Open at Intel

What is the AI Alliance?

In this episode, Intel's open source AI evangelist Ezequiel Lanza and Dave Nielsen from IBM join the discussion to talk about the AI Alliance, a collaborative initiative formed by IBM and Meta in December 2023. We discussed the importance of openness in AI, how it fosters innovation, community involvement, and ensures AI remains safe and trustworthy. We also covered the significance of community in technology development, and upcoming events such as the Open Source AI Demo Night showcasing innovative AI applications. The episode emphasizes the role of open models in making technology more accessible globally.

00:00 Introduction
00:43 What is the AI Alliance?
04:48 The Importance of Openness in AI
11:47 AI for Good and Community Involvement
15:28 Upcoming Events and How to Get Involved

 

Guests:

	Dave Nielsen represents IBM as the head of community at the AI Alliance, which brings together compute, data, tools, and talent to accelerate and advocate for open innovation in AI. Prior to IBM, Dave led community programs at companies like MongoDB, Harness, Redis and PayPal. Dave is known for creating community events, such as CloudCamp, and for writing the book PayPal Hacks.
	Passionate about helping people discover the exciting world of artificial intelligence, Ezequiel Lanza is a frequent AI conference presenter and the creator of use cases, tutorials, and guides that help developers adopt open source AI tools.

The Burden of Security in Software Maintenance

In this episode, John Kjell, Director of Open Source at TestifySec, discusses his involvement in various open source projects and the intricacies of maintaining such projects. John sheds light on his work with the CNCF and OpenSSF, and the impact of tools like Witness, Archivista, and SLSA. He outlines the challenges maintainers face, especially around security, and offers insights into balancing professional and personal responsibilities. John also explores the significance of community, inclusivity, and a secure developer identity in open source ecosystems.

00:00 Introduction and Guest Background
01:20 Maintainer Burnout and Security Challenges
04:41 Balancing Multiple Projects and Personal Life
07:15 Security Risks in Smaller Projects
10:13 Developer Identity and Reputation
19:37 Open Source Origin Story and Community Involvement
24:11 Optimism for the Future of Open Source Security

Resources:

Enhancing Open Source Security: Introducing Siren by OpenSSF – Open Source Security Foundation

Security at Every Step: Why Software Supply Chains Are Critical

Guest:

John Kjell is responsible for open source at TestifySec, a software supply chain security startup. He is a maintainer for the Witness and Archivista sub-projects under in-toto. Additionally, John is an active contributor to CNCF's TAG Security and multiple projects within the OpenSSF. Before TestifySec, John was an engineering leader at VMware, helping to bring supply chain security features to the Tanzu Application Platform.

Dosu: An AI Tool for Maintaining Code

In this episode, Devin Stein, founder of Dosu, shares his journey from being an active open source user and maintainer to solving maintainer burnout with Dosu, a GitHub app designed to automate and streamline open source project management. He discusses key pain points faced by maintainers, the innovative use of LLMs to enhance task automation, and his partnership with the CNCF to support various projects. Stein reflects on the broader impact of AI in open source maintenance, emphasizing the potential to enhance efficiency and community engagement while preserving the human element in open source development.

 

00:00 Introduction
02:21 Challenges Faced by Open Source Maintainers
06:53 How Dosu Works
11:39 Partnership with the CNCF
16:39 Future of Open Source and AI

 

Guest:

Devin Stein is the CEO and Founder of Dosu. Prior to Dosu, Devin was an early engineer and leader at various startups. Outside of work, he is an active open source contributor and maintainer.

That Open Source Maintainer Life

Sarah Christoff discusses her experiences and challenges as an open source maintainer with a focus on her work with the Porter and Zarf projects. Sarah shares insights into the frustrations and isolation often felt by maintainers, and emphasizes the importance of community and human connections in navigating these roles. We chatted about of Porter and its function in simplifying complex DevOps tool integrations. Additionally, Sarah talks about Zarf, a project recently donated to the OpenSSF aimed at facilitating air-gapped Kubernetes deployments. 

00:00 Introduction

01:29 Challenges of Being an Open Source Maintainer

03:12 The Human Element in Software Development

05:45 Advice for Aspiring Maintainers

08:42 The Porter Project

11:10 The Zarf Project

13:09 The Importance of Community in Open Source

15:31 Women in Tech and Role Models

21:45 Animal Rescue and Community Building

26:10 Final Thoughts and Hot Takes on Open Source

 

Guest:

Sarah Christoff is a software engineer at Defense Unicorns who loves making complex code more digestible. She is the self-proclaimed founder of the Leslie Lamport fan club. When she's not bugbusting, she is running her animal rescue and competing in triathlons. She believes code should be like cats: intelligent, fluffy, and easy to take care of.

 

Tightening Our Cloud Native Belts: OpenCost for Kubernetes Cost Monitoring

Matt Ray, the community manager for the CNCF sandbox project OpenCost, discusses their cloud and Kubernetes cost monitoring technology. He covers the capabilities of OpenCost in tracking cloud expenses and its new feature for monitoring carbon costs. Matt elaborates on the project's origin, its open source community, and the collaborative effort with other companies like Grafana and Microsoft. The conversation covers the community's growth, contribution processes, and OpenCost's goals for becoming more diverse and integrated with other technologies. Matt also reflects on the increasing interest in cost monitoring and his personal journey in the open source community.

 

00:00 Introduction to Matt Ray and OpenCost

01:09 OpenCost's Origins and CNCF Contribution

02:25 OpenCost vs. KubeCost: Defining the Boundaries

03:35 Adoption and Integration of OpenCost

04:30 Community Contributions and Project Growth

07:00 Flexibility and Use Cases of OpenCost

13:58 Becoming a Committer and Maintainer

14:47 Community Engagement and Participation

15:25 Future Plans and Focus

16:39 Carbon Cost and Plugin Architecture

17:53 Personal Journey in Open Source

 

Guest:

Matt Ray has been active in Open Source and DevOps communities for over two decades and has spoken at and helped organize many conferences and meetups. He is currently the Senior Community Manager at Kubecost for the CNCF Sandbox Project OpenCost. He has worked in and with enterprises and startups across a wide variety of industries including banking, retail, and government. He currently resides in Sydney, Australia after relocating from Austin, Texas. He co-hosts the Software Defined Talk podcast and is active on Mastodon, GitHub, and too many Slacks.

Fine-Grained Authorization with OpenFGA

Andres Aguiar joins us to discuss OpenFGA, an open source project for managing fine-grained authorization. Andres covers the challenges in implementing authorization and the importance of using precise access controls to enhance security. He outlines the project's journey, use cases, and how it can be integrated into different software environments. The conversation highlights the community's contributions, the roadmap for OpenFGA, and the potential of AI in improving security through centralized logging and anomaly detection.

00:13 Meet Andres and OpenFGA
01:48 Project Maturity and Community
02:55 Adoption and Use Cases
04:43 Contributions and Integrations
05:59 Understanding Relationship-Based Access Control
16:13 Future Roadmap and AI Potential

Guest:

Andres Aguiar has spent his 20+ year career building tools for developers, wearing different hats. He’s been working on the identity space for the last 6 years, and is currently the Product Manager for OpenFGA.

How to Make Your First Open Source Contributions

We spoke with Edoardo Dusi from Sparkfabrik about Edoardo's career path from a backend software engineer specializing in Drupal to his current role in Developer Relations (DevRel). He shared his experiences and the importance of community involvement when working with open source software. He highlighted the supportive nature of open source communities and provided advice for newcomers. We also covered the work of the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) and the significance of security in open source projects.

00:00 Welcome and Introduction 01:03 Sparkfabrik and Drupal
02:01 Exploring KubeCon
02:56 Getting Involved in Open Source
06:10 Challenges in Modern Open Source
08:37 Joining OpenSSF
11:21 Importance of Security in Open Source
13:01 European Perspectives on Security
14:14 The Role of Big Tech in Open Source
14:36 Community Contributions and Impact
16:34 Navigating the Contribution Process
21:24 Advice for New Open Source Contributors
25:47 The Human Side of Software Development

Guest:

Edoardo Dusi is a Developer Relations Engineer at SparkFabrik, a company that helps organisations build digital products with open source technologies. He has a strong software developer and team leader background, working on various projects and platforms. He is passionate about creating and sharing content that educates and inspires other developers, such as tech talks, videos, podcasts, conferences, and more. He enjoys connecting with the developer community and promoting the benefits of open source software.

Building Better Open Source Projects

Divya Mohan of SUSE discusses her role in in the open source community, highlighting the significance of documentation in software development, drawing from her experiences in the Kubernetes SIG Documentation group and her previous roles. The discussion spans topics like the impact of poorly documented code, the challenges of maintaining comprehensive documentation in open source projects, and advice for fledgling project maintainers. Divya shares her enthusiasm for WebAssembly and its potential to revolutionize software development through inclusivity and standardization, challenging the traditional write-once-run-anywhere paradigm. We conclude with insights on the formation and mission of the Bytecode Alliance and the future prospects of WebAssembly.

 

00:00 Introduction

01:26 Role and Responsibilities at SUSE

04:25 Importance of Documentation

08:19 Challenges in Documentation and Code Commenting

12:21 Single Maintainer Projects and Documentation Advice

14:47 Challenges in Maintaining Documentation

17:53 Introduction to Bytecode Alliance

18:12 WebAssembly: Beyond the Web

19:00 The Role of Standards in WebAssembly

21:55 The Future of WebAssembly

28:34 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

 

Guest:

Divya Mohan is a Senior Technical Evangelist at SUSE, where she contributes to Rancher’s cloud native open source projects. She co-chairs the documentation for the Kubernetes & LitmusChaos projects & has previously worked extensively in the systems engineering space during her tenure with HSBC & IGate Global Solutions Pvt Ltd. A co-creator of the KCNA exam & a CNCF ambassador, she is invested in making technical communities & technologies more accessible & inclusive.