Episode 197: FOSSY 2023 with Joe Castle

Guest Joe Castle 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. Today, Richard speaks with Joe Castle from
SAS, a global analytics and AI company, about the fascinating world
of open source software. Joe, who supports the federal team at SAS,
shares the company’s journey from its roots as a statistical
software company in the 1970s to its current role as an AI leader.
We’ll dive into SAS’s integral involvement with open source
software, how it supports and contributes to the community, and its
ambitious plans for future engagement. Explore Joe’s unique
insights into the motivations and sustainability of corporate open
source efforts and discover how SAS balances financial incentive
with authentic community engagement. Tune in for an exciting
conversation about SAS’s shift towards greater open source
integration and its commitment to building superior products, and
ongoing discussions about making Python packages a first-class
citizen in SAS. Hit download now! [00:00:30] Joe explains his role
at SAS, explaining how he supports the federal team at SAS and how
it involves business development with government executives and
advocating for and developing open source software. [00:00:54] What
does SAS do? Joe describes it as an analytics and AI company, and
SAS clients are not just federal governments but also span
industries such as banking, insurance, and more across the globe.
[00:01:51] Joe discusses how SAS uses and supports open source.
Their product suite allows integration with Python, R, Lua, and
JavaScript. [00:03:33] Richard asks Joe to explain where SAS fits
on the spectrum of corporate influence on open source. Joe tells us
that SAS is involved in all aspects of open source usage,
development, and contribution. [00:05:36] Joe talks about SAS’s
evolution from being a statistical software company to an AI
company and how open source figures in their AI offerings.
Developers can use Python to develop AI models using SAS’s packages
and run it through their large compute engines. [00:07:09] Joe
explains his talk about the architecture of the CAS (Cloud Analytic
Service), which is a Python package that allows for the sequential
processing of large datasets. [00:07:57] On the question of open
source vs closed source, Joe says it depends on the context. While
SAS has proprietary algorithms for model processing, developers can
use their own python code to interact with these models. [00:08:30]
SAS’s primary audience includes data scientists, developers, and
data engineers who have an understanding of Python and R.
[00:13:46] Richard inquires about the experiences of SAS in the
realm of open source. Joe tells us they’re competitive motivations
and they want to help users and capture a wider audience by
signaling that they are open source friendly. He brings up the
financial incentive for companies to engage with open source.
[00:15:27] Joe provides an example of a large financial customer
who’s using their software for significant data processing and
analysis. [00:16:21] What’s Joe most excited to open source? He
admits that some proprietary elements will remain closed due to
business reasons. However, he mentions that there are ongoing
discussions about making Python packages a first-class citizen.
[00:19:06] Find out you can follow Joe and SAS developer stuff
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/) Joseph Castle Twitter
(https://twitter.com/jrcastle_vt) Joseph Castle, PhD LinkedIn
(https://www.linkedin.com/in/jrcastle/) SAS
(https://www.sas.com/en_us/home.html) SAS Developer Home
(https://developer.sas.com/home.html) Python SWAT Library
(https://developer.sas.com/guides/python-swat.html) SAS Explore
(https://explore.sas.com/event/33f11b50-88c8-4525-ad70-86a5b527d441/websitePage:3169d95a-1f77-45e2-93fd-968feb1a813e?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=events-us-non-non-americas&utm_content=PLN_14503&dclid=&gclid=Cj0KCQjw5f2lBhCkARIsAHeTvljmteuPr6RqTDiqjKKQzR0uPyKW0M8P_aPQv0NzawePK2tmPlN5VAIaAmY_EALw_wcB)
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:
Joseph Castle, PhD.