Client - Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

In late 2024, we facilitated a set of 6 community calls to bring the Essential Open Source Software (EOSS) for Science community together in an online space. These calls are meant to build connections and support structures across the grantees of EOSS and create resources that can help other project leaders with EOSS and beyond.

Our process is the following:

  • Host a community call on a topic important to the community (based on surveys and informal polling)
  • During the community call, prompt participants to share their experiences/strategies around the given topic
  • Gather wisdom and insights and distill them into a resource that the community can co-create and share to support others on that topic.

Calls Hosted

September 2024 - Project Health Monitoring

In this call, we discussed various ways to conduct project health monitoring and techniques for project introspection.

Output Resource: forthcoming

August 2024 - Cat Herding Communities

At this community call we asked attendees:

  • What cat herding styles have you seen in the wild? What kinds of tactics have you seen?

We developed a resource to share simple rules for managing and leading teams of which you do not have formal authority over.

Output Resource: 10 Simple Rules for Leadership Without Formal Authority

July 2024 - Leading Open Source Projects

At our first community call we asked attendees:

  • What do you consider to be the work of managing an open source project?
  • What is the evolution of tasks, behaviors and structures as a project grows?
  • Where have you seen leaders struggle? What do they need to support them?

Based on the wide-ranging topics and output shared in the call, we compiled the insights from participants and added a bit more supporting information about things open source project leaders might want to consider. We crafted this as a checklist in hopes that it can serve as a practical resource for leaders.

Output Resource: Managing an open source project: A checklist of Issues to consider

Contact us at [email protected]