Help us celebrate this week’s CHAOTIC of the Week-- Gary White!
A little about Gary:
I’m Gary! I care about emojis, my dog, my wife, combustion engines, and Open Source Software. I’ve been working with OSS and how they fit into Cloud technology particularly since I started my career at EMC. I grew up in the Northeast part of the US, particularly New Hampshire and settled near Boston. I’m one of those people with a million fall decorations around my house all the time, you can find a pumpkin spice latte in frame in almost every video call.
What Gary does at CHAOSS:
I try to attend as many meetings as I can make that have to do with data collection and how to use data within an OSPO. I’ve been working in OSPO’s long enough now that I’m trying to think more about how we can use data to drive decision making for ourselves and for the organizations that host an OSPO. Specifically: I’ve spent the last few months thinking about Viability. I have a whole metrics (super) model that is pending a blog post and some publications on the site to be fully realized. This work has led me to be the co-chair of the OSPO WG for how many times I’ve been around participating in discussions. Come on by and let me talk your ear off!
Gary’s advice to newcomers to open source:
Consider what open source you use, and what open source contributions are worth making.
I think it’s very common for folks to jump into really big projects first, and get overwhelmed. Usually 2-3 dependencies within some of the largest projects in the world could benefit from a bit more TLC, but they don’t get as much attention. They’re just as important, the big projects can’t work without them 
Likewise, don’t simply google “python library for doing this thing” and use the first name that comes up. Consider if the project is deliberately maintained, if it’s abandoned, and use your best judgement on if a particular project is worth staking the integrity of your new project on. It’s very unlikely that you’ll be taking time to gut a bad dependency – technical debt is almost never prioritized
Special thanks from Elizabeth and the CHAOSS Community:
Gary came to CHAOSS a few months ago and immediately began contributing and participating in several of the CHAOSS meetings. His experience and insight, specifically with regard to OSPOs and OSS Sustainability, laid the foundation for the creation of our first “mega metrics model” (which is still in progress, but will be an amazing resource for people when it is released)! Gary also began facilitating the OSPO Context Working Group without hesitation, when asked. He has contributed so much to CHAOSS in his relatively short time here. We are thoroughly grateful for all the time he’s spent with us and what he’s brought to our community! Thank you so much, Gary! We are glad you’re here! 
If you’d like to connect with Gary, you can find him on LinkedIn.
