Dawn Foster, Director of Open Source Community Strategy at VMware, joins me to chat about open sourcing and the potential risks to consider. With 20+ years of experience in business technology, Dawn lends great insight not only as a leader in the realm of open source, but as a champion for measuring project health.

In this episode, Dawn discusses key risks to consider when open sourcing a project and what startups and small companies should think about as they embrace open source technologies. We also explore trust as a currency of open source, donating to neutral foundations, the CNCF Project Health Measurement Guide, and more.

Highlights:

• What companies should consider when open sourcing a project. (00:24)
• Risks associated with open sourcing and the advantage of contributing projects to foundations. (03:59)
• Dawn explores the interrelation between using and contributing to an open source project. (07:26)  
• A discussion about evaluating and prioritizing a large number of projects - and why smaller companies should be deliberate about the open source technologies they embrace. (11:49)  
• A look at contributor risk with examples of how the risks can vary depending on the project. (17:09)  
• The value of trust in the open source - and Kim’s final thoughts on measuring project health. (22:35)  

Links:

Connect with Dawn:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawnfoster/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/geekygirldawn
• Fast Wonder Blog: https://fastwonderblog.com/
• VMware: https://www.vmware.com/