Anecdotes on attracting and retaining (young) contributors to open source

Presented at Monki Gras 2025: https://monkigras.com/schedule/
Conference Theme: Sustaining Software Development Craft, open source and AI feature significantly
Location: 3 Godfrey Pl, London E2 7NT, United Kingdom
Not recorded.

Abstract:
10 years later, Lucas will reflect on his journey from a 15 year old enthusiast tinkering with Raspberry Pis, to shortly after becoming a Kubernetes maintainer and one of the most active contributors. What did the Kube community do well (engage, teach and give responsibility) to make that possible?

Transcript

1. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV Anecdotes on attracting and retaining (young) contributors to open source Lucas Käldström (@luxas) Kubernetes Contributor, Former Maintainer CNCF Ambassador 2017-2024 MSc student at Aalto University Staff Software Engineer
2. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV Disclaimers - Pretty short lightning talk - Some things seem obvious in hindsight, not sure they were
3. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV 10 years ago in Finland…
4. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV 10 years ago in Finland… Learning Linux Enrolling high school Self-taught programmer
5. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV 15yo enthusiast learns about Kubernetes “These are cool, I can run web servers on them!”
6. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV 15yo enthusiast learns about Kubernetes “Wow, I get access to learnings (and some code) about how Google run their servers!”
7. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV 15yo enthusiast learns about Kubernetes “Wow, I get access to learnings (and some code) about how Google run their servers!”
8. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV 15yo enthusiast learns about Kubernetes ❤ “Hmm, they don’t work together, can I fix that and make a contribution?”
9. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV 15yo enthusiast learns about Kubernetes ❤ “Hmm, they don’t work together, can I fix that and make a contribution?” Kubernetes co-founder Brian Grant: “This hadn’t occurred to any of us [maintainers]”
10. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV What could a vastly different perspective bring to your project?
11. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV Publish to the world! (Sept 2015)
12. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV Upstream it! (Oct 2015 - Nov 2016) Shoutout to Tim Hockin for reviewing, approving, and being an awesome community leader!
13. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV Upstream it! (Oct 2015 - Nov 2016) Of course, 20+ non-trivial PRs were needed in total.
14. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV Upstream it! (Oct 2015 - Nov 2016) Of course, 20+ non-trivial PRs were needed in total. But becoming a contributor (however small) was psychologically HUGE.
15. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV Don’t judge a contributor based on their first contribution(s)
16. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV At this time still, I was “anonymous” Due to fear for bias towards my age. I wanted to be judged by my contributions Luckily, the worry did not materialize.
17. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV Kubernetes defined and upholds its values 1. Distribution is better than centralization 2. Community over product or company 3. Automation over process 4. Inclusive is better than exclusive 5. Evolution is better than stagnation Shoutout to Sarah Novotny, one of the main architects behind these! She was also an amazing mentor ❤
18. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV Instead, becoming a maintainer *The maintainer role was later decomposed into other roles, such as subproject owner, as the project grew Brian: “... Lucas went on to extend the multi-architecture support to arm64 and PowerPC, upgrade the entire project to a new version of Go, and updated all of our Dockerfiles. So we made him a maintainer. I was pretty amazed when I learned that Lucas was 15 when he started …” And I was just as surprised (but excited) to become a maintainer!
19. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV Putting trust in someone can be a game-changer
20. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV Putting trust in someone can be a game-changer …but, I wanted to show I was worth the trust My English was elementary, I barely knew Go, and had no CS degree…
21. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV Contributor Ladder
22. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV Apprenticeship This story is about the people that helped me grow.
23. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV Apprenticeship This story is about the people that helped me grow. There’s so many amazing people: - Jordan Liggitt: Answered my (silly/easy?) question in #sig-auth Slack on “what is the difference between authentication and authorization?”
24. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV Apprenticeship This story is about the people that helped me grow. There’s so many amazing people: - Jordan Liggitt: Answered my (silly/easy?) question in #sig-auth Slack on “what is the difference between authentication and authorization?” - Alexis Richardson: Saw my passion for the project, and hired me part-time to work on OSS Kubernetes (SIG Cluster Lifecycle) ⇒ It takes a village to raise productive contributors
25. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV Mentoring is key: Every Principal Engineer was Junior at some point Probably preaching to the choir, but… *Also, mentoring is NOT a zero-sum game
26. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV Mentoring is key: Every Principal Engineer was Junior at some point Probably preaching to the choir, but… Making this scale is hard, but k8s/CNCF has programmes for it
27. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV Written context democratizes knowledge Capturing the why and how of design decisions in: - GitHub issue/PR discussions - Slack - Zoom (SIG meetings) - Design proposals (KEPs) => Accessible to someone who knows little but is hungry to learn
28. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV Diversity Scholarship: Meeting the community in-person! I was lucky to be in the first CNCF Diversity Scholarship batch, to KubeCon Seattle 2016, thanks CNCF! Contributor Summit and hallway track are awesome
29. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV But luckily, not only for me! *Stats from 2019
30. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV Why to keep contributing? Why: - Social: Feel part of the community, become friends, etc.
31. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV Why to keep contributing? Why: - Social: Feel part of the community, become friends, etc. - Economic: It’s part of your job
32. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV Why to keep contributing? Why: - Social: Feel part of the community, become friends, etc. - Economic: It’s part of your job - Impact: Shared vision, industry-wide impact, not zero-sum
33. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV Why to keep contributing? Why: - Social: Feel part of the community, become friends, etc. - Economic: It’s part of your job - Impact: Shared vision, industry-wide impact, not zero-sum - Gratitude: Desire to “pay it forward” But remember: ok to take breaks too!
34. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV TL;DR; What made kube successful? 1. Upheld, inclusive values, many perspectives heard
35. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV TL;DR; What made kube successful? 1. Upheld, inclusive values, many perspectives heard 2. Contributor ladder, earned trust
36. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV TL;DR; What made kube successful? 1. Upheld, inclusive values, many perspectives heard 2. Contributor ladder, earned trust 3. Documented decision reasoning
37. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV TL;DR; What made kube successful? 1. Upheld, inclusive values, many perspectives heard 2. Contributor ladder, earned trust 3. Documented decision reasoning 4. “Same team, different company” mindset
38. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV TL;DR; What made kube successful? 1. Upheld, inclusive values, many perspectives heard 2. Contributor ladder, earned trust 3. Documented decision reasoning 4. “Same team, different company” mindset 5. Diversity Scholarships & Contributor Summits
39. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV Learn more from Sarah at KCD Helsinki! Keynote: Kubernetes Community: Accidental Brilliance or Careful Design? How did a Google project transform into one of tech's most vibrant communities? This talk dives into the behind-the-scenes magic of Kubernetes' community architecture, drawing from Sarah Novotny's experiences building this remarkable ecosystem. We'll explore the "aha!" moments, surprising wins (and occasional fails), and the intentional choices that created a community where both code and contributors could thrive. Come for the governance insights, stay for the stories of how transparency, inclusivity, and distributed leadership shaped the Kubernetes journey from corporate project to community powerhouse!
40. MARCH 27, 2025 – MONKI GRAS 2025 BLUESKY: @LUXAS.DEV Thank you! Reach out to me at: Email: lucas@luxaslabs.com Kubernetes/CNCF Slack: @luxas Bluesky: @luxas.dev