Our digital world relies on Open Source, and we wouldn't want to imagine life without it. We can do so much when we build on top of well-established projects. It's important to remember though, that the foundation stones don't build themselves. We are all responsible for actively contributing to improving the health of Open Source ecosystems, especially the projects our businesses rely on. In this session you will hear the story of the OSPO team at Aiven, whose main mission is to ensure the sustainability of external OSS projects. Many organisations give financial support to OSS communities and that's a great starting point, but communities are about people more than about money. Aiven gives its most valuable resource: its time. By donating employees time to directly work on upstream projects, the organisation provides very practical support to the OSS community. You'll gain insight into the origins and mission of the OSPO, the scope of its activities and how Aiven measures success and hires for roles like these. Starting a new department like this one isn't easy, so Josep will also share the pitfalls and other hazards, and how he tackled those challenges. This session is recommended for anyone curious about building an outbound OSPO like ours, with a focus on 3rd party OSS.
The slides are on a website, you can view them online at
https://jlprat.github.io/extrospective-ospo/ospocon-na.html.
