Episode 88: Foundations Roundtable: From Maintain to Sustain

Guest Ewa Jodlowska, Rachel Lawson, Leah Silen, Ben Nickolls, Jory
Burson, and Karen Sandler Panelists Duane O'Brien and Richard
Littauer Show Notes Hello and welcome to Sustain! The podcast where
we talk about sustaining open source for the long haul. Today,
we’re doing something a little different with this episode. We are
giving you the audio recording of a round table that was recently
hosted by Duane O’Brien and Richard Littauer, about the role of
foundations in open source. Our panelists today are Ewa Jodlowska,
Rachel Lawson, Leah Silen, Ben Nickolls, Jory Burson, and Karen
Sandler. We’ll spend time talking about foundations and
associations in general, the kinds of things they do, the kinds of
legal structures that they may have, and how they differ from each
other. They explain about the work they’ve done for their projects
and some services that they offer. And then we’ll spend time
talking about projects, when projects might think about reaching
out to organizations, or when maintainers might think about
bringing their projects to organizations. So, take a listen and
enjoy! Go ahead and download this episode now! [00:00:40] Duane
starts off with a quick overview of the conversations they’ll be
talking about. [00:01:36] Everyone gives a brief introduction of
themselves, who they’re representing, and what their organization
does. [00:06:42] Duane asks the panelists for their responses to:
What is a foundation, what isn’t a foundation, and what are some of
the differences between the types of organizations that you have.
[00:10:58] Speaking on behalf of the Python Software Foundation,
Ewa talks about what kinds of things they do for projects and we
learn from Leah what fiscal sponsorship means. [00:13:07] Duane
asks if there is anyone for whom their organization and their view
of fiscal sponsorship is significantly different from what the
others have described. Jory, Ben, and Karen share some things.
[00:17:34] Duane asks the panelists to discuss about the times that
their organizations have helped solve another kind of problem or
member projects or for projects that later became members. And,
when have they been able to step in and intervene on behalf of the
project? [00:27:45] Find out what kinds of things the panelists
look for from projects that apply to be a part of your organization
and when do they think they’re ready to come in. [00:31:56] For the
maintainers of projects who are in charge of their project and are
thinking it might be or wondering if it’s time to start reaching
out to foundations, Duane asks the panelists for some key
indicators that they might look for that it’s probably time to tag
in some bigger help than they’ve had to date. [00:32:54] Richard
brings up a question that was in the chat about mailing lists and
why is mailing list important when considering whether you’re going
to take on a project into your foundation. [00:34:45] A question
that was sent to Richard personally and not in the chat was, why do
we think there are so many women in this space? [00:36:20] The next
chat question Richard asks was, can everyone agree that most open
source software foundation’s purpose is not to support the public
interest, but instead to support the interest of the members?
[00:39:33] The panelists tell us what they are most excited about
that might be coming up for them and what they want to plug on
behalf of their organization. Links SustainOSS
(https://sustainoss.org/) SustainOSS Twitter
(https://twitter.com/SustainOSS?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
Ewa Jodlowska Twitter (https://twitter.com/ewa_jodlowska?lang=en)
Python Software Foundation (https://www.python.org/psf/) Python
Software Foundation Campaign (donation page)
(https://www.python.org/psf/donations/2021-q2-drive/) Rachel Lawson
Twitter
(https://twitter.com/rachel_norfolk?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
Drupal (https://www.drupal.org/) Leah Silen Linkedin
(https://www.linkedin.com/in/leah-silen-95733840) NumFOCUS
(https://numfocus.org/) Ben Nickolls Twitter
(https://twitter.com/benjam?lang=en) Open Source Collective
(https://www.oscollective.org/) Jory Burson Twitter
(https://twitter.com/jorydotcom?lang=en) OpenJS Foundation
(https://openjsf.org/) Karen Sandler Twitter
(https://twitter.com/o0karen0o?lang=en) Software Freedom
Conservancy (https://sfconservancy.org/) Discover Drupal
(https://www.drupal.org/association/discover-drupal) FundOSS
(https://fundoss.org/) JavaScriptLandia
(https://javascriptlandia.com/) OpenJS Foundation YouTube
(https://www.youtube.com/c/OpenJSFoundation) NumFOCUS
(https://numfocus.org/) PyData Global 2021
(https://pydata.org/global2021/) PyData YouTube
(https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOjD18EJYcsBog4IozkF_7w)
Cloud68.co (https://cloud68.co/) Aspiration Tech
(https://aspirationtech.org/) Indeed (https://www.indeed.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 at
Peachtree Sound (https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Special Guests:
Benjamin Nickolls, Ewa Jodlowska, Jory Burson, Karen Sandler, Leah
Silen, and Rachel Lawson.