2025-03-11 – 14:30-15:00 (Africa/Abidjan), Wintergarten
This talk will discuss how common open source problems such as maintainer burnout, new contributor onboarding, under-funding of open source projects, bad user experience in open source, and communities falling apart due conflict can be viewed through a relational lens.
We are used to thinking about open source projects as codebases, not communities, but there are many open source problems that are fundamentally relationship problems. These include open source maintainer burnout, new contributor onboarding, under-funding of open source projects, bad user experience in open source, and communities falling apart due to conflict. In this talk, we'll discuss what it means to view these problems through a 'relational lens', the principles and practices that make for a good relationship, and how we can apply those principles and practices to open source. We'll also talk about some of the cultural barriers that can cause us to devalue the relational lens, including misogyny, individualism, capitalism, and trauma.
Shauna Gordon-McKeon is a writer, programmer and consultant who works at the intersection of technology and governance. She specializes in working with open communities (think open source software, open science, and open government) to collaboratively build and nourish a rich commons.