Episode 51: Working in Public: Nadia Eghbal and her new book about Making and Sustaining Open Source Software

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Panelists Allen "Gunner" Gunn | Eric Berry | Justin Dorfman |
Richard Littauer Guest Nadia Eghbal (https://nadiaeghbal.com/) Show
Notes Hello and welcome to Sustain! Today, we have special guest.
Nadia Eghbal, a writer and researcher, works for Substack, and has
a new book out which we will be talking about today! We discuss
Nadia’s book, what it’s all about, why she wrote it, and why Eric
refers to it as the “Open Source Bible.” She also talks about the
report she did called, “Roads and Bridges,” published by the Ford
Foundation. Find out why she has been called the “Open Source
Archaeologist.” Download this episode now! [00:01:43] Nadia tells
us all about her book, what it’s about, and why she wrote it.
[00:02:56] Justin asks Nadia what her expectations were of writing
her report, Roads and Bridges. [00:05:01] Eric mentions a talk
Nadia gave a few years back, and she used a “lobster” reference
throughout it, so he wonders what her motivation was behind going
so deep into creating a legacy of documentation and knowledge that
very few people in the world have. [00:09:16] Richard brings up
Mike McQuaid’s sticker funds and Nadia brings up an example of
this. [00:11:40] Eric talks about Nadia’s book which he refers to
as the “Open Source Bible,” and Gunner adds his viewpoint as well.
[00:13:24] Gunner asks Nadia if this book leads to actions and does
she have any thoughts about what actions she would like it to lead
to on the part of readers. [00:15:36] Gunner has an archaeology
question for Nadia and is curious to know if she has reflected on
the idea that when you’re not downloading, when you’re not
installing the idea of a license or the idea of a piece of
technology, being more community created, as a more abstract or
removed concept. [00:17:52] Justin brings up a previous podcast
guest, Matt Asay from AWS, talking about Amazon working hand in
hand with Redis and all these other open source companies, and he
asks Nadia what she thinks about this. [00:22:03] Richard is
curious to know what to do with projects that don’t have a
charismatic leader where it hasn’t focused on who they are, which
may have really good documentation. Is there any hope for any of
those projects or they doomed to just continually wither and run
out of steam? Nadia gives us the run down. [00:27:28] Richard wants
to know what Nadia is doing at Sub Stack that is so interesting to
her and following the research that you’ve learned from this book,
why there? She tells us why she wrote the book. [00:32:37] Justin
mentions a book he read called, Hate Inc. by Matt Taibbi, who has a
Sub Stack thing. This is a great read! [00:35:08] Richard wants to
know how Nadia can help people who write low-level software
projects, who don’t have the power or the means or they are shy.
What can we do to help those people? [00:38:22] Nadia tells us
where you can find her on the internet, where you can find her
book, and work. Spotlight [00:39:02] Gunner’s spotlight is Gosh
science. [00:37:27] Justin’s spotlight is Nadia’s book, Working in
Public (real world version). [00:39:30] Eric’s spotlight is also
Nadia’s book, Working in Public and a quote from the book.
[00:41:32] Richard’s spotlight is the concept of Antilibraries.
[00:42:25] Nadia’s spotlight is Brendon Schlagel’s anti-library.
Quotes [00:11:39] “I think what we’re seeing happen in all of this
is we’re working toward building a shared vocabulary of the
universe of this ecosystem, where each project is going to have its
own arcane vocabulary over time.” [00:17:49] “Depending on who you
talk to, the term open source just means so many things to
different people.” Links Nadia Eghbal Website
(https://nadiaeghbal.com/oss/) Nadia Eghbal Twitter
(https://twitter.com/nayafia?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
Nadia Eghbal Linux Conf AU 2017- Consider the Maintainer (YouTube)
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2AR1owg0ao) Working in Public:
The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software by Nadia Eghbal
(https://www.amazon.com/dp/0578675862/) Substack
(https://substack.com/) Gathering for Open Science Hardware (GOSH)
(http://openhardware.science/) Antilibraries
(https://www.antilibrari.es/) Hate Inc: Why Today’s Media Makes Us
Despise One Another by Matt Taibbi
(https://www.amazon.com/Hate-Inc-Todays-Despise-Another/dp/1949017257)
Credits Produced by Richard Littauer (https://www.burntfen.com)
Rebase.fm (https://rebase.fm/) Edited by Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree
Sound (https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Show notes by DeAnn Bahr at
Peachtree Sound (https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Ad Sales by Eric
Berry Special Guest: Nadia Eghbal.