Episode 200: FOSSY 2023 with Stuart Geiger

Guest Stuart Geiger 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 today’s episode, we’re joined by Stuart
Geiger, and Assistant Professor at University of California, San
Diego. Stuart shares his unique expertise on “invisible work” in
the open source communities, discussing his research funded by the
Digital Infrastructure Fund and emphasizing the importance of
documenting and valuing such efforts. The conversation delves into
the gendered aspects of invisible work, the intersection between
capitalism and open source work, and the emotional impact of
burnout in emotionally demanding and undervalued roles. Richard and
Stuart also explore the motivations of open source practitioners,
potential links between religious backgrounds and open source
evangelism, and the intriguing implications of large language model
AI in the open source world. Hit download now to hear more!
[00:00:32] Stuart tells us his focus area and explains that he also
studies a range of decentralized, volunteer-based, peer production
communities. [00:00:57] Stuart was one of the first recipients of
funding from the Digital Infrastructure Fund, aimed at researching
the unseen aspects of open source software. [00:01:31] What does
Stuart mean by “invisible work?” In open source projects they are
things that aren’t tracked on public code repositories. He shares
that they have conducted over 50 interviews to learn more about the
“invisible work”, and discusses the importance of documenting
“invisible work.” [00:04:56] Richard and Stuart discuss the need
for environmentally friendly alternatives to in-person meetings or
conferences. Stuart suggests using tools like Open Collective to
and the All Contributors project. [00:05:57] Richard asks if there
are parallels between invisible work in open source and societal
invisible work, particularly regarding women. Stuart affirms this
and mentions that some of this labor can be gendered, especially
work marked as more social. Richard and Stuart brainstorm a slogan
to describe the transition from non-contributors to contributors in
open source projects, so if you have any suggestions send an email.
[00:08:48] The topic about the intersection between capitalism and
open source work is brought up, and Stuart discusses burnout,
explaining that if often occurs in professions that are emotionally
demanding and undervalued. [00:11:29] Richard asks Stuart if open
source practitioners see it as a calling. Stuart explains that some
do while others are motivated by business necessity. [00:12:57] A
question arises around the potential religious backgrounds of open
source evangelists, and Stuart shares he has not specifically
investigated this connection, though he has observed comparisons
with political activism. [00:14:22] What is Stuart working on right
now? He mentions exploring the implications of large language model
AI in the open source world. [00:16:32] Find out where you can
follow Stuart and his work online. Links SustainOSS
(https://sustainoss.org/) SustainOSS Twitter
(https://twitter.com/SustainOSS?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
SustainOSS Discourse (https://discourse.sustainoss.org/)
podcast@sustainoss.org (mailto:podcast@sustainoss.org) SustainOSS
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/) All Contributors
(https://allcontributors.org/) Stuart Geiger Website
(https://stuartgeiger.com/) Stuart Geiger Google Scholar
(https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=0AvWi3wAAAAJ&hl=en)
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:
Stuart Geiger.