance reviews. Sarina and Feanil stress metrics as guidance, not performance tools, and Felipe shares his team uses metrics as lagging indicators, not for pressure.

[00:39:55] Sarina explains how their impact report uses lines of code, commit trends, and elephant factor to show growth and codebase health.

[00:42:32] Find out where you can go to get involved and contribute to Open edX and edunext.

Value Adds (Picks) of the week:

• [00:44:15] Georg’s pick is a podcast called, ‘Through The Griffin Door’ by the Carlin Brothers.
• [00:44:50] Sarina’s pick is her kitten who’s taught herself how to play fetch and a podcast called, ‘The Best Idea Yet.’
• [00:45:37] Feanil’s pick is ‘Logseq,’ a journaling and notetaking tool.
• [00:46:42] Felipe’s pick is the ‘Waking Up’ app for mindful meditation.

Panelist:

• Georg Link

Guests:

• Sarina Canelake
• Feanil Patel
• Felipe Montoya

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

CHAOSS YouTube

podcast@chaoss.community

Georg Link Website

Sarina Canelake LinkedIn

Sarina Canelake Website

Feanil Patel LinkedIn

Feanil Patel GitHub

Felipe Montoya LinkedIn

Open edX

Open edX Documentation

Open edX (YouTube)

Open edX dashboard

Open edX GitHub

edunext (YouTube)

edunext

Axim Collaborative

MOOC

Through The Griffin Door (YouTube)

The Best Idea Yet Podcast

Logseq

Waking Up

Special Guests: Feanil Patel, Felipe Montoya, and Sarina Canelake.

In this double-length CHAOSScast special episode, hosts Harmony Elendu and George Link along with panelists from the CHAOSS community, come together to reflect on their experiences at two major open source events: CHAOSScon North America (co-located with the Open Source Summit) and the United Nations Open Source Week in New York. The episode is packed with personal insights, highlighted key talks, software updates, themes from the events, memorable community interactions, and thoughtful conversations about the future of open source, digital sovereignty, and sustainability. Press download now!

[00:00:19] Harmony and the guests introduce themselves and their roles in CHAOSS and the open source community.

[00:02:36] Everyone shares their CHAOSScon talk highlights.

[00:10:49] Conference moments and experiences are talked about such as Linux Foundation’s puppy therapy booths to reduce stress, knitting as a conversation starter, and spontaneous hallway discussions about software security and SBOMs.

[00:17:10] Software updates: Augur now runs easily via Docker Compose, making it accessible to more users.

[00:18:59] Elizabeth explains behind the scenes of organizing CHAOSScon with Linux Foundation support, and challenges with speaker curation, CFP management, and logistics.

[00:23:17] Harmony invites listeners to CHAOSScon Africa and OSCAFEST’25 happening in August, both in the same week and same location.

[00:23:45] Elizabeth, Laura, and Andrew share their CHAOSS booth experiences.

[00:28:28] The guests talk about meeting longtime online collaborators in person for the first time.

[00:30:16] Cali talks about the Data Science Hackathon, student participation, hands-on project exploration with 8Knot and Auger and the event was hosted by the CHAOSS Data Science Working Group.

[00:36:43] Part 2 starts here as host Georg Link takes over with guests Divya, Ruth, and Daniel, who all attended the United Nations Open Source Week in New York.

[00:39:45] We hear some key moments from the UN Open Source Week 2025: Governments increasingly adopting OSPOs, sessions on humanitarian tech and open source for crisis response, the energy, engagement, and diversity of thought.

[00:50:09] Ruth shares something new she learned going to an Open Source Hardware presentation where they did a demo of DIY microscopes and Georg shares an inspiring story he learned using open hardware.

[00:52:12] After being at this conference, Ruth sees open source headed for digital sovereignty and there’s a discussion on the trend toward collaborative Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and public goods.

[00:55:37] There’s a conversation on sustainability and open source communities.

[01:01:09] Governance and transparency is discussed, Daniel shares an example with Germany’s Sovereign Tech Fund supporting critical infrastructure, and Divya shares going to a session that was focused on payments.

[01:06:05] We end with Georg highlighting to check out some recordings from the UN Open Source Week 2025 website and to check out the UN Open Source Principles.

Value Adds (Picks) of the week:

• [00:32:03] Harmony’s pick is a local coffee.
• [00:32:26] Cali’s pick is being able to road bike for the first time since surgery.
• [00:33:05] Elizabeth’s pick is feeling grateful to be in an industry that provides opportunities to meet with and connect with people from all over the world.
• [00:34:39] Laura’s pick is spending two weeks with open source folks who care far more about people than profits.
• [00:35:14] Andrew’s pick is reconnecting with Elizabeth and first time traveling with the Timeshifter App to help with jet lag.
• [01:07:32] Ruth’s pick is friends.
• [01:08:00] Daniel’s pick is the Digital Resilience Forum.
• [01:09:27] Divya’s pick is tinkering with pottery.
• [01:11:16] Georg’s pick is his herbal garden.

Panelists:

Harmony Elendu
Georg Link

Guests:

Elizabeth Barron

Andrew Nesbitt

Cali Dolfi

Laura Langdon

Divya Mohan

Ruth Ikegah

Daniel Izquierdo

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

CHAOSS YouTube

podcast@chaoss.community

Georg Link Website

Harmony Elendu X

Elizabeth Barron X

Andrew Nesbitt Mastodon

Andrew Nesbitt Website

Cali Dolfi LinkedIn

Cali Dolfi X

Laura Langdon Website

Laura Langdon Mastodon

Ruth Ikegah X

Ruth Ikegah LinkedIn

Divya Mohan Website

Divya Mohan LinkedIn

Daniel Izquierdo LinkedIn

CHAOSScon Africa 2025

OSCAFEST’25

CHAOSS Data Science Working Group

Timeshifter Apps

Digital Public Goods Registry

Sovereign Tech Agency

United Nations Open Source Week 2025

United Nations Digital Public Goods

United Nations Open Source Principles

OpenFlexure Microscope (open hardware project)

Digital Resilience Forum

Special Guests: Andrew Nesbitt, Cali Dolfi, Divya Mohan, and Laura Langdon.

CHAOSScast – Episode 114

In this episode of CHAOSScast, hosts Georg Link and Nicole Huesman engage in a deep discussion with Christian Taylor, Terence (Tex) McCutcheon, and Johnny Kelly about measuring and enhancing open source community health through innovative methods. Christian and his team share their experiences in implementing the 'paid open source model' within the Cardano blockchain community, designed to retain and motivate contributors. The panel discusses a variety of topics, including governance models, the integration of AI for report generation, and the challenges of balancing open source principles with corporate interests. They also explore specific tools and metrics used to evaluate project health and community engagement, providing an illuminating look into the future of open source development. Hit the download button now!

[00:01:40] Our guests give a brief introduction.

[00:04:37] Christian provides a non-technical intro to Cardano, a top blockchain focused on peer reviewed, academic rigor.

[00:06:07] Johnny explains Cardano’s high decentralization via SPOs, DReps, and

community tools like GovTool, and Christian outlines how open source ties in.

[00:09:39] Christian talks about open source governance and Intersect and explains Intersect serves like the Linux Foundation for Cardano, holding code, facilitating contribution ladders, and launching an incubation program.

[00:13:06] Georg gives a summary for those who are new: Cardano’s treasury is funded via blockchain transaction fees. This funding supports open source development, tools, documentation, and maintainers, and Christian elaborates more about this.

[00:15:39] Johnny details governance and funding decisions and Christian emphasizes the transparency and checks and balance system.

[00:17:08] Nicole raises concerns about aligning paid models with open source ethos and Christian discusses Intersect’s neutral, community-owned governance structure and internal checks and Johnny shares a link about the current members and the elective process within Intersect.

[00:20:37] Christian shares using Bitergia and CHAOSS metrics to build out Cardano’s open source health dashboard. Focus areas were response times, geographic contributions, contribution ladders, and project maturity.

[00:26:03] Tex shares their dashboard is public and useful for spotting high-impact projects. He aims to improve documentation standards and repo governance practices.

[00:31:05] Georg gives a brief description of the “jellyfish diagrams” that show how developers connect across projects.

[00:33:26] Christian shares their approach to using AI in metrics reporting and Tex emphasizes AI assists analysis but doesn’t replace human validation.

[00:37:10] Nicole asks if the paid open source model is being shared externally. Christian confirms they presented the model at open source summits, validated it with leading experts, stress-tested with community input, and outlines a six month pilot of the model.

Value Adds (Picks) of the week:

• [00:44:06] Georg’s pick is going on his first cruise.
• [00:45:07] Christian’s pick is family.
• [00:45:54] Tex’s pick is simplicity.
• [00:46:38] Johnny’s pick is the Calidus Pool-Key.
• [00:47:54] Nicole’s pick is meeting and interviewing Dr. Laura Kelly.

*Panelists: *
Georg Link
Nicole Huesman

Guests:
Christian Taylor
Terence (Tex) McCutcheon
Johnny Kelly

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

CHAOSS YouTube

podcast@chaoss.community

Georg Link Website

Nicole Huesman X

Christian Taylor X

Christian Taylor LinkedIn

Terence McCutcheon X

Terence McCutcheon LinkedIn

Johnny Kelly X

Johnny Kelly LinkedIn

Open Source Office at Intersect MBO (YouTube)

Cardano

Cardano GovTool

Intersect

Intersect Committees

Open Source Office (OSO)

Bitergia Repo Maturity Reports

Edinburgh Decentralization Index Dashboard

Contribution Ladder Framework

Current Open Source Committee Members list and Term Rotation Schedules

Bitergia Monthly Maturity Reports for 2025

Introductory Article on POSM (Intersect)

Intersecting Open Source and Sustainability: A Paid Open Source Model for Ecosystems Full PDF

Bitergia Dashboard

The Paid Open Source Model Concept (YouTube)

New Calidus Pool-Key for SPOs and Services Interacting with Pools

She Lights the Way

Dr. Laura Kelly

Special Guests: Johnny Kelly, Christian Taylor, and Terence (Tex) McCutheon.

CHAOSScast – Episode 112

In this special CHAOSS community panel episode, Harmony hosts a group discussion with Daniel Izquierdo, Peculiar Umeh, Cassie Seo, and Ijeoma Onwuka as they share their experiences at the FOSS Backstage conference held in Berlin. They dive into their goals for attending, the talks they gave, key takeaways, and what the open source community means to them. Topics covered include measuring social and economic impact through open source, building sustainable open-source projects, diversity in open-source communities, and various personal experiences and learnings that contribute to individual and community growth. Press download now to hear more!

[00:00:29] Our guests introduce themselves and their backgrounds.

[00:03:15] We start with FOSS Backstage conference takeaways from each guest.

[00:08:49] Cassie recaps her panel, emphasizing the complexity of measuring impact in humanitarian and academic settings.

[00:12:54] Sessions that stood out: Ijeoma points out a session on how open source can help meet UN SDGs and expresses interest in the newly released Open Source Principles.

[00:14:35] Peculiar attended Stephen Pollard’s talk on an educational model by OpenChain, related to improving onboarding in open source.

[00:16:30] Cassie learned about digital public health infrastructure via Bianca’s World Health Organization affiliated session.

[00:17:58] Ijeoma was inspired by Dr. Wolfgang Gehring’s session on contributor efficiency and avoiding pseudo productivity. Cassie reiterates pseudo productivity issue and its implications in social impact metrics.

[00:21:22] The discussion turns to people connections and Peculiar talks about meeting and connecting with Stephen Pollard and appreciating the support during her talk. Daniel saw value in meeting the broader community, and Ijeoma was proud to represent Nigeria and met CHAOSS members and other international speakers despite travel barriers.

[00:25:07] There’s a conversation on what everyone learned at the conference. Cassie learned to overcome fear and embrace the value of her ideas despite technical difficulties and Peculiar felt deeply supported by the open source community during her illness mid-talk.

[00:27:45] Daniel gained insight on EU regulation and how it affects small businesses and open source projects and Ijeoma learned to trust her voice and recognized the passion of global contributors.

[00:30:19] We end with closing thoughts on the conference: Peculiar shares it was an amazing conference and is eager to attend future editions in person. Daniel reveals three hashtags to sum up his experience: Community, friends, and learning experience. Ijeoma called it an “exceptional” experience, including food, conversations, and inclusion. Cassie sums it up in three words: Urgency, care, and collaboration.

Value Adds (Picks) of the week:

• [00:32:01] Daniel’s pick is retro gaming.
• [00:32:22] Peculiar’s pick is connecting with someone that helped her with a certain skill.
• [00:32:54] Cassie’s pick is to go on a long walk every day without a phone.
• [00:33:46] Ijeoma’s pick is making sure each contribution I make to each project is very impactful.
• [00:34:18] Harmony’s pick is taking some late night drives and snack along the way.

Panelist:

Harmony Elendu

Guests:

Daniel Izquierdo

Peculiar Umeh

Cassie Seo

Ijeoma Onwuka

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

CHAOSS YouTube

podcast@chaoss.community

Harmony Elendu X

Daniel Izquierdo LinkedIn

Ijeoma Onwuka LinkedIn

Cassie Jiun Seo LinkedIn

Peculiar Umeh LinkedIn

FOSS Backstage 2025 Sessions

FOSS Backstage 2025

Special Guests: Ijeoma Onwuka, Cassie Jiun Seo, and Peculiar Umeh.

CHAOSScast – Episode 112

In this episode of CHAOSScast, host Georg Link, along with Nicole Huesman and Ruth Ikegah, welcome guest Chrys Wu to discuss the findings from the “State of Open Infrastructure” report by Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI). The episode dives into how community health frameworks shape open infrastructure decisions, highlighting various frameworks like CHAOSS metrics, the FOREST framework, and POSI. Chrys talks about the Infra Finder tool and the importance of trust in decision-making for open infrastructure. The conversation also touches on metrics for understanding community engagement, the challenges of resource allocation, and the impact of open infrastructure on research ecosystems. Press download now to find out more!

[00:01:01] Chrys explains her role of product lead at IOI and leading the research for the “State of Open Infrastructure” report.

[00:02:08] Why study community health frameworks? IOI heard repeated mentions of frameworks in conversations but wasn’t sure of their awareness or impact.

[00:03:20] Chrys talks about the focus on three frameworks: CHAOSS, the FOREST framework (scholarly publishing), and POSI (The Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure).

[00:06:20] Chrys defines “Open Infrastructure” that includes software, tools, standards, protocols used across the research lifecycle, and does not include hardware.

[00:07:15] She shares some research findings that include a general low awareness of community health frameworks, trust is the key theme, and goes in depth with some primary concerns.

[00:10:00] Ruth elaborates into CHAOSS metrics context explaining CHAOSS uses working groups to develop context-aware metrics and metrics and models help projects focus efforts, like identifying organizational diversity or adoption levels.

[00:14:48] Who are CHAOSS metrics for? Ruth explains that metrics are made for the community: maintainers, users, contributors, and funders, and Georg talks about the origins of CHAOSS.

[00:17:55] Chrys dives into the Infra Finder breakdown. She goes in depth what it gathers information on and how it allows organizations to assess readiness and sustainability of open infrastructure projects.

[00:21:42] The Infra Finder has been used successfully in procurement processes. Chrys turns the conversation to talking about decision making. Users depend on peer feedback and case studies due to lack of formal sales/support in open source and she shares some key questions.

[00:26:34] Nicole brings up the topic of supporting new contributors and there’s a discussion on how CHAOSS includes metrics to identify and support new contributors and resources include project badging, practitioner guides, and metric models. Also, Ruth talks about challenges for small projects.

[00:31:35] Chrys details some information on how IOI helps improve project visibility by sharing entries and providing communications support.

[00:32:38] As far as what’s next for the research they are doing, Chrys shares they’re doing more in-depth sharing of report findings coming soon and IOI invites collaborators to help build governance, strategy, and respond to community needs.

Value Adds (Picks) of the week:

• [00:35:16] Georg’s pick is electric vehicle infrastructure.
• [00:36:00] Nicole’s pick is the concept of slow travel.
• [00:37:03] Ruth’s pick is spontaneously hanging out with friends.
• [00:38:19] Chrys’s pick is Simon Willison’s Newsletter and her favorite musical group, SHINee.

*Panelists: *
Georg Link

Nicole Huesman

Ruth Ikegah

Guest:

Chrys Wu

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

CHAOSS YouTube

podcast@chaoss.community

Georg Link Website

Nicole Huesman X

Ruth Ikegah X

Chrys Wu LinkedIn

Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI)

Invest in Open Infrastructure Strategic Support

Invest in Open Infrastructure Bluesky

Invest in Open Infrastructure Mastodon

Invest in Open Infrastructure LinkedIn

IOI’s 2025 State of Open Infrastructure Report section, “Trust, transparency, and technology: Do community health frameworks shape open infrastructure decisions?”

Infra Finder

Infra Finder Expression of Interest

CHAOSS Project DEI Metrics

FOREST Framework

The Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure

2025 State of Open Infrastructure: Trends in characteristics, funding, policy and community health (Zenodo)

Simon Willison’s Newsletter

SHINee’s new single “Poet | Artist” (YouTube)

Special Guest: Chrys Wu.

CHAOSScast – Episode 111

In this episode of the CHAOSScast, host Harmony leads a discussion featuring panelists Dawn Foster, Peculiar Umeh, Aishat Muhammed, and Elizabeth Barron, all of whom are involved in the CHAOSS Education Project. They discuss their roles within the CHAOSS Project and introduce the CHAOSS Education Project, which aims to create accessible learning resources for open source contributors at various experience levels. They cover the project's categories, share their personal contributions, personal growth, the impact on the community, future plans for sustainability and expansion, and how you can contribute to the project. Hit download now to hear more!

[00:00:27] The panelists introduce themselves and their backgrounds.

[00:02:40] Peculiar gives an overview of the CHAOSS Education Project which launched at CHAOSScon Europe 2025.

[00:04:39] Dawn talks about the target audience of the project, with the primary audience being CHAOSS community newcomers. and anybody can take any of the courses.

[00:06:38] Elizabeth talks about her contribution with creating an ‘Into to CHAOSS’ video and helped review and update script content.

[00:07:19] Aishat shares her contribution working on content about types of open source and licensing and how research deepened her own understanding.

[00:09:20] Peculiar talks about her contributions as Project Manager where she led project design, content workflow, contributor onboarding, and quality review.

[00:10:57] Dawn shares her contributions with creating the ‘Practitioner Guides’ videos and other key educational content.

[00:12:12] Elizabeth speaks about the impact of the project, transitioning chaotic onboarding into a structured learning tool.

[00:13:38] Aishat explains her personal growth form contributing, gaining deeper understanding of licensing and types of open source, and improving technical and collaborative skills.

[00:14:45] Dawn shares her observations on community engagement and how happy she is seeing new faces, especially from CHAOSS Africa.

[00:15:59] Peculiar shares her project management growth and how it enhanced her people skills, patience, and learned the value of diverse collaboration.

[00:17:23] Harmony wants to know the future of CHAOSS Education Project and Elizabeth shares the project’s future and elaborates on the success of the project.

[00:19:46] Aishat fills us in on how to contribute to the CHAOSS Education Project.

[00:22:05] Peculiar talks about the global impact on the project with a streamlined onboarding process, positive community feedback, and universities and external communities using the materials.

Value Adds (Picks) of the week:

• [00:25:07] Harmony’s pick is to be open to mentor everyone as much as you can.
• [00:25:49] Dawn’s pick is vacations.
• [00:26:16] Elizabeth’s pick is “Good Things Happen to me and for me list.”
• [00:27:05] Aishat’s pick is friendship.
• [00:27:50] Peculiar’s** **pick is adventure.

Panelist:
Harmony Elendu

Guests:

Dawn Foster

Peculiar Umeh

Aishat Muhammed

Elizabeth Barron

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

podcast@chaoss.community

Harmony Elendu X

Dawn Foster Bluesky

Peculiar Umeh LinkedIn

Elizabeth Barron LinkedIn

Aishat Muhammed LinkedIn

CHAOSS Education

CHAOSS Education Project

CHAOSS Education GitHub

Special Guests: Aishat Muhammed and Peculiar Umeh.

CHAOSScast – Episode 110

In this episode of CHAOSScast, host Harmony Elendu brings together two remarkable CHAOSS Africa contributors, Busayo Ojo and Yigakpoa Ikpae (Yiga), for an inspiring conversation in the "20 Minutes in CHAOSS Africa*"* series. They discuss how they discovered open source, navigated the CHAOSS community, overcame early confusion, and ultimately flourished as leaders and mentors. Also, they highlight the importance of participation, attending meetings, helping newcomers, and the unique initiatives within the CHAOSS community that help foster inclusivity and engagement. Press the download button now to hear more!

[00:01:41] Busayo shares her open source journey that started in 2021.

[00:04:08] Yiga shares finding her place with discovering CHAOSS at an event but initially didn’t understand it but returned after being inspired by the community’s warmth.

[00:06:20] Busayo talks about settling into the community and praises CHAOSS for being welcoming, having an effective first-time contributor guide, and the importance of showing up and helping others.

[00:10:54] Yiga talks about her first contributions and growth, starting with small tasks to build confidence, and becoming more involved through liaison and support roles.

[00:12:46] Busayo explains how open source improved her career trajectory and global network, being inspired by other leaders, and forming lasting friendships.

[00:14:21] Yiga explains her improved communication and leadership skills, learning humility and openness to feedback, and how contributions can open career doors.

[00:17:02] Busayo shares her favorite CHAOSS initiatives including the Tour Guide Program, helping organize CHAOSScon Africa 2023, and the CHAOSS Hacktoberfest event.

[00:19:59] What keeps Yiga going? She credits YouTube recordings for learning and highlights CHAOSS’s documentation culture and transparency.

[00:20:55] Harmony reflects on how YouTube recordings helped him personally.

Value Adds (Picks) of the week:

• [00:21:20] Harmony’s pick is AI has been his personal assistant lately.
  
• [00:21:48] Busayo’s pick is taking a break is very important.
• [00:22:59] Yiga’s pick is using AI, take breaks, eat good food, and enjoy life.

*Panelist: * Harmony Elendu

Guests:

Yigakpoa Ikpae (Yiga)

Busayo Ojo

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

CHAOSS YouTube

podcast@chaoss.community

Harmony Elendu X

Busayo Ojo (Medium)

Yigakpoa Ikpae (Yiga) (CHAOSS)

CHAOSS Africa

Special Guest: Yigakpoa Ikpae.

CHAOSScast – Episode 109

In this episode of CHAOSScast, host Georg Link is joined by Cali Dolfi, Senior Data Scientist at Red Hat, and Brittany Istenes, FINOS Ambassador. The discussion delves into the importance of measuring open source community health and the role of Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) in ensuring software security and compliance. They talk about the rising threats in open source software, the need for standardizing SBOMs, and how organizations can leverage these tools to proactively manage risks and project health. Also, they touch on practical steps being taken at Red Hat and other organizations to address these challenges. Hit download now to hear more!

[00:00:21] Our guests introduce themselves and their backgrounds.

[00:01:55] Georg explains the rise of malicious packages (700%) and the risks of neglected open source components.

[00:04:36] What is a SBOM? Brittany explains SBOMs as a list of all software components and libraries in each application and automation and tooling adoption is discussed.

[00:06:08] Cali outlines the lack of consensus on SBOM fields and formats and advocates for including upstream repo links to assess project health. Brittany mentions companies being cautious about publicizing SBOMs due to IP concerns.

[00:09:12] Georg gives a historical overview about SBOMs began as tools for license compliance and how SBOMs now cover more including cybersecurity, post U.S. Executive Order 14028 (May 2021).

[00:15:51] Georg shares three pillars of SBOM strategy: License compliance, Security, and Project Health and how CHAOSS Metrics can be combined with SBOMs to move from reactive to proactive strategies.

[00:16:59] Brittany emphasizes risk analysis and good design from project inception and proactive open source strategies save effort later.

[00:18:43] Cali talks about using project health metrics and advocates for tracking maintainer activity, patch frequency, and project responsiveness.

[00:21:28] Brittany stresses internal engineering education on project health and risk and developer smush understand what makes a project “healthy.”

[00:22:55] Georg talks about how open source has evolved and details using CHAOSS metrics for risk assessment and CI/CD integration.

[00:27:36] Cali shares Red Hat’s efforts to define what makes a project vulnerable and how it’s focused on detecting and sunsetting unmaintained dependencies.

[00:31:37] Brittany emphasizes risk from version mismatches and misinterpreted CVEs and mentions a CHAOSS doc to read, “Metrics for OSS Viability” by Gary White.

[00:34:17] We end with Georg sharing some upcoming events: CHAOSScon North America, June 26 and Open Source Summit North America, June 23-25.

Value Adds (Picks) of the week:

• [00:36:08] Georg’s pick is building a platform for his dog to look out the window.
• [00:37:06] Brittany’s pick is spending time with Georg and Cali.
• [00:38:12] Cali’s pick is her great support system since having ACL surgery.

*Panelist: *
Georg Link

Guests:

Cali Dolfi

Brittany Istenes

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

podcast@chaoss.community

Georg Link Website

Britany Istenes LinkedIn

Brittany Istenes GitHub

Cali Dolfi LinkedIn

State of the Software Supply Chain (Sonatype)

CHAOSScast Podcast-Episode 103: GrimoireLab at FreeBSD

CHAOSS Community: Metrics for OSS Viability by Gary White

CHAOSScon North America 2025, Denver, CO, June 26

Open Source Summit North America, Denver CO, June 23-25

Fintech Open Source (FINOS)

Cyber Resilience Act (European Commission)

Rising Threat: Understanding Software Supply Chain Cyberattacks And Protecting Against Them(Forbes)

Executive Order on Strengthening and Promoting Innovation in the Nation’s Cybersecurity (The White House)

Types of Software Bill of Material (SBOM) Documents

OpenSSF Scorecard

OSS Project Viability Starter (CHAOSS)

Show Me What You Got: Turning SBOMs Into Actions- Georg Link & Brittany Istenes

Special Guests: Brittany Istenes and Cali Dolfi.

CHAOSScast – Episode 108

In this episode of CHAOSScast, Harmony Elendu hosts a dynamic panel discussion with Divya Mohan, Yaya Xia, and Leon Nunes to discuss the latest updates from the CHAOSS Asia chapter. The episode dives into the history and growth of the CHAOSS Asia chapter, from focusing on metrics and localization to expanding collaborations across Asia. They discuss the challenges of awareness, contributor participation and cultural and linguistic diversity. The conversation also highlights plans for 2025 to include creating a database of open-source communities in Asia and enhancing community engagement through tailored awareness efforts. The conversation also touches on the importance of mentorship in open-source communities. Hit download now to hear more!

[00:00:31] The guests introduce themselves and their backgrounds.

[00:03:31] Yaya tells us the brief history of CHAOSS Asia that started in 2020.

[00:05:09] Divya talks about the growth and strategy of CHAOSS Asia and how it shifted to broader community engagement and partnerships.

[00:07:53] Leon talks about contributor participation and the GitHub repo for issues if anyone is interested in participating.

[00:09:24] Divya shares plans for 2025 to include creating a database of open source communities in Asia.

[00:11:02] Yaya dives into some challenges such as cultural and language barriers, CHAOSS is more research-focused, and the need for localized, language-accessible discussions and events.

[00:13:18] Divya brings up awareness being a huge challenge when it comes to the CHAOSS project because many assume CHAOSS is only about non-technical/community work and region-specific tailored outreach is necessary.

[00:15:29] Harmony asks about the current focus in CHAOSS Asia and Divya shares increasing awareness through virtual meetups, conference talks, and partnering with organizations.

[00:16:40] Leon speaks about the social media and language inclusion presence with CHAOSS Asia managing Twitter and LinkedIn and considering localized subgroups for language-specific events.

[00:18:21] Yaya talks about local orgs and events to connect CHAOSS and wants to bring more attention to inclusion for disabled contributors (DEI).

[00:20:05] Divya highlights the importance of partnerships and amplifying others’ work.

[00:21:26] Divya talks about how they are maximizing community and contributors’ participation with meetings scheduled for convenience across Asian time zones and emphasis on safety, inclusion, and providing space for diverse voices.

[00:23:11] Yaya speaks about wanting to demonstrate metrics’ value to more maintainers and plans to present at local events in native languages (e.g. Chinese).

Value Adds (Picks) of the week:

• [00:25:24] Harmony’s pick is mentorship.
• [00:26:17] Divya’s pick is her two cats.
• [00:26:56] Yaya’s pick is her cat.
• [00:27:29] Leon’s pick is his cat, traveling, and dancing.

Panelist:

Harmony Elendu

Guests:

Divya Mohan

Yaya Xia

Leon Nunes

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

podcast@chaoss.community

CHAOSS Community Slack

Harmony Elendu X

Divya Mohan LinkedIn

Leon Nunes LinkedIn

Yaya Xia LinkedIn

CHAOSS Asia

CHAOSS Asia GitHub

Special Guest: Divya Mohan.

CHAOSScast- Episode 107

In this episode of CHAOSScast, we have a special crossover episode with Sustain, hosted Richard Littauer. Richard chats with CHAOSS contributor Sean Goggins, a tenured full Professor of Computer Science at the University of Missouri. Sean discusses his extensive involvement in the open source community, particularly through his work with the CHAOSS Project, a Linux Foundation initiative focused on understanding and improving open-source project sustainability. Their conversation covers Sean's academic background, his role in CHAOSS, the importance of distributed leadership, and how metrics can impact the sustainability of open source projects. Sean also shares insights into his teaching methods, the challenges of maintaining open source software, and the future direction of his work on CHAOSS and Augur. Hit the download button now!

[00:02:32] Sean shares that he’s a professor specializing in software engineering, algorithms, data science, and visualization, and he discusses his tenure status and passion for research and open source work.

[00:03:48] Sean explains how open source leadership is distributed rather than centralized.

[00:05:52] We hear how the CHAOSS Project emerged from studying open source governance and leadership. Sean and Matt Germonprez started working on open source collaboration data and a metrics-focused discussion at a Linux Foundation Summit that led to the founding of the CHAOSS Project in 2017.

[00:09:30] Richard asks Sean how he balances research, teaching, and open source. Sean discusses how he splits time between research (40%), teaching (40%), and service (20%), with CHAOSS being a major part of his research efforts.

[00:14:34] Sean explains that the Augur Project was born out of a need for structured open source data tracking.

[00:16:25] Richard asks Sean if he teaches his students about open source, and he explains that he uses CHAOSS and Auger to teach students about GitHub collaboration, pull requests, and open source workflows.

[00:20:32] Sean shares his insights on research and open source. He emphasizes his involvement in maintaining software and aiding organizations in making sense of CHAOSS metrics through Augur, which has given him a deep understanding of open source development.

[00:21:51] Sean explains why he thinks metrics help make projects more sustainable and how the CHAOSS community has benefitted from fostering a welcoming environment for both technical and non-technical contributors.

[00:26:30] We hear some challenges within CHAOSS where it’s been difficult to build a strong developer community around CHAOSS software tools and maintaining open source software requires significant effort.

[00:29:18] He goes further to explain how to be a better project and that there’s potential for improving project sustainability through structured mentoring and governance.

[00:36:14] Sean shares CHAOSS Project’s future and research goals.

Panelist:

Richard Littauer of Sustain

Guest:

Sean Goggins of CHAOSS

Value Adds (Picks)/Spotlight:

• [00:38:32] Richard’s spotlight is BibtexParser.
• [00:39:28] Sean’s spotlight is Stuart Geiger.

Links:

SustainOSS

podcast@sustainoss.org

richard@sustainoss.org

SustainOSS Discourse

SustainOSS Mastodon

Open Collective-SustainOSS (Contribute)

Richard Littauer Socials

Sean Goggins Website

Sean Goggins X

Nora McDonald Website

Nora McDonald-Commonwealth Cyber Initiative

Sustain Podcast- 3 episodes featuring guest Georg Link

Sustain Podcast- 2 episodes featuring guest Dawn Foster

Matt Germonprez-Univ. of Nebraska Omaha

The Linux Kernel Maintainer Summit-Tokyo, Japan 2025

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

CHAOSS

CHAOSS-GrimoireLab

CHAOSS-Augur

Kelly Blincoe-University of Auckland

James Howison

Sustain Podcast- episode 218 featuring guest James Howison

Sustain Podcast-episode 243 featuring guest Elizabeth Barron

Sustain Podcast-episode 65 featuring guest Brian Proffitt

Sustain Podcast-2 episodes featuring guest Duane O’Brien

Sustain Podcast-episode 200 featuring guest Stuart Geiger

Digital Infrastructure Podcast- 2 episodes featuring guest Rayya El Zein

BibtexParser

Stuart Geiger

Special Guest: Richard Littauer.

CHAOSScast – Episode 106

In this episode of the CHAOSScast, host Alice Sowerby introduces guests Dawn Foster, Cailean Osborne, and Paul Sharratt to discuss the newly formed 'Funding Impact Measurement Working Group' within the CHAOSS community. The panel explores the group's origins, goals, and objectives, emphasizing the importance of mixed method approaches to assess the impact of funding on open source projects. They highlight the significance of both quantitative and qualitative methods to understand the effects of funding better and share insights on creating standardized frameworks for impact assessment. The discussion also touches on the challenges of public versus private funding, the nuances of financial support in open source projects, and the potential benefits of having a collaborative, open forum for related discussions. Hit download now to hear more!

[00:02:55] Dawn explains the newly established ‘Funding Impact Measurement Working Group’ within the CHAOSS Project including its goals and how often they meet.

[00:04:26] Paul describes how the working group was founded after a research paper was written on measuring the impact of public funding on open source and how they presented at Open Forum Academy at Harvard Business School.

[00:07:20] Dawn highlights open source funding comes from different sources and more about Microsoft’s FOSS Fund and measuring the impact of corporate sponsorship.

[00:10:25] Cailean outlines all the core objectives of the working group.

[00:13:17] We hear about the working group’s first meeting, including members from Digital Infrastructure Insights Fund, and the plan to build a repository of funding models, their effectiveness, and key case studies.

[00:15:34] There’s a discussion on the challenges in measuring funding impact, which Dawn explains cases where funding has led to community conflicts (some contributors get paid while others remain unpaid).

[00:19:45] Cailean talks about the long-term vision for the group which is expanding participation across different funding sources and building open source tools (e.g., Python scripts, Jupyter Notebooks) to support funding impact assessments.

[00:21:26] Dawn encourages participation in a working group by contributing in various ways, whether through technical resources, providing insights and experiences related to funding impacts, or simply learning and engaging in discussions.

[00:23:42] Paul and Cailean emphasize the need for qualitative research alongside quantitative metrics. Policymakers often seek “hard numbers,” but contextual insights from interviews and case studies are crucial.

Value Adds (Picks) of the week:

• [00:29:12] Cailean’s pick is Audrey Tang at RightsCon on her dual meaning of digital in Chinese.
• [00:30:34] Dawn’s pick is Blender for designing 3D models she can print.
• [00:32:35] Paul's pick is ERROR bug bounty program.
• [00:33:46] Alice’s pick is scrolling for things on eBay like fun sweaters.

Panelist:
Alice Sowerby

Guests:

Dawn Foster

Cailean Osborne

Paul Sharratt

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

CHAOSS Slack

podcast@chaoss.community

CHAOSS Calendar

Alice Sowerby LinkedIn

Dawn Foster Bluesky

Cailean Osborne, PhD LinkedIn

Paul Sharratt LinkedIn

Paul Sharratt Bluesky

Sovereign Tech Agency

The Linux Foundation Europe

Funding Impact Measurement Working Group

A Toolkit for Measuring the Impacts of Public Funding on Open Source Software Development (Paper)

“Measuring the impact of our investments: introducing a co-authored paper,” by Paul Sharratt

[Audrey Tang](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audrey_Tang#:~:text=Audrey%20Tang%20(Chinese%3A%20%E5%94%90%E9%B3%B3,ten%20greatest%20Taiwanese%20computing%20personalities%22.)

ERROR

Blender

#1-Dawn designed and printed on Blender

#2-Dawn designed and printed on Blender

Special Guests: Cailean Osborne and Paul Sharratt.

CHAOSScast – Episode 105

In this episode of CHAOSScast, host Alice Sowerby introduces guests Heather Ellsworth, Wayne Mery, and Luis Cañas-Díaz. Today, the conversation focuses on the collaboration between Thunderbird and Bitergia, detailing their journey in using Grimoire Lab to gather community metrics. Key points include the importance of metrics in understanding community dynamics, the various tools monitored for data collection, and the impact of these metrics on community management. The panelists also share advice for other open source projects considering adopting Grimoire Lab and reflect on future plans. Press download now to hear more!

[00:00:31] Alice, Heather, Wayne and Luis introduce themselves and share their backgrounds.

[00:04:08] Wayne explains Thunderbird’s history and evolution from Netscape Navigator and Heather adds her personal experience with Thunderbird as a user and developer.

[00:06:21] Luis elaborates on Bitergia’s role in providing data and metrics for the Thunderbird community.

[00:07:51] Heather discusses the project between Thunderbird and Bitergia, focusing on community health and data analysis and Wayne emphasizes the need for metrics to understand community dynamics better.

[00:10:10] The origin of the collaboration idea is traced back to discussions about community metrics and Heather and Wayne reflect on their discovery and learning process with GrimoireLab and CHAOSS.

[00:12:09] Luis compares the Thunderbird project with other similar projects and discusses the challenges due to diverse tools.

[00:13:47] Heather talks about developing dashboards to monitor various types of contributions within the Thunderbird community.

[00:16:06] Wayne describes refining the data to better suit Thunderbird’s needs.

[00:17:16] Heather mentions how metrics have influenced Thunderbird’s community engagement strategies.

[00:18:13] The accessibility and public sharing of dashboards is discussed.

[00:21:13] The conversation turns to future plans with GrimoireLab, metrics, and Thunderbird are outlined, focusing on understanding community dynamics better.

[00:23:05] Heather speaks about some of the dashboards in more detail.

[00:25:50] Luis talks about new developments on GrimoireLab, including the extension and updating of tools by their team to enhance support for forums, translation, communication, and tracking issues.

[00:27:46] Our guests share advice about adopting GrimoireLab for other open source projects and GrimoireLab’s benefits.

Value Adds (Picks) of the week:

• [00:30:25] Alice’s pick is party games like pass the parcel.
  
• [00:31:49] Luis’s pick is a new coffee machine and making coffee.
• [00:32:35] Heather’s pick is Belgium chocolate from FOSDEM.
• [00:33:21] Wayne’s pick is touring Belgium.

Panelist:

Alice Sowerby

Guests:

Luis Cañas-Díaz

Heather Ellsworth

Wayne Mery

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

podcast@chaoss.community

Alice Sowerby LinkedIn

Luis Cañas-Díaz LinkedIn

Luis Cañas-Díaz Website

Heather Ellsworth Mastodon

Heather Ellsworth LinkedIn

Wayne Mery LinkedIn

Thunderbird Blog-“Open Source, Open Data: Visualizing Our Community with Bitergia”

Thunderbird

Bitergia

Bitergia Analytics-Thunderbird

Thunderbird Installation Statistics

Thunderbird Participate

Pass the parcel

Special Guests: Heather Ellsworth, Luis Cañas-Díaz, and Wayne Mery.

CHAOSScast – Episode 104

In this episode of CHAOSScast, join our host Harmony along with guests Winifred Young and Oluchi Nwankwo as they dive into their journeys and experiences in the open source community. They discuss their first encounters with open source, their contributions, and the impacts they've made within CHAOSS Africa. They also highlight the importance of effective onboarding, clear documentation, and the need for better marketing strategies in open source communities. Press download to hear more!

[00:00:24] Winifred and Oluchi introduce themselves and tell us what they do.

[00:01:55] Winifred recounts her initial confusion about open source and her eventual engagement through programs like Google Summer of Code.

[00:02:53] Oluchi describes her introduction to open source during a coding bootcamp and meeting Ruth Ikegah, community lead at CHAOSS Africa.

[00:04:52] Oluchi talks about her slow start and eventual active involvement in the CHAOSS Africa community through managing social media.

[00:06:50] Winifred shares her struggles with joining the community due to her mobility issues and how she became more involved through attending community meetings.

[00:09:28] Harmony highlights the importance of attending community meetings as a form of participation and praises newcomers’ hangout for helping new members.

[00:11:13] Oluchi reflects on her impactful experience managing CHAOSS Africa’s conference communications in 2018.

[00:13:07] Winifred discusses organizing an outreach event for the Disability-Inclusion team, emphasizing how open source has provided her with opportunities to lead and make a difference.

[00:16:14] We end with a discussion on the areas for improvement in the community, like better documentation and increased visibility of projects through effective marketing.

Value Adds (Picks) of the week:

• [00:19:50] Oluchi’s pick is to make that switch and see yourself flourish.
  
• [00:20:23] Winifred’s pick is to learn how your brain works and don’t be shy to ask for help.
• [00:21:06] Harmony’s pick is to just take the risk.

Panelist:

Harmony Elendu

Guests:

Oluchi Nwankwo

Winifred Young

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

podcast@chaoss.community

Harmony Elendu X

Harmony Elendu LinkedIn

Oluchi Nwankwo X

Oluchi Nwankwo LinkedIn

Winifred Young X

Winifred Young LinkedIn

CHAOSS Project Africa X

CHAOSS-Africa GitHub

Disability Outreach- Bridging Disability And Technology- CHAOSS Blog Post by Victoria Ottah and Winifred Young

Special Guests: Oluchi Nwankwo and Winifred Young.

CHAOSScast – Episode 103

In this episode of CHAOSScast, host Alice Sowerby welcomes guests Miguel Ángel Fernández, Ed Maste, and Moin Rahman to talk about the FreeBSD Project's adoption of GrimoireLab as part of work commissioned by the Sovereign Tech Agency.

They discuss the FreeBSD Foundation's need to understand their extensive bug backlog and how they leveraged GrimoireLab to gain insights and optimize bug management. The conversation also covers the challenges of deploying GrimoireLab on FreeBSD, resulting enhancements in the GrimoireLab metrics, and the overall benefits seen in managing the FreeBSD project.

Press download to hear more!

[00:00:45] The guests introduce themselves and share their backgrounds.

[00:03:00] Alice explains the adoption of GrimoireLab by the FreeBSD project, facilitated by Bitergia who Miguel works for, to enhance project metrics and dashboarding capabilities.

[00:04:02] Ed details FreeBSD’s history, it integrated approach to software distribution, and its licensing benefits.

[00:05:50] Miguel describes Bitergia’s role in providing analytics for open source projects through GrimoireLab and how it integrates data from various development platforms.

[00:07:38] Ed discusses the FreeBSD project’s need for better tools to manage its large bug backlog, prompting the adoption of GrimoireLab.

[00:10:57] Alice and Miguel discuss the translation of specific project needs into functional dashboards within GrimoireLab.

[00:15:38] Ed highlights the utility of the Backlog Management Index (BMI) dashboard, which helps assess the effectiveness of efforts to manage and reduce the bug backlog.

[00:18:20] Moin speaks on the practical use of GrimoireLab during bug busting sessions, which helped identify and close outdates or irrelevant bugs.

[00:20:14] Moin explains the challenges and solutions of deploying GrimoireLab on FreeBSD, emphasizing the importance of utilizing FreeBSD’s native capabilities over Linux-based solutions.

[00:24:26] Miguel mentions new features added to GrimoireLab, inspired by their collaboration with the FreeBSD project, improving metrics for bug management.

[00:28:05] Ed provides insights into the patterns of bug response times and highlights the need for proactive management of bugs that are unlikely to be addressed, and Miguel shares his positive thoughts on the community responding to the bugs.

Value Adds (Picks) of the week:

• [00:32:10] Alice’s pick is taking a walk in the Black Forest in Germany.
• [00:32:38] Ed’s pick is going downhill skiing and taking a trip to a larger ski resort in Ontario.
• [00:33:21] Miguel’s pick is starting to learn to play the piano a few months ago with an online course and how rewarding it’s been.
• [00:34:17] Moin’s pick is joining the FreeBSD Foundation and the strong sense of purpose it has given him.

Panelist:
Alice Sowerby

Guests:

Miguel Ángel Fernández

Ed Maste

Moin Rahman

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

podcast@chaoss.community

Alice Sowerby LinkedIn

Miguel Ángel Fernández LinkedIn

Ed Maste LinkedIn

Moin Rahman LinkedIn

Sovereign Tech Agency

Sovereign Tech Fund to Invest €686,400 in FreeBSD Infrastructure Modernization

FreeBSD's GrimoireLab instance

Documentation for FreeBSD's GrimoireLab instance

FreeBSD Project

FreeBSD Foundation

Bitergia

Bitergia-GrimoireLab

Black Forest-Germany

Special Guests: Ed Maste, Miguel Ángel Fernández Sánchez , and Moin Rahman.

CHAOSScast – Episode 102

In this episode of the CHAOSScast, host Harmony Elendu shares a special segment titled "20 Minutes with CHAOSS Africa," dedicated to sharing experiences and stories from members of the CHAOSS Africa community. The episode features discussions with guests, Hamza Danjaji and Gift Uhiene, who share their unique journeys into the world of open source and their contributions to the CHAOSS community. The conversation provides insights into the impact of community involvement on personal and professional growth and explores the foundational aspects of open source participation. Press download now to hear more!

[00:01:06] Harmony introduces “20 Minutes with CHAOSS Africa” podcast series focusing on encounters with open source and experiences in the CHAOSS Africa community, and our guests introduce themselves.

[00:01:21] Hamza recounts his initial exploration of GitHub during university, which sparked his interest in open source by fixing readme files.

[00:03:10] Gift’s first open source encounter came in 2020 while learning React, leading her to explore public project contributions and the concept of open source.

[00:05:46] Hamza and Gift share how their community onboarding and contributions went, as Hamza shares his early community engagement in university, which evolved into advocacy for open source communities, including CHAOSS Africa. Gift talks about her informal entry into open source contributions, which eventually led her to formally join the CHAOSS community and contribute to documentation and code.

[00:08:33] Gift details her initial contributions to CHAOSS and her involvement in educational projects, highlighting personal growth through community engagement, and Hamza shares that his first contribution to CHAOSS was very easy.

[00:11:00] Harmony asks Gift and Hamza what they love about the community that makes them keep coming back and contributing. Gift appreciates personal growth and Hamza appreciates the structured communication and welcoming nature of the CHAOSS community meetings, which facilitate both listening and contributing.

Value Adds (Picks) of the week:

• [00:14:24] Harmony’s pick is a repo on GitHub called, ‘Everything-Open-Source.’
• [00:15:03] Gift’s pick is to write down your goals.
• [00:15:26] Hamza’s pick is a repo on GitHub called, ‘First Contributions.’

Panelist:

Harmony Elendu

Guests:

Hamza Danjaji

Gift Uhiene

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

podcast@chaoss.community

Harmony Elendu LinkedIn

Harmony Elendu X

Gift Uhiene Website

Gift Uhiene X

Gift Uhiene LinkedIn

Hamza Danjaji LinkedIn

Everything-Open-Source-GitHub

First Contributions-GitHub

Special Guests: Gift Uhiene and Hamza Danjaji.