Episode 98: Silona Bonewald and her long-term vision for IEEE and open source

Guest Silona Bonewald Panelists Richard Littauer Show Notes Hello
and welcome to Sustain! The podcast where we talk about sustaining
open source for the long haul. Today, our guest is Silona Bonewald,
who is the Executive Director of IEEE SA OPEN, which is a
comprehensive platform offering the open source community
cost-effective options for developing and validating their
projects. She is also the Founder of Leadingbit Solutions. We find
out why Silona was a taker, not a maker, when she first got into
open source, how she went from writing code to working on policy,
how she ended up at IEEE, and what SA OPEN does. She reveals her
long-term vision for IEEE and open source, how she feels about
standards using her Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups metaphor, working on
certifications, and she shares her thoughts on where she thinks we
will be down the road in the distant future in terms of badges and
certification for open source. Go ahead and download this episode
to learn much more from Silona! [00:01:30] Silona tells us how she
was a taker, not a maker, when she first got into open source.
[00:05:20] At some point Silona segued from writing code to working
on policy and she tells us how that happened. [00:06:53] We find
out how Silona ended up at IEEE and what SA OPEN does. [00:09:08]
Silona talks about her long-term vision for both IEEE and open
source. [00:11:30] Standards are explained by Silona, how they
work, why they think in decades, and who the 30,000 people are
involved with standards. [00:14:17] In regard to talking to
developers, Richard wonders if Silona feels like she’s often trying
to talk in two languages again when people would come into the room
while she was coding. [00:18:48] Silona tells us about working on
doing certifications and how they are going through badges and are
in the design phase right now. She also mentions that IEEE recruits
from engineering schools all over the world to get their members.
[00:20:00] Richard wonders if some people think certifications are
scary and they won’t be able to get them, will this slow down open
source development by forcing people to jump through hoops in order
to do work. [00:22:00] Find out about a conversation Silona had
with Richard Rockefeller and Larry Brilliant. She talks about an
experiment they are doing with three advisory groups which include
the technical advisor, marketing advisor, and community advisor,
which Georg from CHAOSS is running. Also, she tells us about a
great article to check out written by Dries Buytaert on the “Makers
and Takers.” [00:28:20] Richard mentions a great episode to check
out on CHAOSScast Podcast with guest Stephen Jacobs, and he gives a
shout-out to Rachel Lawson at Drupal. [00:28:55] Silona shares her
thoughts on where she thinks we will be fifty years down the road
in terms of badges and certification for open source. [00:34:14]
Find out where you follow Silona on the internet. Quotes [00:09:59]
“You can pull the data back out, but can you pull the community
back out of GitHub?” [00:13:36] “But, I really do love the not
doing the corporate dominance aspect, and the trying to achieve the
balance pieces I think is really important when you’re creating a
standard, especially if you want true adoptability.” [00:14:27] “My
favorite little metaphor now is chocolate and peanut butter. You
put your peanut butter in my chocolate. Oh, you put your chocolate
in my peanut butter. And then you’ve got the Reese’s Peanut Butter
Cups.” [00:23:29] “It’s hard to teach non-profits to become a
software company.” Spotlight [00:35:08] Richard’s spotlight is Tom
“Spot” Callaway, Episode #52 on Sustain Podcast where he was a
guest, and listening about his adventure in Canada. [00:35:48]
Silona’s spotlight is InnerSource Commons and the Patterns Working
Group. 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/) Silona
Bonewald Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/silona) Silona
Bonewald Twitter (https://twitter.com/silona?lang=en) IEEE SA OPEN
(https://saopen.ieee.org/) Leadingbit Solutions
(https://sites.google.com/leadingbit.com/leading-bit-solutions/home)
The Long Now Foundation (https://longnow.org/) CHAOSScast Podcast
(https://podcast.chaoss.community/) Project OCEAN
(https://opensource.google/projects/project-OCEAN) Digital Impact
Alliance Open Source Center (https://www.osc.dial.community/)
Drupal (https://www.drupal.org/) Sustain Podcast-Episode
88-Foundations Roundtable: From Maintain to Sustain with Rachel
Lawson and other guests (https://podcast.sustainoss.org/88) Sustain
Podcast-Episode 35-Why the Drupal Community Cares with Rachel
Lawson (https://podcast.sustainoss.org/35) OSPOCon 2021
(https://events.linuxfoundation.org/ospocon/) IEEE SA OPEN
Community Advisory Group Meetings
(https://opensource.ieee.org/community-advisory-group/meetings)
Balancing Makers and Takers to scale and sustain Open Source by
Dries Buytaert
(https://dri.es/balancing-makers-and-takers-to-scale-and-sustain-open-source)
IEEE SA OPEN Community Advisory Group Education
(https://opensource.ieee.org/community-advisory-group/education)
CHAOSScast Podcast-Episode 22: University OSPO Metrics with Stephen
Jacobs
(https://music.amazon.de/podcasts/cb69ea13-d021-49ff-8d4f-5e5e3f953028/episodes/271c289d-2b58-44dd-996e-69e0c157bda7/chaosscast-episode-22-university-ospo-metrics-with-stephen-jacobs)
Tom Callaway Twitter
(https://twitter.com/spotfoss?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
Sustain Podcast-Episode 52-Being Willing to be Open: Twenty Years
of Coding at Red Hat, with Tom “Spot” Callaway
(https://podcast.sustainoss.org/52) InnerSource Commons
(https://innersourcecommons.org/) Special Guest: Silona Bonewald.