Successful open source software leaders are great communicators. I realize I’m cheating a little when I say that because I think in order to be a great communicator in the open source software space, you have to be technical, you have to be authentic, you have to be passionate, you have to delegate, you know, build community. But I think all of those are part of being a good communicator. And it’s the communication that’s key.
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Let me give you a couple of examples.
Evan You: Clear Communication from Day One
Let’s look at Evan You who created Vue. I would say from the very beginning he showed that he is a great communicator. He wrote a really clear and thoughtful blog post explaining why he created Vue, and it was written in a way that really invited discussion.
He went on to keep really well reasoned release notes and roadmap updates, always in a style that’s very transparent and non-defensive.
He did this with authenticity. He leads quietly and humbly, he lets the project speak for itself, but his passion shows through. He wanted to create Vue because he wanted to build something elegant, and he’s focused on the developer experience.
And he’s shown that he can delegate through how he communicates, both by inviting the feedback that he does, and also by empowering people to lead the ecosystem, people such as Sarah Drasner.
He doesn’t cling to control. He communicates very clearly on technical topics with authenticity, passion and a community building aspect.
Linus Torvalds: The Controversial Communicator
The next example may be a little more controversial. I am going to say that Linus Torvalds is a great communicator. He started out the project with some really good documentation. The README and Git documentation that he wrote were really direct and very reasonable, very new for the time. That wasn’t the style at the time.
And I would argue that even his rants are really clear and technically rigorous. I would not say that they are effective, but he is very authentic in all of his communication, love them or hate them. It’s brutally authentic. He is obviously passionate. He’s continued to work on the Linux kernel for decades and shown a deep commitment to it. And he delegates. He created the Linux subsystem maintainer model, which is a model that many open source software projects have copied since then.
He is a good communicator when he wants to be, with very technical background, very authentic, very passionate. And he delegates, created the delegation model that many projects use.
Kelsey Hightower: Breaking Down Complexity
The next example definitely is not as controversial. I don’t think anybody would argue with me when I say that Kelsey Hightower is an awesome communicator. He is famous for breaking down really complex infrastructure in the Kubernetes space into something that’s very relatable for a wide audience, and even makes it fun.
He’s very authentic. He shares things about how he grew up without a traditional tech background. He shares failures as well as wins. He’s super passionate. You can tell that he loves what he’s talking about.
And he also really loves growing other people and empowering other people. You can feel his enthusiasm as he’s talking about his topics. And he’s really good at growing the community around him. He’s known for talking about making himself replaceable. He’s also really well known for being a mentor and for helping early career developers grow around him.
Definitely an extremely good communicator, but also very technical, authentic, passionate and dedicated to growing others.
Selena Deckelmann: Cross-Community Communication
The next example I also think is not controversial. If you look at Selena Deckelmann, she’s now the CTO of the Wikimedia Foundation, but a long time Postgres contributor.
She communicates really clearly across technical and non-technical communities. She started out on Postgres, talking about transparency and governance and using product focus stories to tell the technical side of Postgres.
And now she’s at Wikimedia talking about Wikimedia infrastructure and values in a way that the public can understand.
Very technical, very authentic. If you met her and talked to her, you feel that personal honesty and she shares successes and leadership changes openly. She’s very passionate. She’s committed to open knowledge and Postgres and it comes across in her communications. And she also delegates.
She inherited the Wikimedia model, but she’s definitely leading large teams through decentralized decision making and encouraging volunteers to lead things. A very good communicator across technical and non-technical communities, very authentic, very passionate, and definitely works in a very distributed, delegated model.
Deb Nicholson: Bridging Policy and Community
Next example of a great open source software leader who demonstrates that they have great communication skills is Deb Nicholson. She’s the Executive Director of the Python Software Foundation, and a long time free software community member and contributor.
In her communications, she often bridges legal, community, and policy issues with a lot of clarity and conviction, which shows she understands the technical aspects of the topic she’s discussing, and she translates that big picture strategy into things that the community can act on.
She’s very authentic. She talks about the challenges of community building, and she talks a lot about ethics and issues facing us in the world in politics and tech in a way that genuinely comes from her without any spin. She’s very passionate. She has a long track record of working on open source software licensing, on governance, on software freedom.
She’s developed participatory leadership systems in organizations such as the Python Software Foundation and the Software Freedom Conservancy that have this delegation, community building aspect to it.
Five Examples of Communication Excellence
There are five examples of open source software leaders that demonstrate that open source software leaders have great communication skills.
I would love to hear what you think in the comments, either about Evan You, Linus Torvalds, Selina Deckelmann, Kelsey Hightower, or Deb Nicholson or any other leaders that show that open source software leaders have great communication skills. And it’s a key part of being a successful open source software leader or maintainer.