Finite Source Machines: Contribution for Busy Humans

A presentation at All Things Open in October 2025 in Raleigh, NC, USA by Brian Muenzenmeyer

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Finite Source Machines Contribution for Busy Humans Brian Muenzemeyer — ATO 13 2025

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PRINCIPAL ENGINEER LEADER, OPEN SOURCE PROGRAM OFFICE @brianmuenzenmeyer.com @bmuenzenmeyer @me

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Finite Source Machines Contribution for Busy Humans Brian Muenzemeyer — ATO 13 2025

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$9 ,000,000,000,00 0 demand-side value of open source software

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Randal Munroe xkcd.com/2347 Adam Leventhal mastodon.social/@ahl/112243122623783002

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CRITICAL FRAGILE

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Prado Islesworth Hermitage

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Islesworth Raphael Louvre Prado Hermitage

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Leonardo Da Vinci

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Jack of All Trades

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“Renaissance Man”

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Polymath

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Busy

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Simone Viani | unsplash

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Celebrate Your Skillset

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Celebrate Your Skillset… And I Donʼt Mean This!

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Celebrate Your Skillset… In All Its Range

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Work… In a

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Play a role Tobias and the Angel The Baptism of Christ

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Example: End of Life Feature Development

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Detour: Data Integrity Analysis and Entry

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More examples: Tackle the tasks that interest you Dependency Update Testing Internationalization

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Example: Information Architecture Exploration

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Figma Breakdown

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Figma Breakdown…to Content Inventory…

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Figma Breakdown…to Content Inventory…to Issue

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Observe Relentlessly

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The typo as psoterchild of entry

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Triage, corroborate, and help others

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Practice

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Online coding options lower barrier to entry https://codepen.io/ksenia-k/pen/xxoqXbJ

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Entire environments in your browser Codespaces

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REPLs to see before install Read, Eval, Print, Loop)

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Come Up For Air

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Bring New to Conversation

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❌❌❌ Passive Voice

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Context and Recommendation

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Recommendation and Solution

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Stop Building Contribution Ladders

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Art is Work

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Open Source is Work

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You Don’t Need Permission

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Find a Patron Worthy of You

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Poly • math

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Poly • math Sym • math •

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● innovation can be quick / creators have agency to explore ● competition puts pressure on established systems to improve ● maintainers craving momentum and stability have space and time to cultivate ● layers exist for anyone to contribute within their means

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Thanks! @brianmuenzenmeyer.com @bmuenzenmeyer @me