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CHAOSScast – Episode 112

In this episode of CHAOSScast, host Georg Link, along with Nicole Huesman and Ruth Ikegah, welcome guest Chrys Wu to discuss the findings from the “State of Open Infrastructure” report by Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI). The episode dives into how community health frameworks shape open infrastructure decisions, highlighting various frameworks like CHAOSS metrics, the FOREST framework, and POSI. Chrys talks about the Infra Finder tool and the importance of trust in decision-making for open infrastructure. The conversation also touches on metrics for understanding community engagement, the challenges of resource allocation, and the impact of open infrastructure on research ecosystems. Press download now to find out more!

[00:01:01] Chrys explains her role of product lead at IOI and leading the research for the “State of Open Infrastructure” report.

[00:02:08] Why study community health frameworks? IOI heard repeated mentions of frameworks in conversations but wasn’t sure of their awareness or impact.

[00:03:20] Chrys talks about the focus on three frameworks: CHAOSS, the FOREST framework (scholarly publishing), and POSI (The Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure).

[00:06:20] Chrys defines “Open Infrastructure” that includes software, tools, standards, protocols used across the research lifecycle, and does not include hardware.

[00:07:15] She shares some research findings that include a general low awareness of community health frameworks, trust is the key theme, and goes in depth with some primary concerns.

[00:10:00] Ruth elaborates into CHAOSS metrics context explaining CHAOSS uses working groups to develop context-aware metrics and metrics and models help projects focus efforts, like identifying organizational diversity or adoption levels.

[00:14:48] Who are CHAOSS metrics for? Ruth explains that metrics are made for the community: maintainers, users, contributors, and funders, and Georg talks about the origins of CHAOSS.

[00:17:55] Chrys dives into the Infra Finder breakdown. She goes in depth what it gathers information on and how it allows organizations to assess readiness and sustainability of open infrastructure projects.

[00:21:42] The Infra Finder has been used successfully in procurement processes. Chrys turns the conversation to talking about decision making. Users depend on peer feedback and case studies due to lack of formal sales/support in open source and she shares some key questions.

[00:26:34] Nicole brings up the topic of supporting new contributors and there’s a discussion on how CHAOSS includes metrics to identify and support new contributors and resources include project badging, practitioner guides, and metric models. Also, Ruth talks about challenges for small projects.

[00:31:35] Chrys details some information on how IOI helps improve project visibility by sharing entries and providing communications support.

[00:32:38] As far as what’s next for the research they are doing, Chrys shares they’re doing more in-depth sharing of report findings coming soon and IOI invites collaborators to help build governance, strategy, and respond to community needs.

Value Adds (Picks) of the week:

*Panelists: *

Nicole Huesman

Ruth Ikegah

Guest:

Chrys Wu

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

CHAOSS YouTube

[email protected]

Georg Link Website

Nicole Huesman X

Ruth Ikegah X

Chrys Wu LinkedIn

Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI)

Invest in Open Infrastructure Strategic Support

Invest in Open Infrastructure Bluesky

Invest in Open Infrastructure Mastodon

Invest in Open Infrastructure LinkedIn

IOI’s 2025 State of Open Infrastructure Report section, “Trust, transparency, and technology: Do community health frameworks shape open infrastructure decisions?”

Infra Finder

Infra Finder Expression of Interest

CHAOSS Project DEI Metrics

FOREST Framework

The Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure

2025 State of Open Infrastructure: Trends in characteristics, funding, policy and community health (Zenodo)

Simon Willison’s Newsletter

SHINee’s new single “Poet | Artist” (YouTube)

Special Guest: Chrys Wu.

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