Community

Every open source project eventually hits a moment where someone has to make a call nobody agreed on in advance — and governance is the system that determines who has the authority to make it. This post walks through every major governance model in plain language, from BDFLs and do-ocracies to lazy consensus and multi-stakeholder consortia, including how mature projects like Kubernetes layer several models at once. MkDocs is included as a real-world example of what happens when governance gets skipped entirely.

Most OSPO leaders think their committers are their community — they’re not. Start with git shortlog -sne to identify contributors, then layer in GitHub Insights and LFX Insights for richer data. For the full picture, spin up GrimoireLab to pull from Slack, Discourse, mailing lists, and more. But the real community — the bug reporters, bloggers, meetup organizers, and lurkers in a Telegram group you’ve never heard of — lives outside your repo entirely. Cast a wide net across social media, forums, and conference talks, and don’t be shy about asking your known community where they hang out.

Abstract From navigating different incentive structures to fostering healthy collaboration, this practical session delivers hard-earned wisdom from 25+ years of open source experience. Whether you’re a newcomer curious about contributing or a seasoned maintainer, “Open Source Survival Guide” offers concrete rules that help technical professionals, community leaders, and companies work effectively in open source environments. Learn how to build trust, share knowledge, handle contributions, and avoid the pitfalls that can damage projects and careers. ...

Kubernetes and I share something: We were born on June 6th (I didn’t pick the date; I probably would’ve though to take more attention away from me). I’ve contributed to Kubernetes for 70% of its life. Today, Kubernetes turns 10. There are many things I could write about to commemorate this day. It has improved my life (like every other open source project I have worked on) by giving me desirable skills in an emerging space. It also allowed me to lead again (I’m a co-lead of the Kubernetes Contributor Comms subproject). Today, however, I’m writing about a personal story that would not be befitting of Kubernetes’ websites (K8s.io and K8s.dev). As it’s personal and my life is eventful, there’s been a lot of twists and turns ...

Photo by Aaron Burden from Pexels It’s been one of the more challenging years of my life for many reasons. Please allow me the space to do some healing in this intro. I promise the juicy tech bits are a header away. If 2020 was hell on earth (which, while close, wasn’t quite there), 2021 asked us all to hold our collective beverages. Vaccines and boosters aside, the pandemic was a staunch obstacle to tackle along with every decision. A thorn in the side of everything at this point, we tried to live as normal a life as a family can that has young, unvaccinated children amongst us. But, how do you reduce human interaction in a world that needs more humans to be human to each other? We have to figure out the answer to this question. In the face of a pandemic, government spending buoyed the economy here in the United States. Abroad other nations took stock and saw a world where everyone looked after themselves first. I am relieved that adults have returned to the White House, but I fear it might be short-lived given the stalling in Washington DC the past few weeks. ...