Episode 123: Colin Eberhardt of Scott Logic on Software Sustainability

Guest Colin Eberhardt Panelists Richard Littauer | Ben Nickolls
Show ask: Fill out this Survey for OSS in Europe! Link
(https://www.research.net/r/7RCJBWV). Show Notes Hello and welcome
to Sustain! The podcast where we talk about sustaining open source
for the long haul. Today, joining us as our guest is Colin
Eberhardt, who’s the CTO at Scott Logic, which is a UK based
software consultancy, and a member of FINOS. Colin tells us about
Scott Logic, the journey he’s been on there, and how his view of
open source has changed over the years being in this industry. We
learn more about a talk he did on “Why I Love Open Source” and he
goes in depth of what marketing means to him. Also, Colin explains
what he calls the “roll up your sleeves and help model,” and find
out about Beyond the Hype, a podcast by Scott Logic, and what it’s
all about. Go ahead and download this episode now to find out more!
[00:01:34] Colin tells us about Scott Logic and how he got
interested in software sustainability. [00:03:15] Colin explains
how his view of open source has changed over time and more about
the journey he’s been on with Scott Logic. [00:06:04] Richard asks
Colin if he sees donating money as an individual choice by the
responsible members of the corporate environment or if there’s
structural reasons to give back, and he tells us about a talk he
did on “Why I Love Open Source.” [00:08:37] How does open source
make you better at marketing? [00:12:12] Ben wonders how Colin sees
the conversation happening on how organizations can sustain
support, whether it’s open source work that they’re producing or
consuming themselves. He explains what he calls the “roll up your
sleeves and help model.” [00:16:16] Colin brings up a survey they
ran with Fintech Open Source Foundation and one of the results he
found fascinating. [00:17:54] Richard asks Colin if he’s thought
about taxation, standards, or ways where people are required to
contribute back to open source. [00:21:03] Ben wonders if Colin is
thinking at Scott Logic about how to involve some of those people
who aren’t necessarily working in classic open source developer
roles to get involved, and how he’s thinking about projects
abilities to bring on those people. [00:24:44] Colin tells us about
the best data he’s seen by the Linux Foundation FOSS Contributor
Survey, that’s targeted at maintainers and contributors. [00:26:10]
We hear Colin’s idea for a project he had that analyzed open source
projects to try to measure their health. [00:33:58] Find out where
you can follow Colin online and his podcast. Quotes [00:09:04]
“Generally speaking, most people create open source projects
because they want others to use them. Learning how to market your
creation, and I don’t mean adverts at marketing it. And for each
one of them, if I can understand what the Unique Selling Points are
of this project, that’s what I mean by marketing.” [00:10:40] “You
have to design the user journey.” [00:21:39] “To me, sustainable,
healthy open source involves a huge diversity of skills.”
[00:33:16] “Your best security policy is not to pay some
third-party firm to do all these scans and checks. Your best
security policy is to get involved with that project.” Spotlight
[00:35:58] Ben’s spotlight is Octobox. [00:36:51] Richard’s
spotlight is Andrew Nesbitt. [00:37:31] Colin’s spotlight is a blog
post, “On the weaponisation of open source.” 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) Richard
Littauer Twitter
(https://twitter.com/richlitt?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
Ben Nickolls Twitter (https://twitter.com/benjam?lang=en) Colin
Eberhardt Twitter
(https://twitter.com/ColinEberhardt?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
Colin Eberhardt GitHub (https://github.com/ColinEberhardt) Colin
Eberhardt Blog (https://blog.scottlogic.com/ceberhardt/) Beyond the
Hype Podcast (Scott Logic)
(https://podcasts.apple.com/dk/podcast/beyond-the-hype/id1612265563?uo=4)
Scott Logic (https://www.scottlogic.com/) Colin Eberhard- Open
Source Sustainablity through Corporate Social Responsibility-OS
Leeds (YouTube) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt1EjaN-YHE) Colin
Eberhardt: Why I Love Open Source (FINOS Community Blog)
(https://www.finos.org/blog/colin-eberhardt-why-i-open-source)
Sustain Podcast-Episode 32: What FOSS Responders Does with Megan
Sanicki & Duane O’Brien
(https://podcast.sustainoss.org/guests/megan-sanicki) Sustain
Podcast-Episode 51: Working in Public: Nadia Eghbal and her new
book about Making and Sustaining Open-Source Software
(https://podcast.sustainoss.org/guests/nadia) Sustain
Podcast-Episode 104: Duane O’Brien and Mandy Grover on Investing in
Open Source: The FOSS Contributor Fund
(https://podcast.sustainoss.org/104) FINOS (https://www.finos.org/)
Open UK-State of Open: The UK in 2021 Phase Three, The Values of
Open
(https://openuk.uk/press-releases-posts/open-source-software-contributed-an-estimated-46-5bn-to-uk-business-in-2020-according-to-openuk/#:~:text=Technology%20for%20Sustainability-,Open%20Source%20Software%20contributed%20an%20estimated%20%C2%A346.5bn%20to,in%202020%2C%20according%20to%20OpenUK&text=UK%20adoption%20in%20infrastructure%20is,skill%20development%20and%20environmental%20sustainability.)
Report on the 2020 FOSS Contributor Survey
(https://www.linuxfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020FOSSContributorSurveyReport_121020.pdf)
World Happiness Report 2022
(https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2022/) Gross National Happiness
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_National_Happiness) Octobox
Browser Extension-GitHub (https://github.com/octobox/extension)
Octobox (Gitter) (https://gitter.im/octobox/octobox) Andrew Nesbitt
Twitter (https://twitter.com/teabass?lang=en) On the weaponisation
of open source (Blog post)
(https://beny23.github.io/posts/on_weaponisation_of_open_source/)
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:
Colin Eberhardt.