Episode 243: Elizabeth Barron, Luis Cañas-Diaz & Dawn Foster on CHAOSS Practitioner Guides

Guests Elizabeth Barron | Luis Cañas-Diaz | Dawn Foster Panelist
Richard Littauer Show Notes In this episode of Sustain, host
Richard Littauer is joined by three guests, Dawn Foster, Elizabeth
Barron, and Luis Cañas Diaz, to discuss the CHAOSS Project's recent
development of Practitioner Guides. The show delves into the
purpose of these guides, which are designed to help open source
projects interpret and utilize metrics to improve community health
and sustainability. The guests explain the significance of metrics
in open source projects, the challenges of defining and making them
accessible, and how the guides can benefit different types of
projects, from large corporations to individual developers. Topics
covered include the background and format of the guides, specifics
on the metrics discussed, and the practical applications and
improvements these guides aim to facilitate. Go ahead and download
this episode now! [00:01:53] Dawn fills us in on the connections
between the guests and their collective work on the CHAOSS
Practitioner Guides. [00:02:33] The conversation shifts to the
specifics of the CHAOSS Project, highlighting the international
community involvement and various working groups focusing on
different aspects of open source projects like corporate OSPOs,
university OSPOs, and diversity and equity initiatives. [00:04:21]
Luis describes the origin and work of Bitergia and its
collaboration with CHAOSS Project, particularly in developing tools
like Grimoire Lab. [00:06:07] Richard turns the discussion to the
CHAOSS Project’s Practitioner Guides, where Dawn discusses the
purpose of the introduction guide in the series, designed to help
users understand and apply metrics effectively across various open
source contexts. [00:09:48] There’s a discussion on the format of
the guides, emphasizing their accessibility, ethical considerations
in data handling, and how they’re designed to be adaptable to
different needs. Luis highlights the need for CHAOSS and Bitergia
projects to provide actionable insights rather than just more
metrics. [00:12:18] Elizabeth and Dawn explain the broader goal of
the guides to not only provide metrics but also helps users
interpret and apply these to drive tangible improvements in open
source projects. [00:13:44] We learn about the target audience for
the guides and how they cater to both large organizational
structures (OSPOs) and individual project maintainers. [00:15:04]
Dawn explains what the Contributor Sustainability Guide focuses on,
emphasizing strategies for sustainable contribution and community
involvement in open source projects. [00:16:42] The discussion
centers on renaming the “bus factor” metric to “contributor absence
factor” to avoid the negative connotations of the original term,
Luis emphasizes the relevance of metrics, particularly in small
projects, and Dawn explains that the guides focus on a few key
metrics per guide, chosen for their ease of understanding and
minimal requirement for data collection. [00:20:47] Richard
inquires about the effectiveness of metrics in identifying if a
project is on the wrong path, prompting a discussion on the goals
of a project and how metrics align with those metrics. Elizabeth
and Dawn stress the importance of aligning metrics with project
goals and involving project contributors in discussions about what
metrics are most relevant. [00:23:26] The discussion continues with
considerations on how metrics should supplement, not replace,
expert judgement and involvement in project management. Elizabeth
and Richard discuss the potential for projects to start with
community growth in mind and the challenges in measuring and
guiding such growth. [00:27:07] The conversation switches to the
remaining guides not yet covered, with Richard asking about the
guides on Responsiveness and Organizational Participation. Dawn
explains the Responsiveness guide, with its focus on key metrics
like time to first response, time to close, and change request
closure ratio. Elizabeth and Luis share why this is one of their
favorite guides. [00:32:12] We hear about the broader applicability
of the guides. Richard questions if the guides are only for
corporate-driven projects or if they can serve more relaxed open
source environments. Dawn and Luis emphasize that the guides are
valuable for a variety of stakeholders, including foundations and
volunteers. [00:33:49] Find out where you can look at the
Practitioner Guides online. Quotes [00:06:34] “At the CHAOSS
Project we have a whole bunch of metrics, and we have tools or
software that help you gather those metrics.” [00:06:56] “There is
no one-size-fits-all approach to interpreting metrics.” [00:14:00]
“A lot of these guides were designed with OSPOs in mind. They’re
all useful to anyone who’s managing a project.” [00:18:45] “For
metrics, the bigger the project, the more useful they are.”
Spotlight [00:34:43] Richard’s spotlight is Johnny Wilson, an eBird
reviewer. [00:35:23] Elizabeth’s spotlight is a project called
Clocker. [00:36:19] Dawn’s spotlight is Nadia Eghbal’s book,
_Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source
Software, _and her paper, “Roads and Bridges: The Unseen Labor
Behind Our Digital Infrastructure.” [00:37:18] Luis’s spotlight is
Moodle, the OSS learning platform. Links SustainOSS
(https://sustainoss.org/) SustainOSS Discourse
(https://discourse.sustainoss.org/) podcast@sustainoss.org
(mailto:podcast@sustainoss.org) SustainOSS Mastodon
(https://mastodon.social/tags/sustainoss) Open
Collective-SustainOSS (Contribute)
(https://opencollective.com/sustainoss) Richard Littauer Socials
(https://www.burntfen.com/2023-05-30/socials) Elizabeth Barron
Website (https://www.elizabeth-barron.com/) Elizabeth Barron
LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethn/) Luis Cañas-Diaz
Website (https://sanacl.wordpress.com/) Luis Cañas-Diaz LinkedIn
(https://www.linkedin.com/in/canasdiaz/) Dawn Foster Website
(https://fastwonderblog.com/) Dawn Foster LinkedIn
(https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawnfoster/) CHAOSS
(https://chaoss.community/) CHAOSS slack
(https://chaoss-workspace.slack.com/join/shared_invite/zt-28p56bayt-67TRjdA4yJWQmUd4hCzULg#/shared-invite/email)
CHAOSS Practitioner Guides
(https://chaoss.community/about-chaoss-practitioner-guides/) Johnny
Wilson-Ventures Birding Tours
(https://www.birdventures.com/Johnny-Wilson.html) Clocker
(https://abhishekbanthia.com/clocker/) Working in Public: The
Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software by Nadia Eghbal
(https://www.amazon.com/dp/0578675862/) “Roads and Bridges: The
Unseen Labor Behind Our Digital Infrastructure” by Nadia Eghbal
(https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/learning/research-reports/roads-and-bridges-the-unseen-labor-behind-our-digital-infrastructure/)
Nadia Asparouhova (Eghbal) Website (https://nadia.xyz/oss/) Moodle
(https://moodle.org/) Sustain Podcast featuring Nadia Eghbal
(https://podcast.sustainoss.org/guests/nadia) 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 Guests: Dawn Foster, Elizabeth Barron, and Luis Cañas Diaz.