The following is the community report for SustainAfrica 2023 by Open Source Community Africa, which occurred in Lagos, Nigeria, on 16th June 2023. The Sustain Summit is a one-day conversation for open-source software (OSS) sustainers where we talk about Sustainability—the sustainability of resources and people. The conversation around the comprehensive overview of how FOSS (free and open source software) is developed, maintained, and utilized and providing a roadmap for solving the cultural, financial, and institutional issues among open-source project maintainers continues to be the focus of Sustain. The program enables deeper collaborations and learnings across participants' networks and collectively improves their skills, strategies, and impact in their respective OSS efforts. You can read the reports from previous years if interested.
A picture of the happy attendees of Sustain Africa 2023 :).
Quick Statistics
The event lasted about 3 hours and 30 minutes and the agenda was structured as collaborative, dialogue-based, outcome-oriented working sessions rather than presentations or lecture formats. This year, we had seven (7) working groups with an introduction of a new working group compared to previous years, including:
Open Source Software Development
Open Source Documentation
Open Source Design
Open Source Data Science
Open Source Marketing and Funding
Open Source Programs and Specialized Projects
Open Source Burnout and Mental Health
We had a diverse attendance in terms of gender and work status. 120 persons registered, and 74 were in attendance, including, Data Analysts, Program Managers, Technical Writers, Product Designers, Software Engineers, Developer Advocates, and Community Managers who are active OSS maintainers, contributors, or funders. The sustain event is invite-only as the goal is to gather experts in the industry and host conversations around the challenges and possible solutions to specific issues for each working group. In the end, we then shared the output of the sessions with the entire community, which is the goal of this report.
Here are a few charts with summaries of the important statistics:
Kindly use the link below to find all the beautiful Sustain Africa 2023 event pictures in the "DAY 0 (Sustain Africa)" album.
Sessions Overview
As always, our overall goals at Sustain Africa are to:
Map and compare visions for the long-term health of free and open software communities around the globe, connecting those who are passionate about these topics and supporting deeper ongoing collaboration and shared practice.
Frame and workshop concrete sustainability needs and challenges, applying and prototyping strategies and practices that provide ongoing support and leadership in sustainability practices.
Document models, strategies, and approaches to the sustainability of OSS projects and work toward a more sustainable future for OSS.
Address the “hard conversations” tied to sustainability, including appropriate practices for companies participating in free and open communities and new developments in licensing and reuse.
Each working group had twelve (12) participants, one (1) note taker, and one (1) facilitator per session, with seven (7) rounds for each group in total. The table below describes all the working groups.
| WORKING GROUP | DESCRIPTION |
| Open Source Software Development | How can we make the software code of open-source projects sustainable, and how can we improve/sustain the process involved with writing, testing, releasing, deploying, scaling, and maintaining the code? |
| Open Source Documentation | Who writes, uses, and updates the docs? What do sustainable-first docs look like? How can we write better ones? |
| Open Source Design | How can we make open source design and user experience sustainable, too? What does sustainability mean for code-adjacent territories? |
| Open Source Data Science | How can we make open source data science and machine learning sustainable, too? What does sustainability mean for data engineering territories? |
| Open Source Marketing and Funding | What is open-source marketing? How do we market open-source projects? How much money goes into open-source? Do you really need funding? What do you need funding for? Where to find funding? How to manage funds? What are the existing strategies? Do's and don'ts? |
| Open Source Programs and Specialized Projects | GSOC, GSOD, Outreachy, Hactoberfest, etc., as a way of increasing contributions. How does sustainability relate to academic and specialized projects with different needs and users? |
| Open Source Burnout and Mental Health | How do we take good care of our body while actively contributing to and maintaining OSS? Where do we draw the line? What challenges do open-source creators face? Useful strategies and health tips. |
Session Notes
The event was hosted by Bolaji Ayodeji and started with a friendly and fast-paced kickoff that included welcome words from the host, overviews of the agenda, participation guidelines, meeting logistics, and brief participant introductions. The rounds of sessions then proceeded with the start of the discussions designed to explore the latest practices and learnings around sustainability in the different working groups. In the end, notes from each group were collected, participants summarized key outcomes from the event, and we discussed inventory action items, next steps, and post-event collaboration.
The sections below summarize the output and notes from the seven working groups.
Open Source Software Development
This working group was facilitated by Idris Olubisi. The goal was to get everyone talking and answer questions like “How can we make the software code of open-source projects sustainable, and how can we improve/sustain the process involved with writing, testing, releasing, deploying, scaling, and maintaining the code?”.
Participants first evaluated notable projects (with some built by Africans) as case studies, including Danfo.js, Novu, Datasist, Linux Foundation projects, Byfrost, DI Project, Latex, The Peer, NextCloud, etc. Next, the discussion revolved around how contributors can get hired to work on OSS full-time and how open-source project-focused community initiatives like the Kano’s All for Tech Initiative are essential.
Participants shared their thoughts on the challenges faced in maintaining and contributing to OSS, some of which include:
Low reward and time consumption (since maintaining or contributing to an open-source project is mostly unpaid work).
The difficulty in getting a paid gig or full-time role as an OSS contributor; it takes time, luck, and effort. Just a few companies are hiring full or part-time contributors.
The following solutions and general tips were discussed:
Contributing to open-source projects might get you a job and help you build a profile that leads to your dream job.
Contributing to some OSS projects requires a certain level of knowledge you might not have, which is considered a knowledge gap. You must then skill up before contributing (use the project as a motivation/means to learn something new if related to your career path) or contribute to areas of the projects with lower technical requirements (e.g., documentation, resources, ideas, suggestions, etc.).
Always read the contribution guidelines, use the issue/PR templates, and communicate well when submitting pull requests.
Contributors should send cold emails to the maintainers of OSS projects they’d love to work for, highlighting their skills and proposed added value. Projects with the budget could consider hiring on a freelance, part, or full-time basis.
FOSSFox is doing a great job in collating jobs from numerous OSS startups. You should consider exploring the platform if you’re looking for a path here.
Maintainers should consider monetizing your project with a commercial plan different from the free one. The revenue from this is a way to incentivize maintainers/contributors and running project costs.
Open source is nothing without marketing. Maintainers and project owners need to put their projects out there. This involves investing in proper digital marketing through dedicated contributors or learning the skills if you have the time.
Maintainers should engage in community outreach and awareness strategies (either through social media, relevant Discord servers, developer forums, etc.) to get more contributors.
No one will use your product without knowing how to use it. Ensure to prioritize documentation at all phases of your project.
The next steps include experimenting and implementing the proposed tips and solutions as an individual, community, team, or company. Also, ensure to join the #sustain-africa and #software channels in the OSCA Discord Server to continue the conversation and collaboration.
Open Source Documentation
This working group was facilitated by Linda Ikechukwu. The goal was to get everyone talking and answer questions like “Who writes, uses, and updates the docs? What do sustainable-first docs look like?, and How can we write better ones?”.
Participants first evaluated some notable projects (with some built by Africans) as case studies, including Chakra UI, Nextjs, Django, MindsDB, Datadog, PostHog, Paystack, Stripe, CHAOSS, Prisma, Supabase, Airbyte, Slack, etc. Next, they shared their thoughts on the best documentation they’ve come across, what made the documentation pleasant, the worst documentation they’ve come across, what made the experience terrible, and suggestions projects can adopt to make their documentation better.
According to the participants, here’s what makes bad technical documentation:
Usage of jargon (special words or expressions used by a profession or group that are difficult for others to understand). This can be confusing for beginners unfamiliar with a piece of terminology.
Poor documentation structure. This makes it challenging to navigate and find information in a document.
Ambiguous and bulky documentation pages with so much information. This usually overwhelms readers.
Broken documentation search experiences. This usually does not yield valuable results.
According to the participants, here's what makes good technical documentation:
To make content more accessible to beginners, avoid jargon whenever possible. If you must, it's helpful to explain any technical terms or acronyms you use.
Conduct UX research or friction testing periodically for your entire documentation.
Your documentation should be structured according to learning or knowledge stages.
The homepage of documentation should follow a structured format with sections that answer the following questions:
What is this product (answering the questions' What, Why, Where, How')?
How can this help the reader?
Where can the reader go for each/different task/solution/problem?
The method above provides a clear and concise way of organizing information for the reader. It allows them to understand the documentation and how it can help them.
Content should be written in the second-person voice, directly addressing the reader as "you", creating a more personal connection between the reader and the text.
Documentation should include a functional search bar to enable easier findability. With the rise of generative AI, it has become even easier to improve the search experience in documentation by allowing the reader to ask a question. The AI agent will then scan your documentation and return a semantic answer with clickable references. Different documentation platforms and frameworks support this now.
Refrain from over-relying on text content. For technical documentation involving code, ensure that you provide code snippets that can be modified and tested within the documentation so the reader can preview the data/results.
Include cookbooks, demo applications, video content, infographics, etc., where necessary.
Document common errors and roadblocks.
The following general tips were discussed:
If you’re starting out or looking to grow, explore the following projects:
The Good Docs Project: a collection of best practice templates and writing instructions for documenting open-source software.
Diátaxis: a systematic approach to technical documentation authoring. This system has been adopted successfully in hundreds of documentation projects across the world.
Ensure you prioritize team coordination in your processes.
Update the code snippets, code examples, or sections of all parts of your documentation as changes (especially breaking changes) are introduced in the software. For code snippets, invest in automated docs update systems where possible (especially for API-based projects with API references based on some schema).
People who build projects should not be the ones to document them because of the curse of knowledge. If they do, it usually results in docs that are not beginner-friendly or user accessible.
Differentiate which community inquiry is dynamic (temporary) and static (permanent) information. Temporary questions are those that people keep asking (across social or community platforms like Discord). Put those in an FAQ section so people can engage and update what works for them.
Use the exact questions people ask as section headers in this FAQ document, as this makes for better SEO.
The next steps include experimenting and implementing the proposed tips and solutions as an individual, community, team, or company. Also, ensure to join the #sustain-africa and #documentation channels in the OSCA Discord Server to continue the conversation and collaboration.
Open Source Design
This working group was facilitated by Steve Anthony. The goal was to get everyone talking and answer questions like “How can we make open-source design and user experience sustainable? What does sustainability mean for code-adjacent territories?”.
Participants shared their thoughts on the definition of design in open source. According to their responses, open-source design involves providing value using design principles to solve problems. Usually, this will include collaborating with multiple persons and solving problems. Alternatively, it is a creative process where designers come together to work towards a project and create the design source files that will be accessible publicly. This includes processes and workflows, UI/UX research and design, and graphics design.
According to the participants, one of the biggest challenges that make it difficult for designers to contribute to open source is the need for more documentation specifically for designers. It's unclear if and how designers can contribute to specific OSS projects, and the project owners are to blame. The following general tips were also discussed:
Explore Open Source Design, a community of designers and developers pushing for more open design processes and improving open-source software's user experience and interface design. Here, you'll find articles, the job board, events, resources, etc., targeted at developers and designers interested in working and designing in Open Source.
Contributors should understand the projects you want to work on so you can propose ideas and collaborate more effectively and efficiently.
Contributors should have the mindset of solving problems with passion.
Maintainers should make design contributions available and properly document how you want designers to collaborate and contribute to your project.
Create more awareness and advertise how designers can improve your project internally and externally with clear and actionable getting-started instructions.
Advocate and promote proactiveness and community idea skill exchange. This involves introducing techniques that will enable contributors to effectively communicate and share ideas with others in a community group setting.
Give designers enough recognition or validation through reward or recognition systems to help them build their careers.
Give helpful feedback and legitimate opportunities for your contributors to practice and develop their skills.
The next steps include experimenting and implementing the proposed tips and solutions as an individual, community, team, or company. Also, ensure to join the #sustain-africa and #design channels in the OSCA Discord Server to continue the conversation and collaboration.
Open Source Data Science
This working group was facilitated by Gift Ojeabulu. The goal was to get everyone talking and answer questions like “How can we make open source data science and machine learning sustainable, too? What does sustainability mean for data engineering territories?”.
Over the years, the role of data science and adjacent data industries in open source has been rising despite the low projects and contribution rate compared to others. Participants shared their thoughts on how open source in the data space is not only applicable to software code but could be:
Curating and building datasets and uploading them to platforms like Kaggle, DagsHub, Huggingface, or GitHub through web scraping, etc.
Writing or contributing to machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) research papers, publishing research papers on ResearchGate, arXiv, etc., and submitting papers at conferences like Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (EMNLP), International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV), Neural Information Processing Systems (NeuRIPS), etc.
The traditional way of contributing to open-source data, AI, and ML software tools on GitHub (e.g., Danfo.js, Datasist, DVC, HuggingChat (LLM), etc.).
According to the participants, here's how to sustain OSS Data Science and encourage more open-source contributions and activity in the data and AI spaces here in Africa, starting from Nigeria:
Education and Community Building: Organize workshops, local meetups, conferences, and hackathons to introduce open-source data science tools and projects and foster a sense of community. These hands-on sessions can help participants gain practical experience, provide networking opportunities, and offer a platform for sharing knowledge.
Active Online Forums and Groups: Create or promote online forums and groups where data practitioners can discuss projects, seek help, and collaborate. Platforms like Discord, GitHub, and dedicated Slack channels can facilitate this communication.
Open Data Initiatives: Support and contribute to open data initiatives and platforms. This will encourage the release of datasets that can stimulate interest and provide real-world problems for the community to work on using platforms like Kaggle and Zindi. Also, we should invest in organizing data challenges or competitions to engage data scientists in solving practical problems using open-source tools.
Infrastructure Support: We should partner and collaborate with cloud service providers like Nvidia, AWS, Azure (Microsoft), and GCP (Google) to offer credits or resources to data projects. This will reduce barriers to entry for contributors and maintainers who may need access to high-performance computing resources. You can look at our awesome-open-source collection (the "Infrastructure Support" section) to find some companies that offer free credits for open-source projects (we will keep updating as we find more).
Mentorship Programs: Create mentorship programs to connect experienced data practitioners with newcomers. Mentorship can help individuals navigate the open-source landscape and contribute effectively.
Industry Partnerships: Foster collaborations with industry players who have a vested interest in data science, ML, and AI, like Outreachy, Google Summer of Code, Hacktoberfest, Advent of Code, etc. These players may provide support, resources, or project ideas for open-source initiatives.
Clear Documentation and Accessibility: Ensure that the documentation for your open-source projects is clear and accessible. This makes it easier for new contributors to get started and make meaningful contributions.
Multilingual Support: Consider providing documentation and resources in local African languages to enhance accessibility and reduce the barrier of entry for potential non-English speaking contributors.
Government Support: Advocate for policies that support open-source initiatives and data science education. Government support can be crucial in creating an environment conducive to open-source development.
The next steps include experimenting and implementing the proposed tips and solutions as an individual, community, team, or company. Also, ensure to join the #sustain-africa and #data channels in the OSCA Discord Server to continue the conversation and collaboration.
Open Source Marketing and Funding
This working group was facilitated by Regina Nkenchor. The goal was to get everyone talking and answer questions like “What is open source marketing? How do we market open-source projects? How much money goes into open source? Do you really need funding? What do you need funding for? Where to find funding? How to manage funds? What are the existing strategies? Do's and don'ts?”.
Participants shared their thoughts on how owners of OSS projects can sell their projects and attract both users and funders using some existing projects (specifically those built from Africa e.g., Convoy (YC W22)) as case studies. For example, some open-source companies (e.g., MongoDB, Supabase, HashiCorp, AppSmith, Cal, etc.) have attained incredible valuations. Over the years, we have seen similar but smaller projects rising to become companies, getting backers (financial sponsorships), generating MRR (monthly recurring revenue) from sales, joining Y Combinator, raising funds, etc. How can we keep this going and have more Africans participate?
According to the participants, here's how to sustain OSS Marketing and Funding:
Take some entry-level marketing courses to learn the basics of digital and business marketing (copywriting, branding, SEO/SEM, social media, digital communication, public relations, etc.). This will enable you to utilize your existing skill sets or pick up new ones that will be useful in selling your project. No one will use your project if you don't show them why they should.
Ensure you figure out the best licensing for your project from the inception to prevent further issues, especially if you will eventually commercialize your project. You can read this guide to learn about all the OSI (Open Source Initiative) approved licences or use this platform to choose which is best for your project by answering some prompts.
If you're interested, kindly read this guide to learn more about the legal side of open source.
Create the avenue for monetization as you grow the project. We recommend you set up a GitHub Sponsors account for sponsorships only and Open Collective for both sponsorship and finance/expenses management.
If you want to commercialize your OSS project, look for good examples of existing projects generating some revenue and see the models they're using. You can also look at this curated list of monetization approaches for OSS.
We need to create more educational opportunities to train OSS maintainers on how to generate revenue from their projects (this becomes a mix of FOSS–Free Open Source Software and COSS—Commercial Open Source Software). At Open Source Community Africa, we will work on creating more of this in the coming months to aid community members.
Increase dependency-based freemium. A freemium model is a business model where you offer a basic version of your product for free and then charge for additional features, benefits, or services. This is typically the route many OSS projects go.
If you're already generating revenue and have premium (paid) users, ensure you are adding new features for them.
Companies and individuals that use different OSS projects should give back through financial sponsorships (grants or donations). There are so many ways to do this now, either through Open Collective, GitHub Sponsors, etc.
Upfront investment can help projects to scale and remain sustainable. OSS Capital is doing an excellent job on this currently, and it would be great to have more African projects grow enough to reach this funding phase. If you project is grown enough to become a startup, you can also apply to OSS Capital's COSS acceleration program (Git Round) or even YC.
Ensure you build a reliable project. One of the significant issues with some OSS projects is that they need to work better (UX or features-wise), like their proprietary counterparts, which leads to misconceptions that FOSS projects should not be trusted. Build a solid project that is usable and reliable enough for a user to want to use it and pay for it.
Marketing is an iterative process. There is no perfect solution, so learn from the best and keep adjusting till you find the ideal mix.
The next steps include experimenting and implementing the proposed tips and solutions as an individual, community, team, or company. Also, ensure to join the #sustain-africa channel in the OSCA Discord Server to continue the conversation and collaboration.
Open Source Programs and Specialized Projects
This working group was facilitated by Brian Douglas. The goal was to get everyone talking and try to answer questions like “GSOC, GSOD, Outreachy, Hacktoberfest, etc., as a way of increasing contributions. How does sustainability relate to academic and specialized projects with different needs and users?”.
Participants shared their thoughts on how most existing programs focus more on developers than designers and other fields. They considered what authentic participation in different contexts/organizations looks like and, more importantly, how we can drive this authentic participation forward.
According to the participants, here's how to sustain OSS Programs and Specialized Projects:
Explore Open Sauced, an intelligence platform for OSS contributors and maintainers. With OpenSauced, OSS maintainers can get actionable insights into their team's contributions, contributors can expand their resumes through open-source contributions, and companies hiring can discover the best talents doing open-source.
Explore all the existing efforts and programs of the OSI (Open Source Initiative) to protect the open source ecosystem. The OSI helps build a world where all can enjoy the freedoms and opportunities of open source software by supporting institutions and individuals working together to create communities of practice in which the healthy open source ecosystem thrives.
Projects should begin monetization or seek funding. This will enable them to invest money into growing different aspects or programs of the project.
Follow your national authority and ensure your project and program don't violate national regulations. If possible, get support and partnerships from the relevant national bodies of your country to grow your project. Several countries have existing bodies to support impactful research and OSS work that solves social problems.
For example, The Digital Public Goods Alliance (United Nations-endorsed) now exists in partnership with GitHub, OSI, Unicef, etc, to facilitate the discovery and deployment of open-source technologies, bringing together countries and organizations to create a thriving global ecosystem for digital public goods (projects that have high potential for addressing critical development needs and urgent global challenges and help to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs)). The goal is to make such projects discoverable, sustainably managed, and accessible for government institutions and other relevant implementing organizations.
Communities like Open Source Community Africa and She Code Africa should invest in organizing "Contributhon" activities for Africans that will support different technical fields to contribute to OSS projects related to their expertise/interests. This will help decentralize the results of existing OSS programs since this will be demographic-focused and help specialized projects get more users and contributors.
Open Source Community Africa has hosted an Open Source Challenge in the past. We will improve and continue the program in the coming months, in addition to more hackathon activities at the yearly Open Source Festival.
Just like was discussed in the marketing and funding group, OSS projects should invest in marketing. This will aid awareness, user/contributor acquisition, and funding.
Invest in getting your project to trend on GitHub, if possible. This might be a vanity growth metric, but it could be helpful to get more visibility, users, and contributors. This will include activities like ensuring your project is well documented on GitHub (well structured and beautiful to behold), finding ways to share the project on developer forums/newsletters/social media to garner attention and possible acquisitions, and asking friends/existing organic users to help you do the same.
If you're running an OSS program for your project, find someone (with more expertise) who can champion the program more than you. This will enable you to focus on other things and support the new person, leading to all-round success.
Terrible onboarding and a complicated user experience are usually a recipe for OSS project failure. Invest in reducing the barrier of entry (e.g., using effective contributing guides, good first issues, effective support channels, etc.) and ensure your project has a good user experience.
Contribute to the growth of yourself and your team members and ensure you expand your team as the project grows. The more hands on deck, the more results.
Prioritize diversity and inclusion (DEI) in your team and community.
Kind feedback makes people feel like their contributions are valid.
Always ask questions, even the stupid ones.
The next steps include experimenting and implementing the proposed tips and solutions as an individual, community, team, or company. Also, ensure to join the #sustain-africa channel in the OSCA Discord Server to continue the conversation and collaboration.
Open Source Burnout and Mental Health
This working group was facilitated by Ruth Ikegah and Ada Oyom. The goal was to get everyone talking and answer questions like “How do we take good care of our body while actively contributing and maintaining? Where do we draw the line? What challenges do open-source creators face? Useful strategies and health tips”.
Participants shared their thoughts on a reflection of the past at a time when they were doing well in their project; what went well, and what were you doing at that point that made it well? According to the participants, you’re beginning to experience burnout when you experience the following for a prolonged amount of time:
According to the participants, here’s how to sustain OSS Burnout and Mental Health:
Strive to bring in more people to aid the development of a project. This will ensure the work is delegated across multiple persons, reducing the chances of burnout.
Always remember that it’s okay not to be okay.
Encourage members of your team to be vulnerable.
Practice an open and accessible leadership system.
Contributors and maintainers can engage in the following activities to curb burnout:
In cases where burnout results from being overwhelmed by expectations/deliverables, planning, scheduling, and writing things down helps. Write journals to reduce stress and depression.
Find new hobbies aside from your 9 - 5 work activities.
Exercise, go to the gym, or engage in physical activities.
Talk about how you’re feeling to someone. This could be your friend or a therapist. Ensure you’re seeking help.
Always pause and process how you’re feeling.
Be kind to yourself and others.
Reflect on what is best for yourself before committing to new work.
Ensure to set working hours for all projects and activities you’re committed to.
Know your limits and take breaks.
Don’t feel bad about saying no.
Avoid toxic work cultures. Usually, these are places where the over-demand for respect and the entitlement mentality exists.
Check out Jono Bacon 12 stages of Burnout—a practical guide for avoiding burnout and living a happier life.
The next steps include experimenting and implementing the proposed tips and solutions as an individual, community, team, or company. Also, ensure to join the #sustain-africa channel in the OSCA Discord Server to continue the conversation and collaboration.
OSCA x Sustain Podcast Series
At OSCA, our goal is to grow and sustain the open-source ecosystem in Africa. One of the ways we do this is to showcase the fantastic work people are doing in Africa to drive more support and awareness. We partnered with our friends at the global Sustain OSS Podcast with Richard Liiauer for a special suite of Sustain x OSCA Podcast episodes which you can listen to below:
Summary and Conclusion
Perfection isn’t the best way to build open-source projects; let's keep learning and iterating. We hope you have learned something new you can apply to your project from this report. We look forward to you continuing the conversation in your respective projects/companies and implementing the ideas shared. At Open Source Community Africa, we commit to helping Africans thrive in the open-source ecosystem as maintainers and contributors. We will continue working with community members, OSS maintainers, stakeholders, community leaders, sponsors, and companies across Africa to ensure we sustain the projects rising from Africa.
Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment below to let us know what you think. Also, join our Discord Server if you haven’t yet. Cheers!
