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Thank you to the folks at Sustain for providing the hosting account for CHAOSSCast! CHAOSScast – Episode 133 In this episode we put a formal pause on the CHAOSScast podcast and celebrate our memories of working on this special project. Before you listen to Georg, Alice, Harmony, and Maryblessing share some of the podcast history and happy moments, we'd like to let you know a bit more about why the podcast is stopping for now. CHAOSScast will be taking an indefinite break, and we have no current plans to restart it. Producing the podcast has been a rewarding experience, and we’re grateful to everyone who listened, contributed, and joined us in conversation over the years. At this time, however, we have not been able to determine that the podcast is delivering enough value to the community to justify the time and financial resources required to sustain it. If a clear community need for the podcast emerges in the future, we would be excited to explore bringing it back in a new form. Until then, thank you for being part of the CHAOSS community that created CHAOSScast. Hit download now to hear more! [00:00:00] - Welcome Back Panel Intro [00:02:19] - Podcast Pause Announcement [00:04:03] - How CHAOSScast Began [00:08:52] - Community Impact Highlights [00:16:39] - Behind The Scenes [00:19:21] - Downloads And Top Episodes [00:22:01] - What We Are Doing Next [00:29:26] - Value Adds And Gratitude [00:34:27] - Final Farewell For Now Host Harmony Elendu Panelist: Georg Link Alice Sowerby Maryblessing Okolie Links: CHAOSS CHAOSS Project X CHAOSScast Podcast CHAOSS YouTube [email protected] CHAOSS Calendar CHAOSS Slack Alice Sowerby LinkedIn Georg Link LinkedIn Maryblessing Okolie Harmony Elendu LinkedIn https://alpha-omega.dev https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/2847/oj/eng FreeBSD.org Special Guest: Maryblessing Okolie.

Thank you to the folks at Sustain for providing the hosting account for CHAOSSCast! 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

Thank you to the folks at Sustain for providing the hosting account for CHAOSSCast! 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 [email protected] 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.

Thank you to the folks at Sustain for providing the hosting account for CHAOSScast! 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 [email protected] 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.

Thank you to the folks at Sustain for providing the hosting account for CHAOSScast! 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: Partner Impact Community Impact Ecosystem (Supply Chain) Impact 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.

Thank you to the folks at Sustain for providing the hosting account for CHAOSSCast! 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.

Thank you to the folks at Sustain for providing the hosting account for CHAOSScast! 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 [email protected] 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.

Thank you to the folks at Sustain for providing the hosting account for CHAOSScast! 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 [email protected] 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)

Thank you to the folks at Sustain for providing the hosting account for CHAOSSCast! 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 [email protected] 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.

Thank you to the folks at Sustain for providing the hosting account for CHAOSSCast! 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 [email protected] 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.

Thank you to the folks at Sustain for providing the hosting account for CHAOSSCast! 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 [email protected] 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.

Thank you to the folks at Sustain for providing the hosting account for CHAOSSCast! 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 [email protected] 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.

Thank you to the folks at Sustain for providing the hosting account for CHAOSSCast! 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 [email protected] 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.

Thank you to the folks at Sustain for providing the hosting account for CHAOSSCast! 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 [email protected] 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.

Thank you to the folks at Sustain for providing the hosting account for CHAOSSCast! 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 [email protected] Alice Sowerby LinkedIn SustainOSS [email protected] [email protected] 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.