Contributor

By Eric AndersonTechnology

Contributor episodes

April 24, 2024Metadata Management: DataHub with Shirshanka Das
Shirshanka Das (@shirshanka) is the CTO of Acryl Data and founder of DataHub, which bills itself as the #1 open-source metadata platform. It enables data discovery, data observability and federated governance to help tame complex data ecosystems. Shirshanka first developed DataHub while at LinkedIn, but has grown it into an independent project with a thriving community.
Contributor is looking for a community manager! If you want to know more, shoot us an email at [email protected].
Subscribe to Contributor on Substack for email notifications!
In this episode we discuss:
How DataHub differs from traditional data catalogs

Themes around why community members get involved and stick with the project

Partnering with Netflix to develop runtime metadata model extensibility

The influence of the pandemic on DataHub’s open-sourcing

Dealing with the future of a project with big community and unlimited scope
Links:
DataHub

The History of DataHub
37 min
April 10, 2024Take Your Own Advice: vlcn with Matt Wonlaw
After his first child was born, Matt Wonlaw (@tantaman) imagined giving his son life advice. What kind of life did he want his kid to lead? At the time, he was working for Facebook, and he decided that his own life needed a change in direction. So Matt started vlcn, aka Vulcan Labs, a research company that develops open-source projects like CR-SQLite and Materialite. vlcn has an unusual business model – Matt receives donations and sponsorships from users and clients. It’s all part of his mission to rethink the modern data stack for writing rich and complex applications.
Contributor is looking for a community manager! If you want to know more, shoot us an email at [email protected].
Subscribe to Contributor on Substack for email notifications!
In this episode we discuss:
One reason that software is still too hard to write: Object orientations

How CR-SQLite allows databases to be merged together and Materialite provides Incremental View Maintenance for JavaScript

Why coding directly to relations can provide a more flexible and efficient approach to building applications

Matt’s decision to build vlcn as a research lab rather than as a startup

Thoughts for the future on PGLite
Links:
vlcn (Vulcan Labs)

CR-SQLite

Materialite

fly.io

PGLite
People mentioned:
Johannes Schickling (@schickling)
32 min
March 27, 2024Secret Sauce: Amplication with Yuval Hazaz
Amplication is an open-source development platform for scalable and secure Node.js applications. It allows engineers to skip writing boilerplate code and offers the flexibility to customize and add components. Amplification was created by Yuval Hazaz (@Yuvalhazaz1), a veteran developer who determined that low-code platforms save time but restrict freedom. Instead, Amplication uses code generation to reliably and consistently build robust production‑ready backend services.
Contributor is looking for a community manager! If you want to know more, shoot us an email at [email protected].
Subscribe to Contributor on Substack for email notifications!
In this episode we discuss:
Yuval’s “secret sauce” for building an open-source community

How platform engineers can use Amplication for company-wide standardization

A baseline organic growth rate for open-source projects

The role of generative AI in code modernization
Links:
Amplication
32 min
March 13, 2024To the Moon: OpenBB with Didier Lopes
OpenBB is an open-source investment research platform created by Didier Lopes (@didier_lopes). OpenBB grew out of a project called Gamestonk Terminal that Didier began working on shortly before the Gamestop short squeeze in January 2021. Today, OpenBB has evolved into an infrastructure platform that allows users to build extensions and access financial data with automation and customization.
Contributor is looking for a community manager! If you want to know more, shoot us an email at [email protected].
Subscribe to Contributor on Substack for email notifications!
In this episode we discuss:
What Vice Media got wrong about OpenBB

Some major contributors to the project and the features or directions that they proposed

How a machine learning engineer from Bloomberg reached out about OpenBB

Different types of OpenBB users – students, retail investors, and other financial professionals

OpenBB’s exciting AI roadmap
Links:
OpenBB
People mentioned:
James Maslek (@jmaslek11

Artem Veremey (@artemvv)
40 min
February 28, 2024Robust Observability: OpenTelemetry with Austin Parker
OpenTelemetry is an open-source observability framework for collecting and managing telemetry data. OpenTelemetry has been more successful than expected, becoming the second fastest growing project in the CNCF. It allows for flexibility and avoids vendor lock-in, making it attractive to startups and large enterprises alike. On today’s show, Eric (@ericmander) sits down with Austin Parker (@austinlparker), director of open-source at Honeycomb.
Contributor is looking for a community manager! If you want to know more, shoot us an email at [email protected].
Subscribe to Contributor on Substack for email notifications!
In this episode we discuss:
How Austin’s interest in complex systems led him to the observability field and developer relations

An X argument that contributed to the merger of OpenTelemetry and OpenCensus

Why foundations help maintainers to strike a balance with their contributors

Austin’s opinion on the secret to OpenTelemetry’s success
Links:
OpenTelemetry

Honeycomb
People mentioned:
Charity Majors (@mipsytipsy)

Christine Yen (@cyen)
36 min
February 15, 2024Never Build Permissions Again: OPAL with Or Weis
OPAL is an open-source administration layer for Policy Engines such as Open Policy Agent (OPA). OPAL provides the necessary infrastructure to load policy and data into multiple policy engines, ensuring they have the information they need to make decisions. Today, we’re talking to Or Weis (@OrWeis), co-creator of OPAL and co-founder of Permit, the end-to-end authorization platform that envisions a world where developers never have to build permissions again.
Contributor is looking for a community manager! If you want to know more, shoot us an email at [email protected].
Subscribe to Contributor on Substack for email notifications!
In this episode we discuss:
History of Permit and OPAL

The benefits of an open-foundation model rather than open-core

RBAC vs ABAC vs ReBAC

Why developers would prefer to not have to deal with authorization

Or’s own podcast, Command+Shift+Left
Links:
OPAL

Permit

Command+Shift+Left

Terraform
People mentioned:
Asaf Cohen (@asafchn)

Filip Grebowski (@developerfilip)
Other episodes:
Open Policy Agent with Torin Sandall

Community Driven IaC: OpenTofu with Kuba Martin
38 min
January 31, 2024Oxygen Deprivation: FerretDB with Peter Farkas
FerretDB enables users to run MongoDB applications on existing Postgres infrastructure. Peter Farkas (@FarkasP), co-founder and CEO of FerretDB, explains the need for an open source interface for document databases. Peter also discusses the licensing change of MongoDB and the uncertainty it created for users. He emphasizes the importance of open standards and collaboration among MongoDB alternatives to provide users with choice and interoperability.
Contributor is looking for a community manager! If you want to know more, shoot us an email at [email protected].
Subscribe to Contributor on Substack for email notifications!
In this episode we discuss:
The epic mountain adventure that inspired FerretDB

Why commercial open-source can be additive rather than extractive

How compatibility and open standards drives innovation and competition

PDFs as an example of corporation-supported standards

Three tenets for building a successful open source project
Links:
FerretDB

Percona
People:
Peter Zaitsev (@PeterZaitsev)
34 min
January 17, 2024The Duke of SQLite: Litestream with Ben Johnson
Ben Johnson (@benbjohnson) is the creator of Litestream and LiteFS, two open-source disaster recovery solution for SQLite. Litestream is designed to provide continuous backups for SQLite databases by streaming incremental changes, allowing for easy data recovery in the event of a server crash. LiteFS, on the other hand, is built on LiteStream but uses transactional control to focus on replication and high availability. Join us as Ben discusses the challenges and trade-offs of open source contributions and the future of databases.
Contributor is looking for a community manager! If you want to know more, shoot us an email at [email protected].
Subscribe to Contributor on Substack for email notifications!
In this episode we discuss:
The history of how Ben got involved in SQLite development out of “spite”

How Litestream “works on a fluke”

Different use cases for Litestream vs LiteFS

Why fully open contributions isn’t always Ben’s style

The greater server-side SQLite landscape
Links:
Litestream

LiteFS

Fly.io

BoltDB
People mentioned:
Philip O’Toole (@general_order24)
Other episodes:
The Social Miracle: rqlite with Philip O’Toole

The Big Fork: libSQL with Glauber Costa
35 min
January 03, 2024Rust Never Sleeps: Tonic with Lucio Franco
Tonic is a native gRPC implementation in Rust that allows users to easily build gRPC servers and clients without extensive async experience. Tonic is part of the Tokio stack, which is a library that provides an asynchronous runtime for Rust and more tools to write async applications. Today, Lucio Franco (@lucio_d_franco) of Turso joins the podcast to discuss his unique experience maintaining Tonic and contributing to the asynchronous Rust ecosystem.
Contributor is looking for a community manager! If you want to know more, shoot us an email at [email protected].
Subscribe to Contributor on Substack for email notifications!
In this episode we discuss:
The challenges of async Rust and ways the community has addressed them

Lucio’s plan on how to get a job in distributed databases

How the Tokio team avoided power dynamics

Problems around working on open-source in the corporate world

Why Lucio encouraged a collaborator to go on without him
Links:
Tonic

Tokio

Turso

Tower
People:
Carl Lerche (@carllerche)
Other episodes:
The Big Fork: libSQL with Glauber Costa
37 min
December 20, 2023The Social Miracle: rqlite with Philip O’Toole
rqlite is a lightweight, distributed relational database built on Raft and SQLite. Founder Philip O’Toole (@general_order24) decided to combine these technologies while working at a startup years ago. The startup no longer exists, but rqlite is going strong. Today, Philip is an engineering manager at Google, while he continues to be the driving force behind the open development of rqlite.
Contributor is looking for a community manager! If you want to know more, shoot us an email at [email protected].
Subscribe to Contributor on Substack for email notifications!
In this episode we discuss:
The biggest misconceptions about how rqlite differs from SQLite

Why writing databases is more interesting than new programmers might think

The tradeoff between a large community versus smaller, more focused leadership

Reasons why open-source development progresses in bursts of energy

How to really pronounce “rqlite”
Links:
rqlite

InfluxData

dqlite

Litestream

libSQL

Turso

OpenTelemetry
People:
Ben Johnson (@benbjohnson)
Other episodes:
libSQL with Glauber Costa
44 min