A Multi-Campus Survey of Open Source Contributors at the University of California
329 | Sat 02 Aug 4:30 p.m.–5:15 p.m.
Presented by
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Virginia's early career consisted of original research in plant biology related to biofuels, and she received her PhD in plant biology from the University of California (UC) Berkeley in 2022. Towards the end of graduate school, her interest in open science led her to shift her focus from biological research to research support. From 2022-2024, she was the Open Data Specialist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia research campus, where she advised researchers on data management, and was the primary author of a strategic report on the institute's data management strategies. In February 2024, she became the Open Source Programs Specialist at the UC Santa Barbara Library. In this role, she is conducting discovery work for the UC OSPO Network Project, an initiative funded by the Alfred P. Sloan foundation to expand open source support services at the University of California.
Abstract
Once considered a radical experiment, open source is now ubiquitous in the modern technology landscape, and appears to be here to stay. In the technology industry, the Open Source Program Office (OSPO) is a common way to centralize a company’s open source strategy, knowledge, and diligence. Meanwhile, OSPOs are just beginning to take root in academia. This shift reflects the increased recognition by universities and other organizations that academic open source contributions are valuable, numerous, and worth sustaining. While guidance for university OSPOs is emerging, many questions remain about how academic support staff and their partners can best support their university’s strategic priorities and their community’s needs.
The University of California (UC) OSPO Network is a groundbreaking project to establish a highly collaborative network of OSPOs at UC campuses. We in the UC OSPO Network are working to develop infrastructure for open source education, discovery, and sustainability at UC by pooling our resources and knowledge. To develop our strategic priorities and to assess the state of UC open source, we conducted a survey in April 2025 of more than 180 UC-affiliated open source contributors. This survey reveals common challenges faced by open source contributors, as well as potential remedies to those challenges. In addition to soliciting contributor perspectives, the survey also solicited contributors’ GitHub usernames, which we are now using to analyze UC open source repositories and their characteristics. Our survey will inform other UC OSPO network projects, promote community among open source enthusiasts at UC, and serve as a template that other universities may draw from. This study will shed light on how and why academics contribute to open source projects, as well as some of the barriers that might be holding them back.
Once considered a radical experiment, open source is now ubiquitous in the modern technology landscape, and appears to be here to stay. In the technology industry, the Open Source Program Office (OSPO) is a common way to centralize a company’s open source strategy, knowledge, and diligence. Meanwhile, OSPOs are just beginning to take root in academia. This shift reflects the increased recognition by universities and other organizations that academic open source contributions are valuable, numerous, and worth sustaining. While guidance for university OSPOs is emerging, many questions remain about how academic support staff and their partners can best support their university’s strategic priorities and their community’s needs. The University of California (UC) OSPO Network is a groundbreaking project to establish a highly collaborative network of OSPOs at UC campuses. We in the UC OSPO Network are working to develop infrastructure for open source education, discovery, and sustainability at UC by pooling our resources and knowledge. To develop our strategic priorities and to assess the state of UC open source, we conducted a survey in April 2025 of more than 180 UC-affiliated open source contributors. This survey reveals common challenges faced by open source contributors, as well as potential remedies to those challenges. In addition to soliciting contributor perspectives, the survey also solicited contributors’ GitHub usernames, which we are now using to analyze UC open source repositories and their characteristics. Our survey will inform other UC OSPO network projects, promote community among open source enthusiasts at UC, and serve as a template that other universities may draw from. This study will shed light on how and why academics contribute to open source projects, as well as some of the barriers that might be holding them back.