I’ve been spending quite a bit of time recently thinking and writing about open source project governance, so I was thrilled to be invited to participate in the Turing Way fireside chat about governance along with Clare Dillon and Richard Littauer! The three of us have very different backgrounds and experiences, so we were able to cover a range of different perspectives on open source governance. 

We talked about some of the challenges, including how difficult it can be to make governance changes, since changes involve people with feelings and opinions that will be difficult to reconcile. We encouraged people to use existing resources, like templates and examples from other projects, rather than starting from scratch, and to reach out to get advice from experts who have experience with governance, since governance is complex with nuances and best practices that may not be obvious. We discussed the importance of having a way to remove people from your open source projects that is clearly documented, even when you hope to never need it. These are just a few of the topics we covered, so I encourage you to watch the video to learn more. 

This fireside chat was the 5th in a series about governance, so you might also enjoy watching the rest of the videos, which can be found in the playlist.

Related Resources:

• Governance Part 1: Why is it important?
• Governance Part 2: Defining Governance
• Governance Part 3: New Contributors and Pathways to Leadership
• Governance Part 4: Creating Intentional Culture
• Governance Part 5: Overall Ownership of a Project
• The Open Source Way Guidebook section on governance.
• CNCF guides, resources, and templates for governance