 The next speaker is Deb Nicholson. All right. Can you all hear me? Am I on the thing? Check, check. Is it close enough? I mean, I can always hear me, but yeah. Last year we did this, and it didn't go to the recording, because I was talking loud enough for the room to hear me without the microphone by accident or too much coffee. Anyway, today we're going to talk about class governance, the good, the bad, and the ugly. And I offer this so that when you find yourself in one of these situations, you can either be like, oh, hey, that's great. Or like, uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh, oh, oh, run away. So some of these things can be fixed. You have to decide your own input when we get to the bad and the ugly, if you're like, yeah. I may offer some thoughts on how you might fix that, but you can also just say like, nope, and leave. That parts up to you. So I am a fast policy nerd and a perennial volunteer with communities and events and things like that. I also work at the Software Freedom Conservancy, and we host all of these lovely projects, and we help them with governance. Some need more help than others. I won't name any names, but that is one of the things that we help them with. So what is governance? Governance is basically how you decide you're gonna get things done. It's like how you arrange power and decision-making within your project. For today's purposes, we are not gonna be talking about land wars in Asia or any of that kind of super big picture governance. We're really just gonna be talking about small and medium-sized projects and the things that happen when you tend to get a lot of opinionated but helpful volunteers together in one place. Some of these will be also useful for projects that are large enough to hire an open-source programs manager, but hopefully if you've got someone spending full time on your things, you've gone past a few of these problems. So, like I said, small and medium, all different sizes, all different flavors of projects have governance, and yeah, so we'll see how this goes. So the good, these are things where you're like, yeah, okay, things are working, this is good. You might even think like, this project sparks joy, or it's delicious. And this is gonna drill down into why that might be. So first of all, good projects state their goals early and often. If you have gotten people together to help you work on something and they don't know why they're there, you're eventually going to have a divergence where you have as many ideas about why you're there as you have people involved. And that's not a good place to be. You have people like jumping into stuff, like whatever, like I thought we were trying to do this, we're not trying to, oh, whoops, well, I just spent a lot of project time and resources on doing something that nobody else wants us to do. You also need to talk about methods. So if you've got goals and then you hopefully also have ideas about the ways that you intend to achieve those goals, you need to state those also early and often. So you can write them down and keep them somewhere like when you do meetings and talk about here's what we're working on. And this could be any number of things. You can make your own rules and you can make your own types of methods. So you might say, hey, we're gonna be a pure no-money project, okay? Or you could decide we are gonna take money but we're not gonna accept money from any more than a certain percentage from any given company because we don't want them to have undue influence on the direction of our project. You could also say, we actually only want corporate sponsorship for some certain percent of our work and we wanna have community sponsoring the rest of our work so that you can think, you can, it's not too hard to imagine how someone whose thumb is on the scale for 90% of your funding might have some ideas about how the project goes that it will be very hard for you to say no to if the answer is, well, we just won't fund you next year. So you can set those things out in advance and decide like this is the kinds of things we imagine doing, this is who we imagine being involved in our decision-making process and then this is how we're gonna set up who gets that say and how they get it. So obviously I hope that I don't have to belabor this too much in this room but pick a license in advance because if you get people working on a code base and then decide to pick a license two years on, you're gonna have a huge argument about what license should be on this project. So the earlier you do it, the better. You probably also wanna talk about patents a little bit just so you don't have folks that are like, oh, I was hoping we'd patent this and then we'd all get rich because if that's not what everybody thinks is gonna happen, then you're gonna have a problem. So in general, your licensing and your business model have to match. Whatever it is you're gonna do, like whatever it is you're gonna do with the software, however you're gonna interact with the community, you can't decouple those and decide them separately. They have to be decided in concert together because otherwise you'll get to a place where they don't match up. And then I would say plan for success. So there are a couple of ways that you might do this. One would be making sure that you trademark the name and the logo. So it can be tricky if you have one project member that has some really key project resources in their personal name and then the project becomes really popular. Pam Cheswick did a great talk about this a few years back on like mirroring how not taking care of your trademark and stuff and the name of your project turns into like a kind of a band split out nightmare where it's like, oh, we're the original platters and we're like the old school platters and everyone is trying to like cash in on the name of the project because they didn't pay good attention to who actually gets to use the name of the project. So plan for success so that when you have that success it's very clear that those things are earned in common. And so that's again like, don't just assume that it will somehow work out if you just jump and you're like, ah, whatever. Like if we get rich, I'm sure we'll be great. We'll all still be super friends, right? Yeah. So another thing for good governance is that transparency is good. Like people should, the inside should match the outside. This is, if you did not know you're getting a green donut, ooh, look, right? But if you're like, oh, we're a community driven project and then you get inside and it's like, yeah, actually I like two dudes that work at this one company call all the shots. That's like, oh, so like as soon as people find your inside they're gonna leave. And then plan for succession. And not having it be any weirder than it needs to be like people have babies, they go to grad school, like, you know, whatever. And that should be okay. It shouldn't be like, sure, have kids, you're dead to us. It's like, no, no, like go take a few years and write down your stuff before you go and we wish you well. And then maybe when a time comes later on and they're like, I'm done with grad school. How's the project doing? It's like, oh yeah, we didn't say a little weird snarky stuff about you when you left so you could just come right back. And like, you know, passing it on means that you, you know, someone is there to do the things next. You want to be organized enough, but not too organized. Like, just over, like, you know, a micro it. You know, so you can constantly kind of like take a look like, oh, you know, hey, we were like a two meeting org last year and now we're a seven meeting a week org. Like, do we need all these? So you can like continually prune and ask these questions. Another thing that happens when you're talking about like, hey, what's our project doing? What do we want to do? Like, people come up with ideas, especially if you've been in one of those meetings where coffee is served and you've got like, not an agenda, but like an hour to meet. And so people are like, oh, I know we should do this. Like, or maybe we could redeploy it for flower delivery. And it's like, what? So pilot or table? So like, if the idea is pretty good and there's like some consensus and people have talked about it, you can say, let's try that new idea as a pilot. We'll do it for two months. And if it works, it works, then great. As tabling, you can say like, yeah, that's really off topic and or like, is like a situation that would be good when we've got like way more resources or something else. So let's table it. Set your scope. You, oops, sorry, you might have to do this often as well, like to continually check in and be like, how did we end up a flower delivery service on blockchain? That's like, was that what we intended? And then finally, goal services tactics. It's, you know, if you like understanding that your goal can't be the activity. So tactics are the activities that you do to reach your goal, but people mix and match them where they're like, oh, I thought our goal was to have a super awesome party hack fest. And it's like, well, that's like a product of us working together for a weekend, but that's not the goal of, you know, the project. So the bad. This, this donut I found on Flickr is called the meth donut. I don't think it's actually meth on there, but yeah. So the bad stuff, sometimes people behave, like engage in these behaviors because they're like kind of so bad they're good or something like there's something appealing about them even if it's like kind of a bad idea. So you get like kind of a short term, not high, but you know, a short term thing that doesn't really last a long term. So you can, one of these behaviors is where you expect that things will never change. Like we'll just always be like this. And like the, you know, we've got this niche occupied and nothing is ever gonna change. Stuff melts, it goes away. The, you know, the thing that you started your project to fill might no longer be a thing people need. Relying on everyone being friends forever. This is, I would love it, like that would be great. That's like, you're like, oh, in kindergarten I learned like you just don't like hit each other in the nose and then you're friends forever. And it's like, well, it's a little more complicated. Sometimes related to this. Money changes everything. Like some of the things that can really help is like, I feel like, you know, if you've got your goal and your tactics and your methods and your strategic plan in place, then it makes it harder for like a big windfall to like shake you off track. But if you haven't got those things in place, all of a sudden a big pile of money makes like the behavior change a lot. Letting one person run everything. Even if they're doing all the work because they probably are if they're running everything and this can be really bad. Especially if they're the loudest person in the room. Like, I don't know how many of you have experienced this, but the loudest person in the room, this is not fun. You either have to help them find their way to learning to delegate a little bit and maybe inside voice a little bit. And then if that works, that won't work. Like you may have to help that person to the door. So I'm a firm believer in that if you care for people letting them behave like a cave person with a megaphone is you're not helping them. No big picture conversations. This is also terrible where it's like, oh no, we can't have any big picture conversations because our hair is on fire all the time because we set ourselves this crazy release schedule that we can't possibly meet. So we can never, ever, ever talk about what we're gonna be doing in a year and a half because what, yeah. And so that leads to badness. Then everyone's like, I feel like I was just here for like 10 years and it's been a month and I hate you all. So don't go down that road is what I'm saying. Being allergic to organizations is also bad. Like, I just don't like stuff so formal and it's like, we can have meeting agendas and you can still attend that meeting without shoes. That's fine. Being allergic to talking about money, this is also a weird one. Like, it's, oh, there was another slide there. But if you never wanna talk about money and you have some, this is not good. Not being willing to kill your darlings. This is like, oh, but it's been so fun meeting at Steve's house and it's like, the project is 400 people. Like, we, I know we moved to the garage last year but this is still not working. Even if it was super fun when there was three of you meeting at Steve's house. So this is, you know, these are bad, bad, bad roots. That like, and to me when I see this behavior, it's like, we actually don't wanna grow. We want like a social club. We don't want a project that like brings in more people or gets wide adoption. So, the ugly. Those are things that are like, you just, nope, nope, nope, nope. This is in the US, obviously. Don't say we never gave you anything. So, ugly, no one knows why we're here. This is like the inverse. Like, what are we, you know, you talk to each person and they're like, oh yeah, we're building a distribution and another person's like, oh no, we're making version control. Another person's like, I thought we were just hanging out, putting stuff in envelopes. I don't, I have no idea what we're doing. You know, so this is not good. Like, you end up with like a bunch of people like over here, like confused. They think like we're doing this. It's, you can't, you can't have people not understand what is happening because if they don't know who they're building it for they're not gonna succeed in building it for those people. News shared values, so like, you know, and this can take a couple of different turns. Like, you know, like someone's like, oh, I want our project to be free software. And someone's like, yeah, or open core, whatever. It's like, like that's not gonna be sustainable. Or someone's like, oh, I feel like it's really important for us to have a code of conduct. And then you've got someone else who is like, you know, you're like, well, let's just like split the difference. Like you can be libertarian, free speech and call everyone names over here and we'll like on the front end tell everyone we're nice. Like, oh yeah, that'll work, great. No shared expectations, this also terrible. Like, you know, like no one's in charge or everyone's in charge, which is it? Oh, it doesn't matter. Like, or maybe the person in charge is the person who's got the password for the website. You're like, okay, I guess they're in charge. This is bad. This is not gonna make you look good. When you've got people doing all different things in the project, you're like, what is even happening? Why is that there? It's not good. Or no one knows where the money is. Like, oh, like a bank account was the most boring cast. So we gave it to that person that showed up once. We think we might have their Twitter handle. Awesome. Letting a missing stair be your benevolent dictator for life? Like, oh, he's just a groper. Like, no, on the blank there. Because you will end up with more people like that that are like, I heard you guys were cool with gropers. Like, don't do that. Like, unless you want that, I don't know what, there's like an adult cuddling group. You can join if that's your thing. But it should not be your software project. Decision making is mysterious. Like, road mapping just appears after a meeting of a secret cabal. People will not stick around for this. They're like, people have other places they could go, other projects they could contribute to. They could join book clubs and not contribute to free software on their free time. So if they're like, oh, what are we doing now? Like, don't surprise people with big decisions. So, who can help you with some of this? Just assuming you've decided you want to help with some of this. Strategic planning, like, I cannot recommend it enough. If you're doing a project and you don't know where you intend to be in two years, then I don't know why you're still showing up. Just do it. You can also find a partner. Like, sometimes if you're like, oh, we've kind of got like a wacky incubation thing. We're not sure where it's going. Like, maybe find a partner to do a little oversight. You could find a fiscal sponsor. Like, you know, you need to have a little more idea to be a part of the Conservancy. There are other groups that you could join and be part of and, you know, plug in. They can help you with the bank account stuff so you don't have to figure out whose Twitter handle it's account, you know, the account is in. So there's like a bunch of things that you can do to like get some of that organization like injected into your project. Find some buddies. Like, if you're starting a project and you know a friend that has already started a project, you can talk to them. That's one of the great things about Free Software. The community will help you do the things that you don't already know how to do, provided you're not a jerk and maybe buy them a donut. So don't be afraid to outsource the stuff that you don't want to do. Don't just do stuff poorly because it has to be done but you don't want to do it. And then it's pretty much always donut time. There's never, it's never too early or too late to start improving your governance. So I hope that you will do that. Some other places, the open source.com has some more resources for you on leadership and management. Some other talks you might find useful on this topic. And then post your credits. And then I would be happy to take one question. Okay, thank you. Questions? Any questions? Also, like, throughout the day and then tomorrow too, like around 5-7 too. So if you have a question that you think of later, you can at me on Twitter. Or if you're messin' on SearchFoo is good, you can find me there. Deb, you had an interesting URL from Shane, which was like, choose a foundation. Tell us what that's about. Needs a fiscal sponsor. Needs a fiscal sponsor. And you don't know where to go or you want to check out a few before you pick one. You go to choose a foundation and it has a list of a bunch of different potential fiscal sponsors for your free software project. Cool. I happen to know the most about conservancy and I assume other foundations may do this too, but one of the neat things I know about conservancy is that they can help member projects with governance questions. Can you maybe say a couple of words about how conservancy might help newly joined projects or prospective projects think about the governance choices they have to make? Yeah, so for governance, the first thing that conservancy helps you do is decide who you're gonna let be part of your decision making process. So we set up a leadership committee for all of our projects. We ask that they keep it not too heavy with any particular company so that they don't have to worry about that later on down the road. And then we always talk to them over time about like, hey, are you raising money? What are you raising it for? What kinds of things do you wanna spend it on? What's your road map? So we ask projects to continually be thinking about those things. Thanks. Okay, another question up here. Have you found a correlation between quality of governance and the license that the project speak? Like, does a more permissive license like? So what's the, yeah, what's the correlation between the governance and the license that you pick? So the license that you pick can dictate or it can recommend certain foundations for you as a fiscal home. But as far as, I mean, as I said before, like your plans for your software should match your license. So when you're doing strategic planning and talking about like, what do you wanna do? What do you wanna have your relationship with the community be? What, if anything, are you interested in monetizing? Then you should be talking about the license that you're choosing with that. So if your idea is like, we're gonna use a copy left license and we are highly depending on the community to participate and evangelize and make this a really popular project. And then you're like, cool, how come someone stuck on the end of our strategic plan that we would be selling licenses and sticking DRM into the code? Cause those are not compatible, right? You know, for permissive stuff, there are other different kinds of things you can do. There are other business models that lend themselves to permissive licensing if business is what you're looking at. You know, and then different kinds of partners. So like, if you're looking to have a partner on your code base, then it probably matters like how well you match them culturally a little bit, like license-wise attitude towards free software. Thanks. Any other questions? Okay, great. Thank you so much Deb. Thank you.