83 episodes

The origin story behind the best open source projects and communities.

Contributor Eric Anderson

    • Technology

The origin story behind the best open source projects and communities.

    Ground Control: Lunar with Eyal Solomon

    Ground Control: Lunar with Eyal Solomon

    Eyal Solomon (@EyalSolomo44643) is the CEO and co-founder of Lunar, an open-source platform which bills itself as the “first reverse API gateway.” Lunar allows engineering teams to monitor, manage, and optimize API consumption. According to Eyal, it’s very easy to integrate with APIs, but difficult to keep them maintained, and there was a clear need for a generic solution to control and scale every API consumed in production. 

    Contributor is looking for a community manager! If you want to know more, shoot us an email at eric@scalevp.com.

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    In this episode we discuss:


    How most companies think their API maintenance is a unique problem


    The importance of managing API consumption in the face of the AI revolution


    Why Eyal and his team decided to open-source Lunar


    Future plans for Lunar, including the development of autonomous optimization and pre-built flows


    Eyal’s thoughts on how to start conversations with potential enterprise clients



    Links:


    Lunar



    People mentioned:


    Roy Gabbay (LinkedIn)

    • 27 min
    Metadata Management: DataHub with Shirshanka Das

    Metadata Management: DataHub with Shirshanka Das

    Shirshanka Das (@shirshanka) is the CTO of Acryl Data and founder of DataHub, which bills itself as the #1 open-source metadata platform. It enables data discovery, data observability and federated governance to help tame complex data ecosystems. Shirshanka first developed DataHub while at LinkedIn, but has grown it into an independent project with a thriving community.

    Contributor is looking for a community manager! If you want to know more, shoot us an email at eric@scalevp.com.

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    In this episode we discuss:


    How DataHub differs from traditional data catalogs


    Themes around why community members get involved and stick with the project


    Partnering with Netflix to develop runtime metadata model extensibility


    The influence of the pandemic on DataHub’s open-sourcing


    Dealing with the future of a project with big community and unlimited scope



    Links:


    DataHub


    The History of DataHub

    • 36 min
    Take Your Own Advice: vlcn with Matt Wonlaw

    Take Your Own Advice: vlcn with Matt Wonlaw

    After his first child was born, Matt Wonlaw (@tantaman) imagined giving his son life advice. What kind of life did he want his kid to lead? At the time, he was working for Facebook, and he decided that his own life needed a change in direction. So Matt started vlcn, aka Vulcan Labs, a research company that develops open-source projects like CR-SQLite and Materialite. vlcn has an unusual business model – Matt receives donations and sponsorships from users and clients. It’s all part of his mission to rethink the modern data stack for writing rich and complex applications.

    Contributor is looking for a community manager! If you want to know more, shoot us an email at eric@scalevp.com.

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    In this episode we discuss:


    One reason that software is still too hard to write: Object orientations


    How CR-SQLite allows databases to be merged together and Materialite provides Incremental View Maintenance for JavaScript


    Why coding directly to relations can provide a more flexible and efficient approach to building applications


    Matt’s decision to build vlcn as a research lab rather than as a startup


    Thoughts for the future on PGLite



    Links:


    vlcn (Vulcan Labs)


    CR-SQLite


    Materialite


    fly.io


    PGLite



    People mentioned:


    Johannes Schickling (@schickling)

    • 31 min
    Secret Sauce: Amplication with Yuval Hazaz

    Secret Sauce: Amplication with Yuval Hazaz

    Amplication is an open-source development platform for scalable and secure Node.js applications. It allows engineers to skip writing boilerplate code and offers the flexibility to customize and add components. Amplification was created by Yuval Hazaz (@Yuvalhazaz1), a veteran developer who determined that low-code platforms save time but restrict freedom. Instead, Amplication uses code generation to reliably and consistently build robust production‑ready backend services.

    Contributor is looking for a community manager! If you want to know more, shoot us an email at eric@scalevp.com.

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    In this episode we discuss:


    Yuval’s “secret sauce” for building an open-source community


    How platform engineers can use Amplication for company-wide standardization


    A baseline organic growth rate for open-source projects


    The role of generative AI in code modernization



    Links:


    Amplication

    • 31 min
    To the Moon: OpenBB with Didier Lopes

    To the Moon: OpenBB with Didier Lopes

    OpenBB is an open-source investment research platform created by Didier Lopes (@didier_lopes). OpenBB grew out of a project called Gamestonk Terminal that Didier began working on shortly before the Gamestop short squeeze in January 2021. Today, OpenBB has evolved into an infrastructure platform that allows users to build extensions and access financial data with automation and customization.

    Contributor is looking for a community manager! If you want to know more, shoot us an email at eric@scalevp.com.

    Subscribe to Contributor on Substack for email notifications!

    In this episode we discuss:


    What Vice Media got wrong about OpenBB


    Some major contributors to the project and the features or directions that they proposed


    How a machine learning engineer from Bloomberg reached out about OpenBB


    Different types of OpenBB users – students, retail investors, and other financial professionals


    OpenBB’s exciting AI roadmap



    Links:


    OpenBB



    People mentioned:


    James Maslek (@jmaslek11


    Artem Veremey (@artemvv)

    • 39 min
    Robust Observability: OpenTelemetry with Austin Parker

    Robust Observability: OpenTelemetry with Austin Parker

    OpenTelemetry is an open-source observability framework for collecting and managing telemetry data. OpenTelemetry has been more successful than expected, becoming the second fastest growing project in the CNCF. It allows for flexibility and avoids vendor lock-in, making it attractive to startups and large enterprises alike. On today’s show, Eric (@ericmander) sits down with Austin Parker (@austinlparker), director of open-source at Honeycomb.

    Contributor is looking for a community manager! If you want to know more, shoot us an email at eric@scalevp.com.

    Subscribe to Contributor on Substack for email notifications!

    In this episode we discuss:


    How Austin’s interest in complex systems led him to the observability field and developer relations


    An X argument that contributed to the merger of OpenTelemetry and OpenCensus


    Why foundations help maintainers to strike a balance with their contributors


    Austin’s opinion on the secret to OpenTelemetry’s success



    Links:


    OpenTelemetry


    Honeycomb



    People mentioned:


    Charity Majors (@mipsytipsy)


    Christine Yen (@cyen)

    • 35 min

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