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From YouTube: No One Is Saving Us But Us - Tabitha Sable, Datadog & Paris Pittman, Independent

Description

Don’t miss out! Join us at our upcoming event: KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2023 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands from April 17-21. Learn more at https://kubecon.io. The conference features presentations from developers and end users of Kubernetes, Prometheus, Envoy, and all of the other CNCF-hosted projects.

No One Is Saving Us But Us - Tabitha Sable, Datadog & Paris Pittman, Independent

No one corporation, individual, or organization can save or sustain open source. There is no sweeping solution to sustainability, as we have seen in decades of trying to maintain the commons we all depend on. Project funding, corporate support of full-time contributors, and balance in contributors’ lives are all critical to keep a large project healthy. But this isn’t all doom and gloom: we provide hope for our own future. Join Tabitha and Paris, as they discuss how your intentionality helps our sustainability. As an organization participating or an individual donating their time, how can we help each other successfully let our projects go on without us? How do mutual aid principles apply in open source? Where do corporations fit into the larger “us”? Intentional open source strategies sustain our long term needs by supporting the people doing the work. There isn’t one person or group working on open source sustainability - we all need to in whatever way we can: through participation, sticking around, and having a plan. Walk away with a beautiful idea of how you are contributing to the long term success of Kubernetes and the open source projects that you care about.

A

Hello, everyone um so I'll just quickly introduce our two speakers. um Tabitha is a sick security chair and a security response. Committee Member uh Paris is a kubernetes governing board representative, a steering committee member, an Emeritus chair for Sig contributor experience and tag contributor strategy, they're both terminally online, so I'm sure you can catch them all uh on Twitter now onto the show.

B

Who here has heard about the Detroit Water Project show a hands better, yet who's donated anyone? Well, this initiative was created by Tiffany, Ashley, Bell and Kirsty Tillman. To answer an extremely large community need as families and many other at-risk groups here in Detroit have their water shut off here several years ago a direct quote from Tiffany about the situation. To sum it up quote, it turns out this whole Water. Crisis thing goes, oh hold on in the city.

B

Sorry, hello, Lou all right, we're gonna! Do this one more time a direct quote from Tiffany about the situation quote. It turns out this whole Water Crisis thing goes back a while in the city of Detroit. The water company is the one thing that still brings in money every month. There are a lot of people who still pay consistently, but the city has taken out billions in bonds, so they owe Wall Street a lot of money.

B

They see the water company as the only place to try and get that money back once you're behind on your bill for two months and the water's been turned off, there's a thirty dollar reconnection fee to turn it back on. If you're, already behind on your buildup chance, you can't afford Tiffany figured out a way for me and you to give money directly to unpaid water bills, so that those without this basic human need have clean water.

B

They wrote postcards and canvassed on the ground once they figured out that it was possible to take direct action in the first 16 months. They helped 950 families here in Detroit.

B

Today, it's now the human utility, with the same Mission plus additional locations, for instance in my hometown, Baltimore Tiffany, has also evolved into fighting for policy change at the root. This is an example of a mutual Aid project where people come together to help others who are directly affected because no one's saving us, but us.

C

2014. another open source project that you probably use every day took over a year to fundraise twenty thousand dollars to pay the electric bill on their self-hosted build infrastructure that same year, the openstack technical committee was forced to address unsustainable project growth and insufficient infrastructure support from their member companies.

C

2015 one of the developers of hypothesis quits the project abruptly and leaves us a note online explaining what the situation was that forced him to have to step away. I could keep going with more examples, but let's skip forward to today.

B

This happens our own ecosystem and Community. That's right. These are open source issues and it's not an us or them problem, but it's a matter that we need to solve together. In kubernetes, we ask for full-time headcount, all of the in all the time and places that don't see, productized feature development like infrastructure, testing, docs and community and heck.

B

We even ask for the places that have features as well at CD also has a need for full-time maintainers to Shepherd everything, including features their Community, isn't as large as kubernetes to distribute the load but they're, raising flags and asking for help.

B

After several months and even years of asking, though FCD still needs, maintainers kubernetes still needs testing and infrastructure support. This is just one example, but we carry on until we break down the proof can be seen over online as Tabitha just mentioned, through blog posts and things like that and I'm sure. There's a ton more examples that you're thinking of in open source history, we could have a whole talk just on this part alone.

B

There were some notable clusters, though, of years that received a lot of press and hot, take some blogs and things like that. They all surrounded security incidents and open source natural disasters like log4j heart, bleed, openssl, Etc, The, Strain that the strain or time they strain our time and energy breaking down our ability to engage at the same levels as before.

B

Sometimes we advocate for change with blog posts, some with conference talks like this one and others with fundraising campaigns. Sometimes we just walk away.

C

Or walk away, I'm scared of the idea that I might break down or walk away myself. I, don't I, don't want to live that story in principle, some open source disasters, like the abrupt loss of a single maintainer, can be prevented by offering more support to each other. Others like the onset of global pandemic or the stress of a major security incident, are totally out of our control, but we can find ways to support each other when they do happen.

C

So this is what I'm thinking? How can we be inspired by the success of mutual Aid projects like the human utility? How can we come together in new ways to support each other through every day and open source?

C

Paris and I have been collecting on our time and in local communities and we'd like to share some thoughts about Mutual Aid and about two broad categories of action that we have seen improve the lives of our colleagues and our friends.

B

The first step in building any kind of mutual Aid project and changing things is understanding the structures around you Dean spade a lawyer and activist lists three key elements to Mutual Aid in his latest book about building these programs in the times of crisis. The first element is knowing why you aren't getting. What you need is a critical First. Step knowledge is power as a future or current maintainer. How do these power structures around you work?

B

How do you ask for help or resources, and what do they do with that? Who makes decisions about the priorities of your needs? For instance, how does your Project's top governing body hear and take action on your needs? How do they interact with the cncf step farther? How does the cncf work, the foundation itself offers services to maintainers like paid security audits, Design Services, Cloud credits and more and other programs that open many open source foundations don't offer? But how do you get them?

B

Do they offer what you and your project need?

B

What about legal counsel in the time of an export control issue, or does that require your own attorney? Who holds insurance for You When leaders get into code of conduct lawsuits?

B

These are things you probably don't think about as a maintainer until you need them. So how do you escalate when those needs aren't being met? There's multiple bodies that play here and they range from the technical oversight committee to the cncf governing board.

B

Cncf projects have Representatives that take your escalated needs in the form of risks, opportunities and updates.

B

The governing board is comprised of the largest donors to cncf and they approve budgets that are set by cncf staff, and here license matters and more I'm. The rep for kubernetes Richard Hartman is the rep for all of cncf projects reach out to us. If you need anything and now what about the orgs, though, that we're asking things from like most notoriously full-time engineering support, how do they work? Well, businesses, invest money to gain value and or reduce risk.

B

So how does your employer approve head count now? What's the value for them in hiring someone specifically for your project? Do they want to get desired, features and upstream or need influence? Do they need a reputational benefits of Open Source?

B

Are they worried about the future of technology that that they depend on because of all the security incidents and things that they hear in the media? How much does the support you want cost them?

B

It's been my experience that it's a lot easier for businesses to write an expense in the form of a check than it is for them to get head count with Benefits. There are two different accounting items: understanding these power structures reduces the time asking for things that you won't get.

B

It sets your expectations appropriately and it it helps you ask in ways that will be heard and acted on. All of this is power.

C

To make this a little more concrete, remember that the leaders of a company need to.

D

Those those later.

D

D

D

Unity oriented.

C

Only happens when somebody personally sees the hates for it.

C

Eve, the investment needs to be constantly rejectified. It can go away without warning.

C

Part-Time work within the schedule of an existing team filing bug reports upstreaming patches instead of carrying them over time and those contributions are super super valuable, but we can't expect those contributions to make all of our problems disappear.

C

Even as individuals. We need to recognize that we can't carry a project single-handedly I, get it I work view. Oh I, know you're brilliant. Your path, you have health.

C

Enough by yourself, our projects are too big for that your hard-working Brilliance can hurt up and coming there's two. They see the Superhuman effort of some of these some of the heroes in our projects, and they know they could never reach that level. It's really dispiriting and prolific fixes coming from a few hero. Devs can starve all of the new contributors that might like to help of good first issues.

C

No one of us can save a project by ourselves, but we can really hurt it by trying so I wonder. Do we want to persist in making heroic individual efforts? Do we want to keep asking our business partners for help and being angry if they don't give it or disappointed when it goes away?

C

I want better than that for us.

B

Instead of being mad, let's mobilize our people expand solidarity and build movements. We can do this by holding space for each other's Joy and Pain. We can share stories and learn from each other. One such group that we actually have already is the cncf maintainer circle. It has all of the maintainers or excuse me. Rather all the maintainers can join this and with more than a thousand maintainers and billions of dollars in this industry, we have the power if we come together to use it.

B

This is a mutual Aid project in and itself I created this group, but I'm, not the leader. That's not what the intentions were. It's not supposed to be led by just one person. All of us are the leaders here. Anyone can host a circle since the group's Inception we've brought speakers in for deep Dives on topics like code review code, reviewer growth, burnout and more.

B

What about topics like what we were just discussing with asking for support from our employers or helping each other clearly articulate our needs, join the cncf slack group for more and I'm really looking forward to you all hosting your own circles.

B

So, let's sum up what we've heard about some of these Mutual Aid elements, one knowing the structures and understanding how to put them into action is important. Two saviors continue to cycle versus break it and three holding space for each other is really important like a maintainer circle.

B

So the first rule the Tabitha and I have seen work is saving yourself as a future or a current maintainer, a healthy and not overwhelmed. You is helping you end. The project burnout is a topic that we hear too frequently in Industry circles. You might hear some say quote: project first and I want to challenge you with. No, it's you first, you can't pour from an empty cup, fill it up.

B

So how can we start by Saving ourselves? One we can write. We can start by writing down what we do and thinking about all more onboarding, more people before we need them. How many? uh You have no idea, how many maintainers ask me Paris? How is this really going to help me right? This sounds a lot like busy work, but by the time you're burnt out and or overwhelmed, it's going to be busy work.

B

If that is the case, though I'd like you to stop all of the regular work and the pr reviews that are coming in and onboard more people who can help you, because people can't help until we understand what the job is.

B

So it's also how you grow your contributors and what you can point to when current maintainers of your project or maybe even your dependencies or the ecosystem, can jump in and understand what the infamous jump in and help phrase means.

B

Help Wanted tags are a proven good way for folks to jump in, especially on tactical issues and PRS, but I want you to think bigger. I, don't often see new requests for maintainers and issues, and things like that, but the people you don't ask, can't help.

B

So what other needs are you struggling with? This seems like an intense word to use, but don't let it get to be, don't let it get to be a disaster, and if it is don't be ashamed to say what's going on, because suffering and silence begets more suffering or behind closed doors. It's not it's. The same deal be loud and be public.

B

This is one of my biggest regrets on the kubernetes project. Why?

B

Because my role as a governing board member functions solely behind closed doors, because that's how it works when I bring issues to the table like needing more support or funding, It's, usually the first time that they're hearing about it- and this doesn't help our cause.

B

What helps is detailed issues and annual reports stating what we need and what happens when we don't get it. That last part is so important.

B

I've been advocating for cncf Budget transparency, more participation from Member companies, funding for our infrastructure and legal support for our committee members, among many other things, but I promise it's not all drab out there there's so many projects and teams of maintainers that are doing what they need to do and a good success story here is within the kubernetes Sig docs Community, when they needed to rotate out leadership, and they did so by clearly articulating their need on their mailing list and asking for support, and not only that then using the kubernetes mailing list, the developer mailing list that has over 5 000 people, and not only that then tweeting about it.

B

Getting the kubernetes account to tweet about it. Over a million eyeballs saw their Outreach and they eventually did get new leadership to group mentor and successfully onboarded new leaders. They really got the word out, so what the moral of the story is, what the moral of the story here is is use a damn mailing list.

B

So when the struggle is too much, though, or when you're ready for new, exciting opportunities, it's time for emeritus. The word Emeritus is an honor and we need to use it more.

B

It's an aspiring level that can be used, no matter what the situation is and consider this, the top of your contributor ladder that should be achieved so that others can grow behind you.

B

If you have this mentality from the start kind of like what we have at our day, jobs with retirement, it's easier to save yourself and grow others behind you, even your CI is going to thank you for not having to constantly remind you about PR's that you need to review, be an example, for others show them a positive outlook. So many people look up to you.

C

So the next rule that we've really identified is the next step, which is lift each other up. That means, when your cup is full share from it. This is a thing where we need to use empathy. We need to use consent to meet each other where we are because the right approach depends on the situation.

C

Sometimes there are challenges and the folks who are having those challenges are able to clearly identify what they need, help with they're able to ask for help in a way that is very straightforward, and you can see that other times a project is struggling and there isn't so much understanding as that. Maybe maybe they don't know how to ask for help and these different situations, because they need different approaches, we'll go through them, one by one, the one that's a little more straightforward is when there is a clear ask for help.

C

Contributors and maintainers are really the ones who know best to ask for what they need. The folks who are on the ground living their lives know what is best for them, because you're describing your own experiences your own lives.

C

So when someone like a like a contributor or a maintainer or a project, asks for help, you can help them. They are telling you how to do it. You need to believe them and don't let your fear of being imperfect or of not having the expertise. They have stop you from helping. They have given you the plan already.

C

If the job is well documented, like we talked about earlier, then you can start with that documentation. You can use it to get yourself more up to speed, to be able to step in and do the things that they're asking for, but even when the documentation is Slim when they're asking you for something, that's because they know they need it. That's your permission to try it to do it and to work with them to fill that Gap that they've identified.

C

You can't always help with everything yourself, and so an important thing to note here is to spread the word boost. The signal use your voice, so all of us here how many people have you told about the problems in NCD I gotta reflect on myself how many people have I shared the struggles with that CD with it's been some, but it's not as many as I would like it's not as many as really could have helped them the most.

C

The other situation is the more challenging one, but it's a good opportunity for us to build relationships. It's a good opportunity for us to practice our empathy practice, our ability to use consent.

C

So when there's a person, a maintainer, a contributor or a whole project, that's really struggling, and you see that and they don't know how to ask. Maybe they're just saying help, maybe they're not even saying help. Maybe you just notice that PRS are piling up or issues or piling up or something like that then put on put on your hat and you know, what's overwhelming to you, you know what's hard for you, what you struggle with think about those challenges that you face in the context of their work in the context of their project.

C

This can be a good way to guess at things that might be helpful for them and that's that's an important First Step. The second step after that is even more critical, asking their permission to try to help them in the way that you've identified.

C

That could sound like hey I notice, that there are a bunch of PR's that are piled up and reviewing here. I would like to help. Would it be helpful to you if I read through some of these PRS- and you know make make my comments about them? Would that be helpful to you or there's? There's a there's, this backlog of issues I know that you triage them in this way. Would you like me to do some of that, for you?

C

Would you like me to do some issue triage one perennial difficulty for maintainers is meeting Logistics scheduling, meetings, facilitating meetings starting on time, managing the notes, so that is often a way that you can help, especially when people or a project are overwhelmed. You can help the experts to focus on sharing that expertise with new folks in order to get themselves into a more sustainable place by asking, would you like me to come and facilitate some meetings for you pulling this all together, there's a lot of ways that we can help ourselves stop struggling alone.

C

We can create communities of Care by asking for help when we need it by offering each other help when we can and by using our voices to share those needs, we can use the power of our knowledge to get more practical assistance from the companies and organizations around us in this morning's keynote. We heard some great Promises of concrete support. We can connect those promises to the real needs that we know we have and we can follow up to make sure that that support is truly helpful.

C

No hero can come and save us, but we can save ourselves together. We take care of us.

B

Thank you so much coming and your time here today. At the end of these, at the end of the slides, there is a bibliography with a ton of resources, including the link to the book that we referenced for Mutual, Aid and I promise. If you put your contributor or maintainer hat on while reading it it'll make so much sense, there's a whole section on there on how to reduce burnout within your teams, also consensus-based development that all of you will take take interest in. Thank you. So much I'm Paris.

C

I'm Tabitha I've, been grateful to be here, go take care of each other.