In a conversation looking at multiple meanings of open source governance and project health, Shauna Gordon-McKeon shares with Open Source Stories views of how investing in project culture can build virtuous cycles of inclusion and contribution. From reducing the number of roles that a maintainer might have to fill to lowering the barriers for user participation, this conversation looks to build from crisis management in 2017 to continuing improvements into the future with the ways open source projects get done.

Why should open source have all the fun? Clare Dillon shares her experience in the wonderful world of innersource, the application of open source practices within organizations. Collaboration is just too exciting not to share!

From selling stickers to creating one of the most popular projects on GitHub, Robby Russell looks back at the inception and unexpected rise of Oh My Zsh. Usefulness, creativity, and a good onboarding experience are key ingredients in this recipe.

Measuring community health reveals challenges people experience in contributing. Anita Ihuman explains how to build awareness and leverage existing solutions for greater belonging in open source. What you measure, you can see and change!

What changes when the projects you maintain are cornerstones of security? Filippo Valsorda elaborates on his experience as a cryptographer, his work in Go, and how his approach to maintainership might be a bit different from the average maintainer.

How does one pick up the maintainership baton? Turns out that you can ask for it! Jessica Tegner tells the story of how she went from contributing to pypandoc to being the maintainer of it, and of the pressures that come from maintaining a widely used project.

Open source is people and people are open source. Duane O’Brien talks about what he’s learned about supporting, connecting with, and caring for the critical human infrastructure of open source.

If you find yourself curious about what’s running your software, then you’re in good company! Many Makers before you have cultivated our current open hardware opportunities to make it easier to start. Python Software Foundation Fellow Thea Flowers invites us to think beyond open source software to the vibrant community of open hardware. Bodge your way to greatness! In this episode, explore the right to repair, mid-scale manufacturing, and vinyl for video game soundtracks. Join Open Source Stories in finding your people.

Free and open source software is, or can be, a public good. But, VM Brasseur finds that for some, it may have gotten disconnected from its open culture roots. In this open source story, VM talks about motivations behind FOSS, how they have shifted, and how those who work in free and open source software can help recenter principles of openness.

Open source, the public domain, and various freedoms take center stage in the story behind Standard Ebooks. Learn about Standard Ebooks, a project founded by Alex Cabal to solve one particular problem, and how it brought together contributors with diverse sets of talents to make public domain literature works of art.

John Minnihan walks through the creation of Freepository, the first hosted source control service, how it paved the way for lowering the barrier to participation in open source, and evolution of version control systems.

When you focus more on connections than commit-ments in open source, what do you say yes to? Richard talks about open source as an evolving collective and commons unbounded by strict definitions, working in the open with creativity and joy, and the practices which allow him to sustain himself as a collaborator.

What is open source design? Eriol dives into how designers contribute to open source, resources for designers looking to contribute to open source, and how incorporating design work into open source projects benefits the contributors and community using it.

How do we incorporate ethics into open source and software development at large? Dawn Wages describes some of the ways that she embraces ethical open source engineering, including exploring her guiding principles around how she makes technology decisions. Learn about how she works to bring anti-racist practices to the open source ecosystem.

Emma Irwin explores a nuanced view of open source maintainership in today’s landscape, digging into what characteristics good maintainers cultivate, what role mentoring plays in maintainership, and how history influences who becomes a maintainer.

Nic Steenhout recounts how barriers to access led him to getting involved in the open source community, reflects on challenges that accessibility advocates face in the ecosystem, and gives some advice to projects on how to prove their commitment to accessibility.

Elana Hashman recounts her first contribution to open source, the ecosystem’s potential, how norms have changed over the years, and what keeps her involved and contributing.

Samson talks with amanda about his lifelong journey in open source, why growing a culture of sharing is so important, and how his early experiences influenced where and how he has directed his energy into re-centering the nexus of open source.

Joe Beda shares with julia and amanda about his multigenerational family history with computers, his changing experience with open source since submitting the first commit to Kubernetes, and how the future of open source contains both "danger and opportunity".

Josh Simmons spends some time with Open Source Stories discussing the finer points of navigating open source dynamics, reflecting on the adoption of codes of conduct, and progress made towards increasing representation. Josh also coins the best tagline for open source.