In this episode, we chat with Luis Villa, co-founder of Tidelift, about everything from supporting open source maintainers to coding with AI. Luis, a former programmer turned attorney, shares stories from his early days of discovering Linux, to his contributions to various projects and organizations including Mozilla and Wikipedia. We discussed the critical importance of open source software, the challenges faced by maintainers, including burnout, and how Tidelift works toward compensating maintainers. We also explore broader themes about the sustainability of open source projects, the impact of AI on code generation and legal concerns, and the need for a more structured and community-driven approach to long-term project maintenance.

00:00 Introduction 03:20 Challenges in Open Source Sustainability 07:43 Tidelift's Role in Supporting Maintainers 14:18 The Future of Open Source and AI 32:44 Optimism and Human Element in Open Source 35:38 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Luis Villa is co-founder and general counsel at Tidelift. Previously he was a top open source lawyer advising clients, from Fortune 50 companies to leading startups, on product development, open source licensing, and other matters.

Luis is also an experienced open source community leader with organizations like the Wikimedia Foundation, where he served as deputy general counsel and then led the Foundation’s community engagement team. Before the Wikimedia Foundation, he was with Greenberg Traurig, where he counseled clients such as Google on open source licenses and technology transactions, and Mozilla, where he led the revision of the Mozilla Public License.

He has served on the boards at the Open Source Initiative and the GNOME Foundation, and been an invited expert on the Patents and Standards Interest Group of the World Wide Web Consortium and the Legal Working Group of OpenStreetMap.

Recent speaking engagements include RedMonk’s Monki Gras developer event, FOSDEM, and as a faculty member at the Practicing Law Institute’s Open Source Software programs.

Luis holds a JD from Columbia Law School and studied political science and computer science at Duke University.

In this episode, Madelyn Olson, a maintainer of the Valkey project and an AWS engineer, joins us to discuss the life of an open source maintainer and the experiences surrounding the launch of the Valkey project. We cover the pivotal moments that led to the creation of Valkey, a Redis fork, following the Redis license change. Madeline also shares insights on the challenges and pressures of being a maintainer, strategies to manage burnout, and the significance of creating a community-driven, open source project. The episode highlights the technical advancements and future directions for Valkey, working to leverage modern hardware, manage large clusters, and expand the extension ecosystem.

00:00 Introduction

00:48 Redis License Change and Birth of Valkey

06:17 Maintainer Life and Burnout

14:54 Forking a Repository: When and Why

19:30 Community-Driven Open Source Projects

21:32 Future of Valkey and Closing Remarks

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