CHAOSScast

Thank you to the folks at Sustain for providing the hosting account for CHAOSScast!

CHAOSScast – Episode 127

In this episode of CHAOSScast, host Alice is joined by Matt Trifiro from the Commercial Open Source Startup Alliance (COSSA) and Daniel Izquierdo, CEO of Bitergia and co-founder of the CHAOSS Community. The discussion delves into the importance of open source community health metrics in shaping successful commercial strategies for startups. Matt shares COSSA's mission to support the growth of venture-funded open source projects by fostering collaboration among founders, investors, and customers. Daniel discusses how community health can influence the sustainability and innovation of projects. They also explore the future goals of COSSA, including establishing a working group to develop standardized metrics for evaluating community contributions and business value. Press download now to hear more!

[00:00:29] Matt and Daniel introduce themselves and their backgrounds.

[00:01:56] Matt explains COSSA’s mission.

[00:02:58] Matt cites evidence that community health can correlate with business outcomes and that investment can improve community indicators, and there’s a discussion on moving beyond vanity metrics like GitHub stars.

[00:05:13] Daniel shares his perspective from the Open Compliance Summit (Tokyo) and the supply chain/corporate lens: organizations want confidence the software will be safe and still maintained years from now, and he talks about measuring health via collaboration networks.

[00:08:34] Matt breaks value into two buckets: Distribution and IP/innovation to explain how open source communities create startup value. Daniel adds that open source and can reduce procurement friction.

[00:12:23] They touch on open source as a path to standards.

[00:14:50] Matt describes how COSSA supports the startups: education, best practices, and measurement and his goal is to “convert community metrics into dollars.” Daniel notes the need for a baseline framework, then customization by industry.

[00:19:38] What’s next for COSSA? Matt shares COSSA is being bootstrapped, received initial Linux Foundation support, and is pursuing seed style funding. His planned membership structure is investors, founders, and customers.

[00:20:36] Daniel and Matt discuss making the metric framework transparent, likely anchored via CHAOSS, and the goal to building a “Rosetta Stone” between investors and community.

[00:25:49] There’s a conversation on rug pulls, incentives, and lack of a shared framework.

[00:28:21] Matt describes the “covenant” concept.

[00:30:34] Alice wraps with mentioning COSSA’s direction is clear, and a working group could be on the ramp for broader community participation.

Value Adds (Picks) of the week:

[00:31:20] Alice’s pick is visiting outdoor Christmas light displays after dark.

[00:32:27] Matt’s pick is his oldest son’s finishing his first semester in college.

[00:32:58] Daniel’s pick is his son finishing his first quarter at primary school and going to the Open Compliance Summit and thanking Shane Coughlan for all his work for many years running this event.

Panelist:

Alice Sowerby

Guests:

Matt Trifiro

Daniel Izquierdo

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

CHAOSS YouTube

[email protected]

Alice Sowerby LinkedIn

Matt Trifiro LinkedIn

COSSA

Daniel Izquierdo LinkedIn

Bitergia

Christmas Lights at Stourhead

Rapturous Delight: after-dark Worcester, Worcestershire

The State of Commercial Open Source 2025 (The Linux Foundation)
Special Guest: Matt Trifiro.

Thank you to the folks at Sustain for providing the hosting account for CHAOSScast!

CHAOSScast – Episode 126

On this episode of CHAOSScast, host Alice Sowerby introduces a special episode welcoming Leon Nunes as the new host for the CHAOSS Asia podcast. Leon shares his background in customer success, his work with CNCF, and hardware hacking, along with his role in growing the CHAOSS Asia chapter. Together, Alice and Leon talk about the current state of the Asia community, Leon’s curiosity-driven approach to podcast hosting, the stories he wants to surface from across Asia, and how listeners can get involved or pitch episode ideas. Hit download now to find out more!

[00:00:35] Leon shares his background.

[00:01:24] Leon explains his customer success role, supporting customers running software in production, and his many side interests.

[00:02:48] We learn how Leon started with Raspberry Pi in college, building a motion triggered music stand, being inspired by GitHub badges, and shares a recent side project assembling RGB LED Christmas tree kits and gifting them to people.

[00:05:52] How did Leon find CHAOSS? He traces his path into CHAOSS Asia via a friend doing lots of outreach, and his desire to join open source communities beyond just code contributions. He also helps maintain CHAOSS Asia’s LinkedIn and Twitter.

[00:09:03] Alice asks what drew him to hosting a podcast. Leon shares his love of talking to people and using conversations to understand people.

[00:10:48] Alice connects Leon’s curiosity and his love of talking with podcast hosting, and reviews CHAOSScast episode types.

[00:11:51] What kind of stories does Leon want to tell from Asia? He wants to explore how other communities handle challenges like participation and growth and then apply those learnings to CHAOSS Asia. He suggests inviting active CHAOSS Asia contributors to share their experiences on the podcast.

[00:13:55] Alice agrees on a more exploratory approach, using conversations with active members to both document and strengthen the Asia chapter.

[00:14:48] Find out where you can contact Leon on the internet.

Value Adds (Picks) of the week:

[00:15:30] Alice’s pick is looking at a way to make Christmas crackers that are reusable.

[00:18:04] Leon’s pick is doing a lot dancing, like Lindy Hop, and his 3D printer.

Panelist:

Alice Sowerby

Guest:

Leon Nunes

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

CHAOSS YouTube

[email protected]

Alice Sowerby LinkedIn

Leon Nunes Website

Leon Nunes LinkedIn

Leon Nunes X

CHAOSS Community Chapters

Most recent CHAOSS Asia Chapter meeting- November 13, 2025 (YouTube)

What are Christmas crackers? (YouTube)

Whiteys Lindy Hoppers - Hellzapoppin (YouTube)

Thank you to the folks at Sustain for providing the hosting account for CHAOSSCast!

CHAOSScast – Episode 125

In this final episode of the year from CHAOSScast, hosts Alice Sowerby and Harmony Elendu welcome members of the CHAOSS Board, Sean Goggins, Anita Ihuman, Georg Link, and Elizabeth Barron, for an in-depth discussion on the project's developments and future. They share their reflections on key events and trends in the open-source community over 2025. Topics include the impact of AI on open source, shifts in funding, community engagement, and the importance of psychological safety. The panelists also spotlight various CHAOSS working groups, including education, design, and technical writing, while sharing their wishes for the CHAOSS Project in 2026. Press download now!

[00:00:49] The hosts and guests introduce themselves and their backgrounds.

[00:02:28] Georg announces CHAOSScon in Brussels, Jan 29, 2026, Co-located with FOSDEM.

[00:04:51] The guests talk about factors affecting OSS communities in 2025.

[00:11:39] We hear where CHAOSS grew the most in 2025 such as regional chapters, global reach, CHAOSS Asia, with shout-outs to Divvya Mohan and Rowland Mosbergen, how metrics are being used, Design Working Group, accessibility, Practitioner Guides, and two new working groups.

[00:19:45] The panel shares project and working groups they’re most proud of: Package Management, AI Alignment, Alice and Harmony for keeping CHAOSScast podcast active and alive, Paul and Peachtree Sound for editing the podcast and keeping episodes on track, Education Project, Practitioner Guides, and shared ownership of community growth.

[00:28:55] What is some work that went under the radar in 2025? The guests talk about DEI Working Group, DEI Badging, Harmony and the Technical Writers Working Group, and AI’s impact on maintainers.

[00:35:41] Georg and Sean have additional thoughts on AI identity and bots. Current tooling assumes human contributions, but AI agents and bots break those assumptions and there’s a need for better identity solutions and metrics that distinguish humans, bots, and multi-account actors.

[00:39:33] Elizabeth would love people to give CHAOSS more feedback on engagement for newcomers to make onboarding smoother and encourages people to use the Education Project as a starting point.

[00:42:07] Georg, Sean, and Anita talk about CHAOSS board priorities for 2025-2026.

[00:45:25] Everyone shares their wishes for CHAOSS in 2026.

[00:48:52] If anyone has any ideas, topics, questions, and guests for future CHAOSS episodes please send us an email. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Panelists:

Alice Sowerby

Harmony Elendu

Guests:

Sean Goggins

Anita Ihuman

Georg Link

Elizabeth Barron

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

CHAOSS YouTube

[email protected]

Georg Link Website

Harmony Elendu X

Alice Sowerby LinkedIn

Sean Goggins X

Elizabeth Barron X

Anita Ihuman GitHub

CHAOSScon 2026 Brussles, Belgium

FOSDEM 2026

CHAOSS Education Project

CHAOSS Onboarding Courses-GitHub

CHAOSS Practitioner Guides

First Person Project White Paper

The Road Ahead For Identity Management In Open Source: Humans, Bots, AI Agents-And The Future Of Attribution by Diane Mueller (Bitergia)

CHAOSScast Podcast-Episode 121: Package Metadata Working Group with Andrew Nesbitt and Damián Vicino

CHAOSScast Podcast-Episode 100: Celebrating 100 episodes of CHAOSScast

CHAOSScast Podcast-Episode 76: CHAOSS Goals for 2024 and Beyond

CHAOSScast Podcast-Episode 71: What’s New in CHAOSS: Podcast Reboot Episode

CHAOSScast Podcast-Episode 49: CHAOSS Community Year 2021 in Review

CHAOSScast Podcast-Episode 1: Hello, World!

Peachtree Sound
Special Guest: Anita ihuman.

Thank you to the folks at Sustain for providing the hosting account for CHAOSSCast!

CHAOSScast – Episode 124

This episode of CHAOSScast kicks off a new Practitioner Guide series focused on “Building Diverse Leadership” in open source communities. Harmony Elendu hosts with co-host Georg Link and guests Dawn Foster and Peculiar Umeh, exploring why diverse leadership matters, how CHAOSS’ practitioner guides turn “walls of metrics” into practical action, and how three specific metrics: Board/Council Diversity, Sponsorship, and Inclusive Leadership, can help projects become more welcoming, representative, and sustainable. Hit download now to hear more!

[00:00:35] Dawn, Peculiar, Georg, and Harmony share their backgrounds.

[00:02:57] Dawn gives us an overview of the Practitioner Guide series and emphasizes that the guides focus on how to improve projects using metrics, not just on measuring.

[00:05:13] Georg asks Peculiar what inspired her to write the “Getting Started with Building Diverse Leadership” guide. She describes working on CHAOSS metrics templates and wanting to help non-data science people use them.

[00:08:09] Harmony connects the topic to broader industry conversations on diversity and inclusion. Peculiar explains that diverse leadership brings different perspectives, experiences, and voices into decision making and uses CHAOSS as an example.

[00:10:30] Dawn expands on how seeing leaders “who look like you” motivates people to participate and aspire to leadership.

[00:11:28] Georg talks about diversity as social justice and explains benefits for the projects: resilience, innovation, and better products for diverse users.

[00:14:25] Peculiar shares the three metrics and why there were chosen. Dawn adds that guides are designed to change projects, not just describe them.

[00:18:09] Georg notes Board/Council Diversity is the most intuitive to measure and Dawn cautions that many aspects of identity are invisible and the guide recommends surveys to ask community members whether they feel represented and heard.

[00:21:03] Georg explains sponsorship vs. mentorship. Peculiar shares her own experience of being advocated for and supported in open source. Dawn tells the story of Danese Cooper sponsoring her showing how sponsorship accelerates careers.

[00:25:27] Georg explains Inclusive Leadership as the governance scaffolding and Peculiar describes what the guide offers.

[00:27:50] Harmony asks how they can implement the guide and monitor progress. Peculiar highlights some implementation steps and Dawn re-emphasizes using recurring surveys as monitoring tools.

[00:33:27] Dawn notes that every practitioner guide includes a Cautions and Considerations section, and Georg reminds us that interpersonal relationships are crucial for understanding how people experience the community.

Value Adds (Picks) of the week:

[00:35:25] Harmony’s pick is n8n and automations.

[00:36:10] Georg’s pick is looking forward to the holidays with his family.

[00:37:54] Dawn’s pick is watching chunky squirrels play outside her window.

[00:38:24] Peculiar’s pick is taking time to rest.

Panelists:

Harmony Elendu

Georg Link

Guests:

Dawn Foster

Peculiar Umeh

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

CHAOSS YouTube

[email protected]

Georg Link Website

Harmony Elendu X

Dawn Foster X

Peculiar Umeh LinkedIn

CHAOSS Practitioner Guide: Getting Started with Building Diverse Leadership

About the CHAOSS Practitioner Guides

The Linux Foundation Report -Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Open Source

The Linux Foundation-Decentralized innovation. Built on trust.

Inclusive Leadership: Effecting change: Introduction | OpenLearn-Open University

CHAOSS Data Use Awareness Recommendation: Privacy and Ethics

n8n

Previous Practitioner Guide Episodes:

Episode 85: Introducing CHAOSS Practitioner Guides: #1 Responsiveness

Episode 88: Practitioner Guides: #2 Contributor Sustainability

Episode 89: Practitioner Guides : #3 Organizational Participation

Episode 97: Practitioner Guides: #4 Security

Episode 120: Practitioner Guides: #5 Demonstrating Organizational Value

Episode 123: Practitioner Guides: #6 Sunsetting an Open Source Project
Special Guest: Peculiar Umeh.

Thank you to the folks at Sustain for providing the hosting account for CHAOSSCast!

CHAOSScast – Episode 123

This episode of the CHAOSScast features hosts Harmony Elendu and Alice Sowerby, along with guests Stefka Dimitrova and Dawn Foster, discussing the process of sunsetting open source projects. Dawn and Stefka share their extensive experiences and the importance of managing the lifecycle of open source projects responsibly. They delve into the specifics of the 'Getting Started with Sunsetting an Open Source Project' guide from Dawn's series of practitioner guides, which aim to help practitioners, not just experts, interpret data and improve their project health. Key topics include identifying inactive projects, the responsible steps for sunsetting, and the crucial role of communication within the community. The episode also touches upon metrics to determine project activity and archive responsibly, highlighting that the process goes beyond simply pressing an 'archive' button. Hit download now to hear more!

[00:00:23] The hosts and guests introduce themselves.

[00:02:09] Dawn explains the purpose of the CHAOSS Practitioner Guides.

[00:04:54] Harmony asks Dawn what inspired her to write the “Getting Started with Sunsetting an Open Source Project” guide. She highlights the problem of inactive, unarchived projects creating security and reputational risks and being inspired by VMware’s internal sunset process let by Stefka when they both worked there.

[00:06:23] Dawn explains why projects shouldn’t remain unarchived and who the guide is intended for.

[00:07:30] Stefka shares her background and how she got started with sunsetting projects while she was at VMware.

[00:10:33] Dawn discusses the three Primary metrics: Change Requests, New Issues, and Technical Forks.

[00:12:10] Harmony asks how to identify a functionally abandoned project and Dawn explains if there’s no updates or security patches it’s likely abandoned.

[00:13:07] Stefka outlines some responsible “sunsetting” steps.

[00:16:16] Harmony asks what to do if an active project decides to wind down and Stefka says it’s better to decide proactively while still active, plan and communicate early, re-evaluate priorities, and prepare alternatives.

[00:17:31] Dawn adds within companies, it must involve PR and customer teams to manage impact and have a transition plan and timeline.

[00:18:20] Alice summarizes the dual responsibility of both OSPOs and maintainers to recognize when it’s time to sunset and Stefka shares an example that was helpful for the teams she worked with.

[00:21:17] Alice reflects that open source is about people as much as technology and managing emotional transitions is vital.

[00:21:58] Final takeaways: Dawn encourages listeners to read the guide and follow its step-by-step approach for responsible project sunsetting and Stefka encourages people to be ready for the sunset form the start of a project and keep the guide handy as a reference for your teams.

Value Adds (Picks) of the week:

[00:23:36] Dawn’s pick is her 3D printer.

[00:24:47] Harmony’s pick is talking a walk after the rain.

[00:25:52] Stefka’s pick is working with people at the Playback Theatre*.*

[00:26:59] Alice’s pick is Vitamin B3 for skin cancer prevention.

Panelists:

Harmony Elendu

Alice Sowerby

Guests:

Dawn Foster

Stefka Dimitrova

Links:

CHAOSS

CHAOSS Project X

CHAOSScast Podcast

CHAOSS YouTube

[email protected]

Harmony Elendu X

Alice Sowerby LinkedIn

Dawn Foster X

Stefka Dimitrova LinkedIn

CHAOSS: Practitioner Guide: Getting Started with Sunsetting an Open Source Project

CHAOSS: About the CHAOSS Practitioner Guides

When and How to Deprecate an Open Source Project by Stefka Dimitrova

Deprecating an Open Source Project, Part 2 by Stefka Dimitrova

Simple Steps for a Calm “Sunset”- Stefka Dimitrova’s video from the Open Source Summit in Europe (2022)

Dos and don’ts when sunsetting open source projects (GitHub Blog)

Shutting Down An Open Source Project (TODO Group Guide)

When to Send Flowers? End of Life and End of Support Across the Ecosystem-Allen Friedman’s video Open Source Summit

10 quick tips for making your software outlive your job (white paper)

Playback Theatre Network

Vitamin B3 can help protect against skin cancer. Here’s who may benefit (npr)
Special Guest: Stefka Dimitrova.