Speaker
Description
What if open source is not about collaborating to create code, but a tool against asymmetry?
This talk draws from Diversifying Open Source: An Open Standards Playbook for Inclusive and Equitable Tech Projects, as a kind of mirror, one that invites us to reflect on the systems we build and the values we embed within them. It's less about ticking the diversity box, and more about raising awareness: of how power flows, who gets heard, and who gets left out—not by accident, but by design.
This talk is about responsibility. It’s about realizing that the technologies we create don’t just do things, they shape things. They shape communities, access, power, and identities. Every governance decision, every line of code, every project norm carries a ripple effect, often reaching far beyond what we imagined. And when those decisions are made without the voices of those most affected, we risk building systems that quietly replicate exclusion, even in projects that call themselves “open.”
By drawing on intersectionality theory, critical race studies, and real-world examples, we’ll explore how open standards, when crafted with care, can become tools of equity. Not rigid rules, but “gentle enforcement”: communication patterns, governance models, and accountability mechanisms that help communities grow in more just and inclusive directions.
Open source is to me a powerful force, a tool against asymmetry. But that requires intention and consciousness about the wrong it has also been replicating. Because yes, our code affects people, ecosystems, infrastructure, and futures.
This keynote invites you to build with more than efficiency in mind. To build with awareness. And to ask: what kind of world is your project making possible, and for whom?
