Episode 237: OSS for Climate Podcast Crossover: Max Jones on Carbon Plan

Guest Max Jones Panelist Richard Littauer Show Notes In this first
ever cross-over episode of Sustain and Open Source for Climate,
host Richard welcomes guest Max Jones, a data scientist and open
source software developer who works at Carbon Plan. Max discusses
the importance of open source in bringing about effective climate
action, the role of Carbon Plan in building accessible data
products and tools, and how being a nonprofit is advantageous for
open source development. The conversation also touches on funding
models for open source projects in nonprofits, including support
from individual donors, grants, and collaboration with governmental
and private entities like NASA and Microsoft. Additionally, Max
shares insights into the development of tools for better
visualization of climate data, the impact of open source on climate
action, and the challenges of ensuring software and data
accessibility and reproducibility. Press download now to hear more!
[00:02:50] Richard outlines Max’s background in open source
software development focused on climate action, including his
leadership role at Carbon Plan. [00:03:31] Max discusses the
mission of Carbon Plan, emphasizing the importance of transparency
and accessibility in climate solutions. [00:04:23] Max describes
his role in leading open source initiatives at Carbon Plan.
[00:03:23] The conversation shifts to the practical aspects of
running a non-profit focused on open source projects, including
funding mechanisms such as grants from NASA. [00:06:58] Max
explains one of their projects that involve tools for visualizing
large-scale climate data to assist cities in planning and
decision-making. He mentions how these tools are designed to be
accessible to both scientists and the general public. [00:08:13]
There’s a discussion about community engagement with their tools,
noting that while many people reach out with questions or feature
requests, there have been few contributions in terms of pull
requests. [00:08:53] Max reflects on a collaboration with the
Washington Post using their tools to inform public understanding of
climate projections. [00:10:37] Max discusses the broader use of
the tools by various agencies and the importance of transparency
for reproducibility in research. [00:11:24] Max emphasizes the
importance of reproducibility in open source projects across
academia, industry, and the non-profit sector, and he acknowledges
the challenges in ensuring that external users can engage with and
reproduce their computational workflows. [00:12:56] The
conversation shares insights into building a community around open
source projects, particularly through involvement with the Pangeo
project, which supports reproducibility and scalability in earth
science workflows. [00:14:08] Max talks about the importance of
finding common needs across different fields to promote broader
collaboration and integration and mentions the Zarr project.
[00:15:51] We hear about the size of the team at Carbon Plan which
includes various roles. [00:16:28] Richard inquires about the
funding landscape for open source projects at Carbon Plan. Max
mentions the initial funding received through collaborations with
NASA and Microsoft. He emphasizes the importance of ongoing
government and agency support for both new tools and the
maintenance of existing software. [00:17:51] Max talks about
contributing back to open source communities, highlighting the
practice of reporting bugs and engaging with upstream dependencies
to improve tools. [00:18:38] The necessity of open source for
transparency in climate solutions is discussed, contrasting with
closed source companies that sell proprietary products to
governments. Max argues for the importance of open source in
ensuring accountability and better outcomes in climate solutions.
[00:20:07] Max discusses the broader aspects of open resources,
such as leveraging open standards, data, and hardware. He mentions
collaborating with other organizations to tackle scalable computing
challenges. [00:21:18] The conversation shifts to the environmental
impact of computational work, with Max acknowledging the need for
more efficient workflows and the broader implications of their
organization’s focus, which includes understanding and adapting to
climate change impacts. [00:24:15] Richard and Max discuss the
challenges of making data sets public in a market-driven
environment. Max emphasizes the role of nonprofits in pushing for
greater transparency and the potential impact of their work on
broader technological practices. [00:26:09] Finally, Max highlights
a new project called OffsetsDB, and tell us where you can follow
him and his work online. Quotes [00:03:44] “We believe that it’s
necessary to have transparency and accessibility in our research,
data, and tools in order to accomplish the mission.” [00:06:17] “I
don’t think we can have great climate solutions unless they’re open
and accessible, especially to the communities that are most
impacted by these problems.” [00:11:47] “I would love to see more
emphasis on reproducibility outside of academia as we push towards
a more transparent model.” Spotlight [00:27:42] Richard’s spotlight
is an article he read and liked, “The Brazilian Special-Forces Unit
Fighting to Save The Amazon.” [00:28:07] Max’s spotlight is an open
access perspectives article called, “The Origins of the Generic
Mapping Tools: From Table Tennis to Geoscience.” Links SustainOSS
(https://sustainoss.org/) SustainOSS Discourse
(https://discourse.sustainoss.org/) SustainOSS LinkedIn
(https://www.linkedin.com/company/sustainoss/) Sustain OSS BlueSky
(https://bsky.app/profile/sustainoss.bsky.social) SustainOSS
Mastodon (https://mastodon.social/tags/sustainoss)
podcast@sustainoss.org (mailto:podcast@sustainoss.org) Open
Collective-SustainOSS (Contribute)
(https://opencollective.com/sustainoss) Richard Littauer Socials
(https://www.burntfen.com/2023-05-30/socials) Max Jones GitHub
(https://github.com/maxrjones) Carbon Plan GitHub
(https://github.com/carbonplan) Carbon Plan
(https://carbonplan.org/) Pangeo (https://pangeo.io/) Zarr
(https://zarr.dev/) OffsetsDB
(https://carbonplan.org/research/offsets-db) “The Brazilian
Special-Forces Unit Fighting To Save The Amazon” (The New Yorker)
(https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/04/08/the-brazilian-special-forces-unit-fighting-to-save-the-amazon)
“The Origins of the Generic Mapping Tools: From Table Tennis to
Geoscience” by Paul Wessel
(https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2023CN000231)
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 Guest:
Max Jones.