Dr. Dawn Foster provides consulting services around open source strategy, contributor strategy, improving project governance, and similar topics. She is also a board member and working group lead for the CHAOSS project, and a director of the Software Stewardship Lab. She has 25+ years of experience at companies like VMware and Intel with expertise in community, strategy, governance, metrics, and more. She has spoken at over 100 industry events and has a BS in computer science, an MBA, and a PhD. In her spare time she enjoys reading science fiction, running, 3D printing, and traveling.

Presentations

23x

Power Dynamics, Rug Pulls, and Other Corporate Impacts on OSS Sustainability

Power imbalances are everywhere, including in our OSS projects. Corporations hold power over projects that result in relicensing, forks, and other disruptions. This talk will cover these power dynamics and suggest steps that we can take to make better decisions about which OSS projects to embrace.

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21x

From Data Tsunami to Actionable Insights

The data available about open source projects can feel like a tsunami with wave after wave of data that can feel overwhelming. But there are ways to make this more manageable by finding and focusing on the metrics that matter the most for you. This talk focuses on tips and techniques for making sense of those waves of data using collections of metrics to result in actionable insights about your open source software.

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19x

Overcoming Imposter Syndrome to Become a Conference Speaker!

The goal of this talk is to provide some resources to help everyone feel included and welcome as a conference speaker. Open source conferences are always striving to increase the diversity of their speakers by recruiting new speakers and encouraging people from underrepresented groups to submit talks. But how do you decide what topic to cover? What can you do to help your topic stand out? How do you prevent imposter syndrome from getting in the way of your success as a speaker?

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