Dr. Dawn Foster

Finished my family tech support good deed for my Ohio vacation. My parents had been sharing an Apple account - 1 account and 2 phones, which means that they randomly got text messages via iMessage intended for the other. I finally got them separated into their own accounts.

Fun thing about visiting my parents is seeing them wearing T-shirts that I’ve given them over the years for tech from days gone by .. MeeGo, Sun era OpenOffice, and Pivotal.

So far today:
1) I ran 3 miles
2) I walked 2.5 miles with mom
3) I’m on vacation

I think I deserved those potato chips and dip that I just had for my late breakfast. Don’t worry, I also had some watermelon to make it healthy. 😂

Bicolor sweet corn on a white plate with berries and flowers around the edge.

Enjoying a few days in Ohio with sweet corn for dinner every evening. Yesterday we had it with Thai slaw and tofu with peanut sauce, and tonight it was with pad Thai. I’ve also had delicious watermelon margaritas, puzzles, and quality time with friends. 💖

The second blog post in my series about governance talks about documenting your existing project governance, starting with something simple, and a few key elements that should be included in your governance docs. I hope you enjoy it! fastwonderblog.com/2025/08/03/g...

That's how you can tell human authors from AI.

AI will put in some em dashes, then apologise and take them out when told off.

Human authors will climb the filing cabinet, hissing, and defend their right to em dashes with a loaded stapler.

If you're at #fossy, my talk about power dynamics, relicensing, and forks starts at 11:45 in the Science of Community room (333), and even if you aren't here, you can still have a look at the slides: fastwonderblog.com/wp-content/u... #fossy2025

I love it! 💖

I really enjoyed the #fossy keynote this am where they talked about defining governance as like a prenup where you need to specify what happens if things go wrong. This analogy aligns really well with how I talked about governance in a recent blog post: fastwonderblog.com/2025/07/29/g... #fossy2025

2 CHAOSS circle logo earrings. CHAOSS logo and CHAOTIC stickers

I’m here at #fossy and have a few CHAOSS earrings and stickers. Find me if you’d like some. With my bright purple hair, I’m not hard to find 😂 #fossy2025

I wrote a short blog post about why open source project governance is important, and it's the first in a series about governance! Being proactive about governance before something escalates into a crisis can make your projects more sustainable and reliable.

fastwonderblog.com/2025/07/29/g...

And you share a bday with my mom!!! Happy birthday! 🎂🎉

If it makes you feel any better, I once cut my lip while flossing my teeth 🤣🤪

I feel like this is one of the “joys” of getting older. Why are you limping? Oh, I stood up wrong yesterday 🤣

Social media event card for the Digital Resilience Forum. 300+ attendees, October 29th, Madrid Spain. Let's address the growing need for technology independence through diverse and resilient digital ecosystems. Register Now.

Join me at the Digital Resilience Forum in Madrid on October 29. It's a great opportunity to talk about different approaches to digital sovereignty from across the EU, UK, & beyond + how OSS fits into these approaches! Register now to get the early bird rate of €100.00 at digitalresilienceforum.com

We just launched a CHAOSS Practitioner Guide about Demonstrating Organizational Value. A huge thank you to @mrbobbytabl.es, since his presentations were the inspiration for the guide and they were the starting point for the content in the guide. fastwonderblog.com/2025/07/22/d...

For those of you waiting patiently for some 'Porcupine eating a slice of banana' content in order to get your week off to the perfect start, your patience is about to be rewarded.......

Ocean Gromit covered in sea shells on the left. Paul & Dawn in the middle with big grins. Shaun the sheep with bright colors on the right. Aardman studios in the background.

Martini with 6 nocellara olives on a metal stick topped with a blue and white beach umbrella and a gecko wine charm on the stem.

Paul and I had a fun weekend in Bristol! We used the Gromit statues as an excuse to explore various parts of Bristol. We also saw 2 Banksys and had delicious food and cocktails. Now we’re back at home relaxing with happy hour martinis.

Nominate yourself or a colleague in the OpenUK Awards 2025 Open Data category sponsored by @odihq.bsky.social 💫 openuk.uk/awards Shortlist September #opendata #openukawards #opensource 🏆🌟

Traditional pathways into open source don’t work for everyone, and we need to expand our contributor pipelines beyond the usual audiences if we want to have more sustainable open source projects where everyone can feel comfortable participating. #OSSummit

fastwonderblog.com/2025/07/14/f...

2 margaritas on either side of a drink accessory box wine charms, cocktail sticks, and 3D printed stick toppers. The left margarita has a palm tree topper and unicorn wine charm. The right has an owl bear topper and dragon charm.

Homemade melon margaritas with a tajin rim on a warm afternoon!

I have the same one and I love it! One thing that isn’t obvious in the docs is that this model builds up too much heat, so opening the door, especially when doing larger prints, can help avoid issues like nozzle clogs. Have fun!!

If you’re having a bad day, here’s a cute bunny eating...

Is your organization joining the excitement at KubeCon? Explore the opportunity to sponsor the CNCF Maintainers' Summit, a gathering of 300+ project maintainers and contributors. Check out more details on page 16 here: https://cncf.io/sponsor

A Mallard duckling swimming through water lilies This is a fuzzy brown duckling with a yellow head, a dark cap of feathers, a dark eye stripe and a dark brown bill.

May I offer you a small duck in these trying times?

My favorite event of the year! Don't forget to nominate some amazing UK individuals, projects, and organizations across our 9 categories of awards!

I was on a panel with @georglink.bsky.social, Alyssa Wright, and @andrewnez.bsky.social at #OSSummit on the impact of funding for sustainable OSS projects. I wrote a little blog post on the topic to go along with the video from our panel. I hope you enjoy it! fastwonderblog.com/2025/07/08/t...

YouTube video by Tech With Anita Ihuman Open Source in Data Science: A Data Scientist’s Guide to Open Source

I really enjoyed doing this interview with Anita Ihuman as part of her #OpenSourceDiaries series of video podcasts! She's also done some other great interviews, so you should check out her YouTube channel for others in this series: www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQLA...

Dawn with a big smile on the House of Commons Terrace with the London eye and the Thames in the background.

I got to hang out at the House of Commons in Parliament this evening! I had a great time at the OpenUK launch for our most recent AI Openness update report “From Agentic to Public Good in 2025”!

Visit openuk.uk/stateofopen/... to read the full report!

I’ve read all of the books and was skeptical about the tv series, but it’s been amazing! 💖