On communities, cooperation and cooking - lessons learned from 16 years with open source and free software

Free software communities have grown mature over the past years. Perceived as rebels in the very early days, they are nowadays widely recognized and appreciated. Like in life, growing up and professionalizing comes with a very own set of challenges and questions. Apart from factual discussions about governance, licensing or legal structures, the human factor plays an even more important role.

In this webinar, I will share my very personal experience with open source communities with you, talk about the great and inspiring mentors I've had, and shed a light on the valuable lessons I learned as well as the many mistakes I made. In the beginning, we will walk together through my ten thoughts on community leadership, including cooperation, commitment, coordination, trust and reward. After this, let's dive into some ideas on project governance and nonprofit entities. Assuming you're hungry after this journey, I will tell you why free software and cooking have more in common than you may think and why you should cook your own open source event, as working in your local community is even more tasty than in virtual space. Bon appetit!

About Florian

Florian has been a free and open source enthusiast for more than 16 years. He works for The Document Foundation, the nonprofit behind LibreOffice and previously volunteered in marketing and infrastructure. As a student, he designed educational computer systems for schools, including software deployment based on free software and was a frequent contributor to a variety of professional magazines worldwide on topics such as free software, open standards and legal matters. A proud uncle, he loves to spend time with the family and occasionally blogs about various topics, including community building, free and open source software and computer networks. Based around Munich, he helped to create the local open source meetings and shaped the tasty idea of open source cooking.

Blog: https://blog.effenberger.org
Twitter: https://twitter.com/floeff