---
visibility: public
---

# Open Source Maintainers

**repo:** [nayafia/awesome-maintainers](https://github.com/nayafia/awesome-maintainers)  
**category:** [[miscellaneous|Miscellaneous]]

---

# Awesome Maintainers [![Awesome](https://awesome.re/badge.svg)](https://awesome.re)
> Talks, blog posts, and interviews about the experience of being an open source maintainer

* [@alyssais](https://github.com/alyssais), [Homebrew](https://github.com/Homebrew/brew)
  * "Why I helped maintain Homebrew" ([video](https://vimeo.com/276832570))
* [@amjith](https://github.com/amjith), [pgcli](https://github.com/dbcli/pgcli)
  * "Maintainer Stories: Amjith Ramanujam" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paS09pRV8bY))
* [@antirez](https://github.com/antirez), [Redis](https://github.com/antirez/redis)
  * "The struggles of an open source maintainer" ([post](http://antirez.com/news/129))
* [@ariya](https://github.com/ariya), [PhantomJS](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs)
  * "Maintainer Stories: Ariya Hidayat" ([interview](https://github.com/open-source/stories/ariya))
* [@ashfurrow](https://github.com/ashfurrow), [Moya](https://github.com/moya/moya)
  * "Building Open Source [Communities](/@harrisonqian/awesome/wiki/work/communities)" ([slides](https://speakerdeck.com/ashfurrow/building-open-source-communities))
* [@bbatsov](https://github.com/bbatsov), [Rubocop](https://github.com/rubocop-hq/rubocop)
  * "Interview with Bozhidar Batsov: The Creator’s Thoughts on RuboCop and the [Ruby](/@harrisonqian/awesome/wiki/programming-languages/ruby) Style Guide" ([post](https://blog.sideci.com/interview-with-bozhidar-batsov-99b049b6fd6a))
* [@boneskull](https://github.com/boneskull), [Mocha](https://github.com/mochajs/mocha)
  * "Maintaining a Popular Project and Managing Burnout" ([interview](https://changelog.com/rfc/15))
* [@brettcannon](https://github.com/brettcannon), [Python](https://github.com/python)
  * "The give and take of open source" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y19s6vPpGXA))
  * "Maintainer Stories: Brett Cannon" ([interview](https://github.com/open-source/stories/brettcannon))
  * "Setting expectations for open source participation" ([post](https://snarky.ca/setting-expectations-for-open-source-participation/))
  * "Why I took October off from OSS volunteering" ([post](https://snarky.ca/why-i-took-october-off-from-oss-volunteering/))
* [@brianc](https://github.com/brianc), [node-postgres](https://github.com/brianc/node-postgres)
  * "Creating and maintaining node-postgres solo" ([interview](https://sourcesort.com/interview/brian-carlson-on-creating-and-maintaing-node-pg-solo))
* [@BurntSushi](https://github.com/BurntSushi), [Rust libraries](https://github.com/BurntSushi?tab=repositories)
  * "My FOSS Story" ([post](https://blog.burntsushi.net/foss/))
* [@ceejbot](https://github.com/ceejbot), [Entropic](https://github.com/entropic-dev/entropic), [npm](https://github.com/npm/cli)
  * "The [economics](/@harrisonqian/awesome/wiki/miscellaneous/economics) of open source" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO8hZlgK5zc), [post](https://github.com/ceejbot/economics-of-package-management/blob/master/essay.md))
* [@colcarroll](https://github.com/ColCarroll), [PyMC3](https://github.com/pymc-devs/pymc3)
  * "Two Years of Open Source" ([slides/post](https://colcarroll.[github](/@harrisonqian/awesome/wiki/development-environment/github).io/open_source_pa/))
* [@ctb](https://github.com/ctb) & [@mr-c](https://github.com/mr-c), [khmer](https://github.com/dib-lab/khmer)
  * "Channeling Community Contributions to Scientific Software: A Sprint Experience" ([paper](https://doi.org/10.5334/jors.96))
  * "Walking the Talk: Adopting and Adapting Sustainable Scientific Software Development processes in a Small Biology Lab" ([paper](http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/jors.35))
* [@danielbachhuber](https://github.com/danielbachhuber), [wp-cli](https://github.com/wp-cli/wp-cli)
  * "Experiments and the [Economics](/@harrisonqian/awesome/wiki/miscellaneous/economics) of Open Source" ([interview](https://changelog.com/rfc/17))
  * "My condolences, you're now the maintainer of a popular open source project" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll_lmDZUD4o), [post](https://danielbachhuber.com/2016/06/26/my-condolences-youre-now-the-maintainer-of-a-popular-open-source-project/))
* [@danvet](https://github.com/danvet), [Linux drm-intel](https://cgit.freedesktop.org/drm-intel)
  * "Maintainers Don't Scale" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ9Y0midtW4), [slides](http://blog.ffwll.ch/slides/lca-2017.pdf), [post](http://blog.ffwll.ch/2017/01/maintainers-dont-scale.html))
  * "Burning Down the Castle" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB0luXmuo3g&t=90s), [post](http://blog.ffwll.ch/2018/02/lca-sydney.html))
* [@dhh](https://github.com/dhh), [Rails](https://github.com/rails)
  * "Open source beyond the market" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBwWbFpkltg), [post](https://m.signalvnoise.com/open-source-beyond-the-market/))
* [@dominictarr](https://github.com/dominictarr), [scuttlebot](https://github.com/ssbc/scuttlebot) and others
  * "Statement on event-stream compromise" ([post](https://gist.[github](/@harrisonqian/awesome/wiki/development-environment/github).com/dominictarr/9fd9c1024c94592bc7268d36b8d83b3a))
* [@emilyemorehouse](https://github.com/emilyemorehouse), [Python](https://github.com/python)
  * "My Path to Becoming a [Python](/@harrisonqian/awesome/wiki/programming-languages/python) [Core](/@harrisonqian/awesome/wiki/platforms/core) Developer" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOzUMQW4p0Y))
* [@ericholscher](https://github.com/ericholscher), [Read the Docs](https://github.com/rtfd/readthedocs.org)
  * "Maintainer Stories: Eric Holscher" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us_3IGG6leM&t=1s))
  * "The post I never published" ([post](http://ericholscher.com/blog/2018/feb/7/the-post-i-never-published/))
* [@evancz](https://github.com/evancz), [Elm](https://github.com/elm/compiler)
  * "The Hard Parts of Open Source" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_4EX4dPppA), [slides](https://prezi.com/oowcpzsnwp-8/the-hard-parts-of-open-source/))
  * "On Storytelling" ([video](https://www.deconstructconf.com/2017/evan-czaplicki-on-storytelling))
* [@fat](https://github.com/fat), [Bootstrap](https://github.com/twbs/bootstrap/)
  * "What is open source and why do I feel so guilty?" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIDb6VBO9os), [slides](http://fat.[github](/@harrisonqian/awesome/wiki/development-environment/github).io/slides-os-guilt/))
* [@fatih](https://github.com/fatih), [vim-go](https://github.com/fatih/vim-go)
  * "Taking an indefinite sabbatical from my projects" ([post](https://arslan.io/2018/10/09/taking-an-indefinite-sabbatical-from-my-projects/))
* [@feross](http://github.com/feross), [WebTorrent](https://github.com/webtorrent/webtorrent)
  * "Recap of the `funding` experiment" ([post](https://feross.org/funding-experiment-recap/))
  * "What I learned from WebTorrent: Lessons learned from starting and running a P2P open source project" ([slides](https://speakerdeck.com/feross/what-i-learned-from-webtorrent))
* [@fijal](https://github.com/fijal), [PyPy](https://github.com/pypy/)
  * "Open source funding" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxNkupqI964))
* [@FooBarWidget](https://github.com/FooBarWidget) & [@prototype](https://github.com/prototype), [Phusion Passenger](https://github.com/phusion)
  * "Bootstrapping a business around open source" ([video](https://youtu.be/uHaMpLyMOL0))
  * "Maintaining Passenger" ([video](https://vimeo.com/276832741))
* [@freakboy3742](https://github.com/freakboy3742), [PyBee](https://github.com/pybee)
  * "Maintainer Stories: Russell Keith-Magee" ([interview](https://github.com/open-source/stories/freakboy3742))
* [@gaearon](https://github.com/gaearon), [React](https://github.com/facebook/react), [Redux](https://github.com/reactjs/redux)
  * "Maintaining Open Source Projects: Dan Abramov" ([interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QbyRas7gUA))
* [@hzoo](https://github.com/hzoo), [Babel](https://github.com/babel/babel)
  * "(Open) source of anxiety" ([post](https://increment.com/open-source/open-source-of-anxiety/))
  * "Through the Open Source Looking Glass" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0sfFX7WH1c), [slides](https://github.com/hzoo/through-the-open-source-looking-glass))
  * "Maintainer, heal thyself" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFgSvLUzQSU), [slides](https://hzoo.[github](/@harrisonqian/awesome/wiki/development-environment/github).io/maintainer-heal-thyself/assets/player/KeynoteDHTMLPlayer.html#0))
  * "Maintainer Stories: Henry Zhu" ([interview](https://github.com/open-source/stories/hzoo))
  * "Maintaining an OSS project" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL37ZVnwpeshFmAPr65sU2O5WMs7_CGjs_&v=_iToM2KC0QE), [slides](https://hzoo.[github](/@harrisonqian/awesome/wiki/development-environment/github).io/maintaining-an-oss-project/assets/player/KeynoteDHTMLPlayer.html#0))
* [@indexzero](https://github.com/indexzero), [winston](https://github.com/winston)
  * "Keeping Important Code Alive" ([slides](https://speakerdeck.com/indexzero/keeping-important-code-alive-seattlejs-march-2015))
  * "Modernizing winston for node@4" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPw7QIx3JZM), [slides](https://speakerdeck.com/indexzero/modernizing-winston-for-node-at-4))
* [@jacobian](https://github.com/jacobian), [Django](https://github.com/django/django)
  * "What Part of '... for Life' Don't You Understand?" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqcuzSwySR4))
* [@janl](https://github.com/janl), [CouchDB](https://github.com/apache/couchdb)
  * "Sustainable Open Source: The Maintainers Perspective or: How I Learned to Stop Caring and Love Open Source" ([post](http://writing.jan.io/2017/03/06/sustainable-open-source-the-maintainers-perspective-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-caring-and-love-open-source.html))
* [@jeresig](https://github.com/jeresig), [jQuery](https://github.com/jquery/jquery)
  * "Walking Away From Your Open Source Project: John Resig" ([interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9HGec2RA-Q))
* [@jessfraz](https://github.com/jessfraz), [Kubernetes](https://github.com/kubernetes)
  * "Maintainer Stories: Jess Frazelle ([interview](https://github.com/open-source/stories/jessfraz))
* [@jodosha](https://github.com/jodosha), [Hanami](https://github.com/hanami)
  * "Lessons Learned While Building Hanami" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RyitUKfUFE), [slides](https://speakerdeck.com/jodosha/lessons-learned-while-building-hanami))
* [@kelset](https://github.com/kelset), [React Native](https://github.com/facebook/react-native)
  * "All Hands on Deck: The [React](/@harrisonqian/awesome/wiki/front-end-development/react) Native Community Experience" ([video](https://youtu.be/OVzMw3vYrDI), [slides](https://speakerdeck.com/kelset/all-hands-on-deck-the-rn-community-experience))
* [@kennethreitz](https://github.com/kennethreitz), [requests](https://github.com/requests/requests)
  * "The Reality of Developer Burnout" ([post](https://www.kennethreitz.org/essays/the-reality-of-developer-burnout))
* [@kentcdodds](https://github.com/kentcdodds), [various](https://github.com/kentcdodds)
  * "The First Pull Request" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjgZQeMrw6c&list=PLV5CVI1eNcJgNqzNwcs4UKrlJdhfDjshf), [slides](http://slides.com/kentcdodds/1st-pr))
  * "First-time Contributors and Maintainer Balance" ([podcast](https://changelog.com/podcast/246))
  * "Managing an Open Source Project" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKI1Kj5VXqE&index=23&list=PLV5CVI1eNcJgNqzNwcs4UKrlJdhfDjshf), [slides](http://slides.com/kentcdodds/manage-oss))
  * "Open Sourcing Your Stuff" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zlu3QvuwruY&index=28&list=PLV5CVI1eNcJgNqzNwcs4UKrlJdhfDjshf), [slides](http://slides.com/kentcdodds/open-source-your-stuff))
* [@KrauseFx](https://github.com/krausefx), [fastlane](https://github.com/fastlane/fastlane)
  * "Scaling open source [communities](/@harrisonqian/awesome/wiki/work/communities)" ([post](https://krausefx.com/blog/scaling-open-source-communities))
* [@kris-nova](https://github.com/kris-nova), [kubernetes-kops](https://github.com/kubernetes/kops)
  * "Maintainer Stories: Kris Nova" ([interview](https://github.com/open-source/stories/kris-nova))
* [@Krzysztof-Cieslak](https://github.com/Krzysztof-Cieslak), [Ionide](https://github.com/ionide)
  * "OSS and Community: The Story" ([post](http://kcieslak.io/OSS-The-Story))
* [@kytrinyx](https://github.com/kytrinyx), [Exercism](https://github.com/exercism)
  * "Maintainer Stories: Katrina Owen" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjKwvdF7SrA))
* [@lmccart](https://github.com/lmccart), [p5.js](https://github.com/processing/p5.js)
  * "Design, Software, and Open Source" ([interview](https://changelog.com/rfc/19))
* [@mikeal](https://github.com/mikeal), [request](https://github.com/request/request/)
  * "Request's Past, Present and Future" ([post](https://github.com/request/request/issues/3142))
* [@MikeMcQuaid](https://github.com/MikeMcQuaid), [Homebrew](https://github.com/Homebrew)
  * "Research Study Interview: The Work of Maintaining Open Source Software" ([post](https://mikemcquaid.com/2019/05/20/research-study-interview-work-of-maintaining-open-source-software/))
  * "The Open Source Contributor Funnel" ([post](https://mikemcquaid.com/2018/08/14/the-open-source-contributor-funnel-why-people-dont-contribute-to-your-open-source-project/), [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsOZpF6LFcw), [slides](http://mikemcquaid.com/talks/the-open-source-contributor-funnel/))
* [@mlavin](https://github.com/mlavin), [Django](https://github.com/django/django)
  * "Maintaining Your Sanity While Maintaining Your Open Source App" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgWFTrXn0_U))
* [@mpdehaan](https://github.com/mpdehaan), [Ansible](https://github.com/ansible/ansible), [SourceOptics](https://bitbucket.org/laserllama/sourceoptics/src/master/)
  * "Michael DeHaan on creating [Ansible](/@harrisonqian/awesome/wiki/miscellaneous/ansible) and SourceOptics" ([interview](https://www.sourcesort.com/interview/michael-dehaan-on-creating-ansible-and-sourceoptics))
* [@mxcl](https://github.com/mxcl), [Homebrew](https://github.com/Homebrew)
  * "Making Homebrew: The Genesis and Growth of a Global Open Source Project" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q81q0LilL1s))
* [@nathanmarz](https://github.com/nathanmarz), [Apache Storm](https://github.com/apache/storm)
  * "History of Apache Storm and lessons learned" ([post](http://nathanmarz.com/blog/history-of-apache-storm-and-lessons-learned.html))
* [@nolanlawson](https://github.com/nolanlawson), [PouchDB](https://github.com/pouchdb/pouchdb)
  * "What it feels like to be an open-source maintainer" ([post](https://nolanlawson.com/2017/03/05/what-it-feels-like-to-be-an-open-source-maintainer/))
* [@pgbovine](https://github.com/pgbovine), [Python Tutor](https://github.com/pgbovine/OnlinePythonTutor)
  * "[Python](/@harrisonqian/awesome/wiki/programming-languages/python) Tutor Software Development Philosophy" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVtXLdBRfyE))
  * "Ten years and nearly ten million users: my experience being a solo maintainer of open-source software in academia" ([post](http://pgbovine.net/python-tutor-ten-years.htm))
* [@Schneems](https://github.com/Schneems), [Sprockets](https://github.com/rails/sprockets), [CodeTriage](https://www.codetriage.com)
  * "Saving Sprockets - What happens when a maintainer leaves" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxaE8yblHPk), [post with transcript](https://www.schneems.com/2016/05/31/saving-sprockets.html))
* [@sebmck](https://github.com/sebmck), [Babel](https://github.com/babel/babel)
  * "~2015 in review" ([post](https://medium.com/@sebmck/2015-in-review-51ac7035e272))
* [@Seldaek](https://github.com/Seldaek), [Composer](https://github.com/composer/composer)
  * "Behind the Scenes of Maintaining an Open Source Project" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ci_I0ATr748))
* [@sindresorhus](https://github.com/sindresorhus), [AVA](https://github.com/avajs/ava), [awesome](https://github.com/sindresorhus/awesome)
  * "Between the Wires: An interview with open source developer Sindre Sorhus" ([interview](https://medium.freecodecamp.org/sindre-sorhus-8426c0ed785d))
* [@steveklabnik](https://github.com/steveklabnik), [Ruby on Rails](https://github.com/rails/rails)
  * "How to be an open source gardener" ([post](http://words.steveklabnik.com/how-to-be-an-open-source-gardener))
* [@stewartsmith](https://github.com/stewartsmith), [Skiboot](https://github.com/open-power/skiboot)
  * "Organizational Change: Challenges in shipping open source firmware" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JngZkC-TVHc))
* [@stuarthalloway](https://github.com/stuarthalloway), [Clojure](https://github.com/clojure/clojure)
  * "Stewardship Made Practical" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sEOXNmzv4g))
* [@tbrisker](https://github.com/tbrisker), [Foreman](https://github.com/theforeman/foreman)
  * "On maintaining Foreman" ([video](https://vimeo.com/276832413))
* [@tgamblin](https://github.com/tgamblin), [Spack](https://github.com/spack/spack)
  * "Open Source and Supercomputers (Spack)" ([interview](https://changelog.com/rfc/13))
* [@timgraham](https://github.com/timgraham), [Django](https://www.djangoproject.com/)
  * "Maintainer Stories: Tim Graham" ([interview](https://github.com/open-source/stories/timgraham))
* [@Trott](https://github.com/Trott), [slug](https://github.com/Trott/slug)
  * "Slugging It Out In Open Source" ([audio](https://soundcloud.com/rich-trott/slugging-it-out-in-open-source), [transcript](https://medium.com/@Trott/slugging-it-out-in-open-source-a62f554b6e2))
* [@vjeux](https://github.com/vjeux), [React Native](https://github.com/facebook/react-native), [Prettier](https://github.com/prettier/prettier)
  * "Being Successful at Open Source" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRF0OVQL9Nw))
* [@withoutboats](https://github.com/withoutboats), [Rust](https://github.com/rust-lang)
  * "Organizational Debt" ([post](https://boats.gitlab.io/blog/post/rust-2019/))
* [@yyx990803](https://github.com/yyx990803), [Vue.js](https://github.com/vuejs)
  * "Crowdfunding Open Source (Vue.js)" ([interview](https://changelog.com/rfc/12))
  * "Maintainer Stories: Evan You" ([interview](https://github.com/open-source/stories/yyx990803))
  * "The Journey to Full Time Open Source" ([video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXjA1aIM35E))

## Contributing

Additional suggestions are welcomed! Check out [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) for guidelines.

(NOTE: If you're a maintainer listed on here who would like to be removed, just open an issue or email me privately.)

## License and attribution
This list is available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 License, meaning you are free to use it for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial, without any attribution back to me (public domain). (If you ever want to reference me, find me here! [@nayafia](http://twitter.com/nayafia) But you are in no way required to do so.)