The Faces of Open Source: Kate Stewart

This is the third episode from the series in Shane Martin Coughlan‘s, “The Faces of Open Source Law,” that puts a face to the vibrant open source community, and the fascinating discussions happening within it. This series of interviews focuses on issues related to law affecting open source projects and communities—copyright, licensing, patents, foundations, governance, etc.—and includes interviews with several current and former OSI Board Directors.

In addition, Shane provides “production notes” for each of the videos (presented below), offering his own insights from the interviews

Enjoy…


Kate is one of the faces you see at practically every significant event with open source governance discussions and she is one of the unsung heroes of open source maturity. From her work in building out SPDX to her role in the Linux Foundation Open Compliance Program, she has a hand in producing and socializing a wealth of knowledge and solutions.

In our interview I wanted to explore motivations rather than discuss a list of activities. Because Kate is behind so many projects, and many of these projects touch on issues that may be regarded as daunting—such a developer compliance training—I felt that pulling back to the big picture of *why* she is contributing would be more useful than precisely *what* she is contributing.

The main point that I wanted to convey in this interview, and indeed with the series as a whole, is that the people behind the projects are great. They are all approachable, articulate and helpful people motivated to promote collaborate solutions to shared challenges.

Other episodes:


“Kate Stewart – The Faces of Open Source Law – Season 1 – Episode 3” is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution license.