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Talk Beginner CC-BY-SA

Nurturing sustainable FOSS communities

Approved
Session Description

After volunteering for a year and being with the Foundation full-time for two years, I've come to understand that the principal components of FOSS United are Individuals, Communities, Organizations. In this talk, I will highlight how we are structuring the activities of the FOSS United Foundation to better align with these three principal components, and how we are shaping the messaging about what we do to ensure that the FOSS United Community understands us better.

  • Nurture and support Individuals. We want to enable newcomers to find their place in the FOSS ecosystems and support existing individuals to continue their FOSS work

  • We want to support FOSS Communities, primarily by helping them organize events that bring their community together and strengthen it

  • We want to engage Organizations to adopt, acknowledge, contribute to, and create FOSS

Individuals, Communities, and Organizations are inextricably interlinked. For instance,

  • Individuals find a home in FOSS Communities, and most Individuals already work at, or want to work at, Organizations that are pro-FOSS

  • Communities need a constant influx of Individuals and they need a broad base of Organizations that adopt and support their FOSS work

  • Organizations rely on Individuals with FOSS expertise to achieve their goals, and they engage with Communities to nurture existing employees and find new employees

The FOSS United Foundation needs to focus on both the principal components separately while also ensuring a cohesive message across the principal components.

I will outline how the specific activities of the Foundation, such as grants, foss communities, student clubs, public policy, and more, make sense within this framework. Finally, I will frame how we would like the foss communities to perceive themselves and the Foundation, to get the most out of our collective work!

Key Takeaways

The key takeaway from this talk is a mental model for community organizers and individuals to use

References

https://rahulporuri.in

Session Categories

Community
Talk License: CC-BY-SA

Speakers

Poruri Sai Rahul
CEO | FOSS United

I’m a Physics student-turned software developer, currently cosplaying as the CEO of the FOSS United Foundation. I spend most of my time thinking about the incentives that enable or hinder the adoption of Free & Open Source Software in India. Thanks to my day job, I get to talk to interesting folks from the industry, academia, and civil society about FOSS and technology in general. If you’re trying to understand the Indian FOSS ecosystem, or if you’re trying to adopt or create FOSS in India, I’m happy to chat.

 https://mastodon.social/@rahulporuri
Poruri Sai Rahul

Reviews

I've seen a portion of this talk before, lots of useful context about FOSS United but also building communities in general. I recommend switching this with the general FOSS United opening note to prevent content duplication

Reviewer #1 Approved

Much needed introduction and guide to creating and maintaining sustainable FOSS communities. Could be great as an opening note for the conf.

Reviewer #2 Approved

I think this is the beginning of a blueprint to what FOSS United could be. I think laying things out so that people can see themselves as part of this larger ecosystem and making the right calls to action for each group will be impactful

Reviewer #3 Approved