My Open Source Experience Podcast

In this MOSE Shorts segment, Clare Dillon talks about her overall onboarding and contribution experience. While she's been more active in communities that focus on knowledge sharing and where writing code is not the norm, she highlights the importance of understanding the community before starting to work upstream. Newcomers need to learn the community's language, not the spoken language but rathe...

Tech and business seem to be very far from each other, but they can't exist without each other, and it's best if people have a level of understanding in both. In this MOSE SHorts segment, Phil and Ildiko are chatting with Austen Bryan about getting the education that one needs for their carrier. Austen went to school to learn about tech first, but shortly after finishing he decided it wasn't enoug...

Everyone worries about sustainability, we want to sustain our lives, our relationships, our jobs and our communities, personal, professional or open source. In this MOSE Shorts segment Michael Dexter talks about his journey with the Portland Linux/Unix User Group (PLUG), which he's been involved in for decades. PLUG is one of the longest running Linux/Unix user groups, it survived the COVID lockdo...

It is undeniable that connections that are built in person are stronger, you can build trust faster and move conversations forward that were otherwise stuck. All this doesn't mean travel funding gets any easier to figure out. In this segment of the My Open Source Experience podcast Tom Sadler, Ildiko and Phil share their conference experiences and how it helped them to progress better in their res...

There have been a lot of conversations about funding in the open source space at conferences like FOSSY, and overall in the ecosystem. In this segment of the My Open Source Experience podcast Samson Goddy talks about the challenges in the open source space, and how opportunities are not equal based on where someone lives. For example, in Africa, even regular tech jobs are harder to access. Learn m...

The software industry has been very fast paced none of us wants to be left behind, nor individuals neither companies. In this MOSE Shorts segment, Ildiko and Phil are chatting with Kelsey Hightower and exploring why open source is key for individuals and companies to ensure their success over time. Learn more about: - What slowed down innovation at Google in the datacenter space - The importance o...

Mindset and cultural change is hard in any topic area in any organization, and that is no different with open source either. It often boils down to fear. People aren't sure the new direction will wok out, they might misconceptions about it and in general they are reluctant to leave their current practice behind, whether or not it actually works. In this MOSE Shorts segment Federico Gonzalez Waite...

The steps of creating an open source project might be the same, but the experience is always different. In this MOSE Shorts segment Gregory Kurtzer shares the back story of creating Rocky Linux, and what challenges he ran into in the early days. Learn more about: - The affects of the license switch strategy on the open source ecosystem - The stability of the open source ecosystem - Choosing the ri...

Software supply chain security has been on the top of minds lately, for a very good reason. With most steps depending on digital infrastructure, there are a lot of opportunities for cyber attacks to happen. At the same time, there is an often silent mistrust in open source software, because it is designed and developed in public environments. People think that because everyone can see the source c...

The recent times in open source have been bringing some changes, which connects back to governments' recognition of the importance to protect the cyber space. As modern life depends more and more on connected digital infrastructure, cybersecurity has become the center of attention, and concern. All digital products and services depend on open source software to varying extent, which brings open so...

Open source isn't just for software developers. In fact, there is a large legal community that is focusing on licenses, intellectual property, legislations and more to understand how these all apply to open source, and what is enforceable and how. However, law and legislations develop and evolve on a very different pace than technology and open source, which makes the intersection of these areas r...

Maintaining a local fork of an open source project is like maintaining an illusion. It only gives momentarily control and becomes expensive to keep up over time. Have you experienced that already? This My Open Source Experience podcast episode evolves around this topic and explores why and how to invest in open source projects, including how to pick which ones to rely on, what to consider when set...

Open source investment and involvement are still considered risky and expensive, even though there are individuals, companies and studies that say the opposite. What's your take on this? In this My Open Source Experience podcast episode Ildiko and Phil explore corporate involvement in the Linux kernel community with Greg Kroah-Hartman. Greg has been a long-term Linux kernel contributor and maintai...

We often talk about collaboration in the context of open source, or at least externally to a company with partner organizations. However, especially in larger corporations, cross-team work is just as important as the teamwork itself. Working with other teams is often more complicated than it needs to be, for various reasons. These teams could be in different countries, or the company's structure m...

If you want your company to be successful you need to deliver value to your customers or you do'n't have a business. Using open source software is appealing, since the source code is available online free of charge. However, as much as it is available to you it is also available to others. So, what's your differentiator? What's your business value? In this episode of the My Open Source Experience...

Building a business strategy is hard in general, and when open source becomes part of the equation it can get even more challenging. In the recent past there were multiple examples of companies changing the license on their open source project to something less or not at all open. This is often harmful to the companies themselves and the pattern is always harmful tot he open source ecosystem. In t...

In this segment of the My Open Source Experience podcast, Kelsey Hightower shares his current adventures, which includes a home improvement project. As Kelsey is now advising startups, rather than working in 9-5 jobs, he highlights the importance to keep your energy and drive, no matter when you retire, and how someone can't stop sharing once they started. While Kelsey talks about his adventures t...

By definition, open source projects and communities are supposed to be accessible. And while the code is always openly available, the remaining parts of the ecosystem might be further out of reach than you would think In this episode of the My Open Source Experience Podcast, Michael Dexter, Ildiko and Phil explore the open source ecosystem from two perspectives: business and accessibility. Busines...

When people get introduced to open source later in their life and career it can be a bigger adjustment that is hard to do, and that's when individuals start to struggle. When you introduce open source in a large organization, the effect multiples very quickly. This My Open Source Experience podcast episode is diving into the stories and effects of getting introduced to open source in different sta...

As humanity progresses, our dependency on digital infrastructure is growing and is now at a level where most of us cannot exist without it, it is part of our everyday life and our livelihood depends on it. Open Source is a fundamental building block, and yet, awareness and opportunities still seem to gravitate towards a few geographical regions. In this episode of the My Open Source Experienc...

When people talk about open source and government in the same sentence, it is most often about legislations, regulations and some kind of complaint along these lines. Some governments are still learning about the concept, while others decided to just jump right in. In this My Open Source Experience podcast episode Federico Gonzalez Waite talks about his years working for the Mexican government, wh...

Getting involved and investing time and resources into upstream projects can be a complicated decision and process for individuals and companies alike. Have you experienced this already? In this episode of the MOSE podcast, Kelsey Hightower talks about his open source journey, and shares tips and tricks to ensure a successful and sustainable engagement in the ecosystem. He has a versatile backgrou...

Ildiko and Phil kick off 2025 in this My Open Source Experience podcast episode! Learn more about: - The Cyber Resiliency Act (CRA), a new EU legislation affecting the open source ecosystem, that landed in 2024 - The newly released 1.0 version of the Open Source AI Definition (OSAID) - Open-source-focused conferences to add to your schedule in 2025 - A sneak peek into the rest of Season 2 Hosted o...

In this MOSE Short Nithya Ruff, Ildiko and Phil talk about the importance of motivation, which applies to open source projects just as much as everything else that people get involved in. Many open source projects have trainings and onboarding materials to help newcomers to get involved, and stay involved. Many people stumble onto these resources and start using them, but they rarely stick around...

In this MOSE Short segment Emily Lovell talks about her experience teaching at different academic institutions, both large and small. A small teaching school provides opportunities to be more agile and move faster to figure out what works best for students as well as the faculti, and to make it happen. Classes tend to be smaller, and students can often get a more hands on experience. Large, top-ti...