Episode 201: FOSSY 2023 with Josh Simmons

Guest Josh Simmons Panelist Richard Littauer Show Notes Hello and
welcome to Sustain! Richard is in Portland at FOSSY, the Free and
Open Source Software Yearly conference that is held by the Software
Freedom Conservancy. In this exciting episode, we welcome guest
Josh Simmons, a notable figure with an illustrious career in the
open source community. We hear about Josh’s important
contributions, particularly his involvement with OSCON as a
community manager and now, a co-organizer and program chair of the
community track. Josh also outlines his talk on health and safety
policies in the diversity, equity, and inclusion track, focusing on
minimizing risks and promoting inclusivity at events. Josh also
introduces his exciting new venture, Open Chapters, a consultancy
designed to support and elevate open source projects, community
organizers, and institutions. If you’re curious about the dynamics
and challenges of open source communities, this episode is a must
listen! Hit download now! [00:00:41] Josh talks about his
involvement in OSCON as a community manager and how he’s now
involved in the community track, as a co-organizer and program
chair and mentions his fellow organizers. He also mentions his
upcoming talk on health and safety policies in the diversity,
equity, and inclusion track. [00:02:14] Richard shares his
experience of traveling and getting COVID twice, and asks Josh
provides an overview of health and safety practices. [00:05:05]
Josh shares about his newly launched consultancy with Julia
Ferraioli called Open Chapters, which focuses on social and
technical systems in open source projects. [00:06:00] He explains
his ideal clients for their consultancy for profit or non-profit
organizations looking to benefit from or contribute to open source
and free software. [00:07:03] Josh discusses the “community manager
trap” and how they plan to avoid it by providing coaching,
strategy, and educational materials to mentor new community
managers into those roles. [00:07:50] Josh acknowledges the
resource disparities in open source and his hopes to level the
playing field. [00:10:40] Richard presents a devil’s advocate
stance, challenging the approach of trying to help maintainers and
suggesting that they should be encouraged to set boundaries
instead. Josh agrees with Richard’s stance and highlights the
importance of maintainers and suggesting that they should be
encouraged to set boundaries instead. [00:12:47] Find out where you
can follow Josh, Open Chapters, and his health and safety policy
work online. Links Sustain OSS (https://sustainoss.org/) Sustain
OSS Twitter
(https://twitter.com/SustainOSS?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
Sustain OSS Discourse (https://discourse.sustainoss.org/)
podcast@sustainoss.org (mailto:podcast@sustainoss.org) Sustain OSS
Mastodon (https://mastodon.social/tags/sustainoss) Richard Littauer
Twitter (https://twitter.com/richlitt?lang=en) Software Freedom
Conservancy (https://sfconservancy.org/) Open OSS
(https://openoss.sourceforge.net/) Josh Simmons Website
(https://joshsimmons.com/) Josh Simmons Mastodon
(https://josh.tel/@josh) Josh Simmons LinkedIn
(https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshsimmons) Open Chapters
(https://openchapters.tech/) The Public Health Pledge
(https://publichealthpledge.com/) Credits Produced by Richard
Littauer (https://www.burntfen.com/) Edited by Paul M. Bahr at
Peachtree Sound (https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Show notes by
DeAnn Bahr Peachtree Sound (https://www.peachtreesound.com/)
Special Guest: Josh Simmons.