Getting the Most Out of OSS as Consumer, Agency, Developer, Contributor, or Maintainer

Open Source Software is a success story. It drives the internet and is at our fingertips in numerous devices we use every day—helping us do our jobs or providing entertainment. And, of course, open source software is what brings us together at tech conferences like T3DD, since we make our living from creating or using open source software.

At the same time, the OSS ecosystem seems fragile. The dynamics are often not well understood, even by people participating in creating OSS or products that rely on it.

In my talk, I will invite consumers of OSS, agency owners building products or selling services that depend on OSS, developers (both freelancers and employees working for agencies or customers), as well as contributors and maintainers of open source software, to put themselves in other people’s shoes.

I will explain why understanding and acknowledging the needs of other parties—for example, OSS maintainers understanding the needs of their product’s consumers—not only improves communication and makes people happier (which alone would be more than worth striving for), but will ultimately result in better products, higher quality services, and more sustainable businesses.