Episode 20: The Keys to Open Source Sustainability with Gidi Morris

Sponsored By:
Panelists Justin Dorfman | Eric Berry Guest Gidi (Gideon)
Morris (https://twitter.com/chekofif) Principal software engineer
at Elastic Show Notes 00:44 (/20?t=44): The special guest for this
episode of Sustain is Gidi (Gideon) Morris. Gidi is the principal
software engineer at Elastic and has been in the industry for about
two decades now. 03:08 (/20?t=188): He discusses his worries within
not just the open source world, but the entire tech industry.
Justin furthers the questions that Gidi raise about the open source
world and the various psychological impacts it can have on the
employees, due to his own experience. Gideon address the pressures
and shifts relating to newcomers in the industry, specifically
focusing on the world of open source. He raises the two issues he’s
concerned about which is why people come into the industry and how
do we support them? And are we creating an environment where
they’re burning themselves out the way I did? 06:45 (/20?t=405)
Eric begins the discussion by addressing the term Gidi raises which
is, burnout. He relates his own experience where he felt this way
about his work in the past year and brings up Gidi current
employer, Elastic. Eric talks about his time when he was working at
a startup called Mahalo and he used a product called Elastic
search. 07:45 (/20?t=465) The question was posted in IRC and it was
answered in 30 seconds according to Eric, which he exclaims was
very surprising and that it represented that healthy environment
Gidi brought up. Eric says he’s heard the work on Elk Stack is the
environment striving to prevent the burnout that Gidi raises issues
about. 08:18 (/20?t=498) Gidi then goes into detail about how
companies can prevent the burnout of their employers and how they
can learn from companies, like Elastic. He explains Elastic and
what they do, he says it mainly works on a product called Elastic
search, which is a search engine as well as a variety of satellite
products. 10:30 (/20?t=630) He also states that it’s also one of
the biggest remote companies across the tech world. He joined
because all of the development within Elastic is developed like an
open source project. Gidi also discusses how well the communication
is within the employers and the flexibility within the company.
12:50 (/20?t=770) Eric then moves the conversation to working in a
remote company and the benefits and downsides that it can possess.
Gidi explains how his team works across 5 different time zones.
Eric then asks Gidi about licensing working on a source available
product, which allows users to look at the source. 16:30
(/20?t=990) Gidi discusses the benefits of the open source project
and the healthy environment it provides. There is nothing secretive
about what's being done within the company which he states as being
less limited than more limited. Gidi explains how there are certain
folders that have what used to be closed source and are now source
available. Eric agrees with Gidi in that the key to open source
sustainability is licensing and being honest with customers and
contributors. 22:01 (/20?t=1321) Gidi also brings up the recent
dilemma about the expectations of the open-source community to
shift without the help of those companies, which is where the
dilemma comes up between balancing that and licensing agreements.
Gidi explains some of the mistakes they’ve made along the way with
the dual-licensing model, however it has mostly worked out for them
in the end. Eric says that Elastic has taken a good approach to
licensing with open source. 36:40 (/20?t=2096) Gideon ends the
conversation explaining why he joined Elastic from the start. The
main thing was the difference between a company being asynchronous
and synchronous and that is what Elastic brought into question for
him. He emphasized that if we as a community adopt these ways of
working, there will be a big change in how others get involved with
the open source community. 43:25 (/20?t=2485) Eric and Justin wrap
up the conversation by discussing what they’re planning to do with
every podcast, which is every podcast they share an open-source
project or library that has provided value or an impact for their
personal career or life. They spotlight Erik Rasmussen, Laravel
Charts, and a charity called BEAM. Spotlights Gidi - Not an OS
project, but plugging Beam (https://beam.org/) - a charity worth
mentioning and founded by a fellow developer Eric - Final Form
(https://final-form.org/) by Erik Rasmussen Justin - Laravel Charts
(https://charts.erik.cat) Special Guest: Gidi Morris.