We often talk about collaboration in the context of open source, or at least externally to a company with partner organizations. However, especially in larger corporations, cross-team work is just as important as the teamwork itself. Working with other teams is often more complicated than it needs to be, for various reasons. These teams could be in different countries, or the company's structure might not allow them to work together efficiently. What can you do to fix that?

In this episode of the My Open Source Experience podcast Tom Sadler talks about how he explored open source and InnerSource, and how he became an upstream contributor through the latter. Tom also shares how InnerSource helped teams within BBC to work together more efficiently, and how it allowed the company to work upstream as well.

Learn more about:

- Why and how to roll out InnerSource within a company

- Metrics to measure team efficiency

- Do you need an ISPO/OSPO?

- What you need to know to consume open source safely and efficiently

- Why you need to avoid having internal forks of open source projects

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If you want your company to be successful you need to deliver value to your customers or you do'n't have a business. Using open source software is appealing, since the source code is available online free of charge. However, as much as it is available to you it is also available to others. So, what's your differentiator? What's your business value?

In this episode of the My Open Source Experience podcast Austen Bryan, Ildiko and Phil dig into the challenges of incorporating open source into business, with intention. Austen has a software engineering degree along with an MBA, which has been giving him a very comprehensive insight and knowledge about the software ecosystem. Before moving to Defense Unicorns, he worked for the United States Air Force with a focus on acquisitions, and gained deep insight into how government agencies operate, including the supply chain for software and other resources. Austen learned about open source while he was working for the government, and now he's with a company that based its entire business on open source. So, why and how do they do it?

Learn more about:

- Defense Unicorns, and how they leverage and embrace open source

- How to find business value around open source software

- Benefits that don't come in the form of money and income

- How to decide whether or not you should open source any of your projects

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Building a business strategy is hard in general, and when open source becomes part of the equation it can get even more challenging.

In the recent past there were multiple examples of companies changing the license on their open source project to something less or not at all open. This is often harmful to the companies themselves and the pattern is always harmful tot he open source ecosystem.

In this episode of the My Open Source Experience podcast Gregory Kurtzer and Kelsey Hightower share their experiences to dig deeper into the challenges and solutions to building a business around open source.

You will learn the following:

- How to evaluate if your company is ready to get involved in an open source project or open up one of their internal ones

- Why it matters who owns an open source project's trademark

- Why is lock out sometimes worse than lock in

- How to identify the business value when relying on open source projects

- How to figure out which open source project is viable to build a business around

- Empty promises don't work long term

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In this segment of the My Open Source Experience podcast, Kelsey Hightower shares his current adventures, which includes a home improvement project.

As Kelsey is now advising startups, rather than working in 9-5 jobs, he highlights the importance to keep your energy and drive, no matter when you retire, and how someone can't stop sharing once they started.

While Kelsey talks about his adventures to install new bidets in his house, he also drives analogies to software development and decision making. Always remember before you start refactoring something:

- You need to be careful to avoid breaking things

- It needs to be backwards compatible

- It needs to look better than before

Kelsey and Phil draw an analogy and describe engineers being somewhere between tradesmen and artists. Can you relate?

But, does Kelsey have any working bidets in his house yet?

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By definition, open source projects and communities are supposed to be accessible. And while the code is always openly available, the remaining parts of the ecosystem might be further out of reach than you would think

In this episode of the My Open Source Experience Podcast, Michael Dexter, Ildiko and Phil explore the open source ecosystem from two perspectives: business and accessibility. Businesses rely on open source software, soemtimes unknowinlgy, all around the globe as digital infrastructure doesn't exist without it any more, and yet, making it integral part of the business strategy is a constant struggle for companies. And yet, even when companies and individuals reach the point of investing their time, money and resources into open source projects it appears to be more difficult than it is supposed to be. Michael, Ildiko and Phil are discussing these challenges and digging into how to address them.

Learn more about:

- The relationship between open source and business interests

- The fragility of funding in the open source ecosystem

- The role of open source foundations

- Stages of involvement in open source projects

- Maintainer shortage and how to bring people (back) into open source projects

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When people get introduced to open source later in their life and career it can be a bigger adjustment that is hard to do, and that's when individuals start to struggle. When you introduce open source in a large organization, the effect multiples very quickly.

This My Open Source Experience podcast episode is diving into the stories and effects of getting introduced to open source in different stages of people's lives and in various circumstances:

- Samson Goddy talks about his experience with open source as a kid, and

* How the Sugar Desktop environment was instrumental in him gravitating to technology and communities

* Why kids need a hands-on experience with how technology works rather than access to tablets and smartphones that just work

- Clare Dillon shares her work with academic institutions as well as InnerSource Commons. Learn about

* Why it is crucial for university students to get in touch with open source

* How universities work on adding open source to the curriculum and research activities

* Methods to successful and less painful change management

* The SCARF Model

- Federico Gonzalez Waite talks about his experience at the Mexican government as he participated in rolling out open source, and help agencies to build their own tools and solutions. Learn about:

* How to navigate change through a large organization

* The impact that open source had in Mexico as well as in the Latin America region

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As humanity progresses, our dependency on digital infrastructure is growing and is now at a level where most of us cannot exist without it, it is part of our everyday life and our livelihood depends on it. Open Source is a fundamental building block, and yet, awareness and opportunities still seem to gravitate towards a few geographical regions.

In this episode of the My Open Source Experience podcast, Ildiko and Phil are chatting with Samson Goddy.

Samson got in touch with technology through a hands-on experience with the Sugar desktop environment, which turned out to be instrumental to his relationship with tech as well as Open Source communities. His motivation to work on tech has always been to solve challenges and help people who have been close to him, and over the years he transitioned into roles, like developer relations, that are focused more on the people.

Throughout his career Samson had to face that job opportunities, especially to work on Open Source, were much more accessible in the US and somewhat in Europe, which is challenging if you don't want to move continents. Driven by this experience he became one of the co-founders of Open Source Community Africa (OSCA). On the podcast we talked about Samson's first open source experiences as a kid and how he has been building and navigating a career path in Open Source since, along with OSCA and its regional impact.

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When people talk about open source and government in the same sentence, it is most often about legislations, regulations and some kind of complaint along these lines. Some governments are still learning about the concept, while others decided to just jump right in.

In this My Open Source Experience podcast episode Federico Gonzalez Waite talks about his years working for the Mexican government, which included introducing open source technologies and growing the adoption of open source both within government agencies, as well as around the country.

Federico highlights some of the learnings and milestones of his journey:

- Open source isn't just for engineers

- A contract with a vendor should never keep you from exploring other options, including open source

- Legislations can be in favor of open source as opposed to limiting it

- Open source software and commercial solutions can co-exist, you don't have to choose one or the other

- How to approach cost calculations when considering to adopt open source, and don't be surprised when the numbers come out much cheaper

- Challenges with introducing new solutions, open source or not, are usually not about technology but the people, and change management

- Vendors who are deeply embedded into a customer's systems can start controling technology choices and solutions, not always in the customer's favor. Government agancies are no exception

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Getting involved and investing time and resources into upstream projects can be a complicated decision and process for individuals and companies alike. Have you experienced this already?

In this episode of the MOSE podcast, Kelsey Hightower talks about his open source journey, and shares tips and tricks to ensure a successful and sustainable engagement in the ecosystem. He has a versatile background, as he's been an enterprenour, a full-time employee, and creator and contributor of open source projects. He's always been driven to learn, including new tech just as much as building fundamental knowledge, and this approach became key to be successful at his work in companies and communities.

Kelsey shares some of the key findings he's had throughout his career:

- Incentives to invest in upstream work, both in personl and corporate context

- Temporary checkpoint concept

- How to make the right decision in a given moment, and then re-evaluate it

- Transparency and clear communication

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Ildiko and Phil kick off 2025 in this My Open Source Experience podcast episode!

Learn more about:

- The Cyber Resiliency Act (CRA), a new EU legislation affecting the open source ecosystem, that landed in 2024

- The newly released 1.0 version of the Open Source AI Definition (OSAID)

- Open-source-focused conferences to add to your schedule in 2025

- A sneak peek into the rest of Season 2

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