Christian Taylor

I am retiring now for a bit from Cardano as mentioned prior, and wanted to ensure I pass on my last gift to the ecosystem. This is a culmination of lots of research and peer vetting by top tier veterans of the Web 2 and 3 space, as is proper Cardano development, from the LFDT, Apache, Hedera, Ethereum, RedHat, and more. Use it as yall see fit :)

Subtle but meaningful life update: I just concluded a meeting with the @lfdecentralized Technical Advisory Committee to potentially sponsor and help curate a new lab called: Open Source Frontiers. This lab is being established as a neutral ground under LF Decentralized Trust to steward open source sustainability best practices across Web3. Its purpose is to develop the architecture, reference papers, white papers, pilot programs, and implementation artifacts ecosystems needed to better support open source development and long-term maintenance. Its areas of focus will include sustainability and maintenance models, decentralized governance design, contributor incentives and funding flows, lifecycle management, portfolio stewardship, and cross-ecosystem interoperability. This builds on ideas I have been developing through the Open Maintenance Framework, the d(OSPO) concept, Cardano’s own Paid Open Source Model, and other emerging efforts across the space. The broader goal is to create a credible, neutral venue where L1s, EVM ecosystems, and other open infrastructure communities can come together to shape practical approaches to open source sustainability. A quiet step, but an important one. docs.google.com/presentation/d…

I woke up today reflecting on the people I’ve worked with over the years; the managers, teammates, and mentors who helped shape my journey. Not every work environment makes it easy to speak freely, take risks, or grow with confidence. Sometimes you learn when to stay quiet, when to push forward, and how to navigate difficult situations. But along the way, there are a few people who leave a lasting mark on how you lead and who you become. As I step into a new chapter this year, I want to give credit to a few of those people. Johnny Nguyen was the first person who really saw my potential beyond just being a project manager. He gave me confidence to trust my judgment, act more independently, and step into bigger responsibilities. That belief helped shape my path from the moment I joined IOHK. @NC_IntersectMBO is someone I’ll always respect for the way he showed up for his team. He’s ambitious, steady, and deeply supportive. One thing I’ll never forget is when I first started at Intersect and only received half a paycheck due to delays; Nick personally wrote me a check out of his own pocket to help cover the gap. I paid him back later, but that kind of leadership and care stays with you. Patrick Sheridan came into my journey under unusual circumstances; we were both kind of thrown into helping stand up an open-source initiative in Cardano from the ground floor. I was in India at the time, and Patrick was there helping shape the earliest parts of that strategy. Since then, he’s been a mentor and someone I’ve learned a lot from across entrepreneurship, business, accelerator programs, and open source. And then there’s @LozClark01, who has been a constant for the past five years. From consulting days through IOHK and Intersect, he’s been someone I could always count on. I joke that he’s my “work dad,” but honestly, that’s not far off. He’s been a steady hand, a sounding board, and someone who’s helped me through more than a few difficult moments. Careers are shaped by people, not just titles or roles. I’m grateful for the ones who helped shape mine. There are more but LinkedIn has character limits to how much I can add in here; but a few more of these folks are Nigel Hemsley, @khstandrews, @KrisKowalsky, Silona Bonewald, Danese Cooper, Addie Cobb, Georg Link, PhD, Michael Peyton Jones, @germoroney, Bogdan Coman, Hart Montgomery, Diane Mueller, @JBriggsLondon, Simo Simović, Tamara J.N. Haasen, @adamKDean , @ADAFrog_Pool, @therealdisasm, @pedrolucasnet, @andamioseb and Gheorghe Aurel Pacurar. And as I move forward, I carry a lot of what these three have given me. Grateful for the journey; and for the people who helped shape it. Thank you for being a part of my journey!

Excited to share I'm joining @FilFoundation as a Governance Program Specialist! I get to be working on "Constellation" again but new ecosystem and get to join Michael Madoff on this journey once again🤠

@DeOpenSourceGuy Learn to enjoy Cardano governance then...

Failure literally everywhere in governance, government shutdown last year due to CC resignation, utterly refused to add an 8th seat, and no one wants to reduce it to 5, ecosystem already stopped all funding resources, OSC is being asked to close some of their budget items too per latest session recording on YouTube. Literally where is the faith in this system? I left the institutions over ethical concerns and so far it seems I wasn’t wrong, but seems the immature structures are more widespread and only parties to blame is our own lack of collaboration and ability to disagree on literally everything. Can we please collaborate and fight with each other next year when we’re relevant in the bigger picture again? The below is still very accurate: x.com/DeOpenSourceGu…

@WarTimeRook Automation doesn't necessarily equal decentralization, just like bureaucracy doesn't necessarily equal centralization either, both bring synergy, I would not go one way or the other fully, with liability on the line for every decision we take.

@DeOpenSourceGuy Then it isn't decentralized, far from it

@MladenLm opensourcecowboy.org/publications-2/ It's yours feel free to get involved as you see fit to use t :)

@DeOpenSourceGuy Where to learn more about it and how do we get involved?

Tomorrow I’ll be releasing my final piece for a while so I can focus fully on my current engagements. It’s called the Open Maintenance Framework; inspired by the ideas behind the POSM, but generalized into a portable framework that other ecosystems can adapt to their own needs. The d(OSPO) is the who, the OMF is the how; meant to work together can be individualized in a way.

@WarTimeRook Rather do this experiment all over again then full on automation. There are areas it will solve but managing human governance is not a whole sell for it.

@DeOpenSourceGuy What if it was all...automated. but naw, then we couldn't play cardano caste system

@WarTimeRook I was on both sides of the aisles; there is no winning sides.... unless no progress is the independent party, they seem to win a lot

@DeOpenSourceGuy This is absolutely ridiculous. You guys created a disgusting form of partial off-chain congress and get mad when you're not the ones at the top. How is playing lords vs peasants working out for you? Did you end up on the wrong side?

I am retiring now for a bit from Cardano as mentioned prior, and wanted to ensure I pass on my last gift to the ecosystem. This is a culmination of lots of research and peer vetting by top tier veterans of the Web 2 and 3 space, as is proper Cardano development, from the LFDT, Apache, Hedera, Ethereum, RedHat, and more. Use it as yall see fit :)

Over the last decade I’ve been involved in open source both directly and indirectly. But the last five years in particular have been a deep learning journey around one persistent challenge: open source sustainability, especially inside Web3 ecosystems and their funding structures. Blockchains are built on open source software. Yet outside of infrastructure costs and the core protocol, we rarely have clear answers for what sustains the broader ecosystem—SDKs, APIs, tooling, and the many projects developers rely on every day. After years of observing, experimenting, and learning from peers across the open source and Web3 communities, I’ve tried to compile what I’ve learned into something practical. The result is two complementary ideas: • The decentralized OSPO d(OSPO) — a concept for who coordinates open source sustainability in decentralized ecosystems. (opensourcecowboy.org/wp-content/upl…) • The Open Maintenance Framework (OMF) — a framework for how open source maintenance can actually be operationalized. (opensourcecowboy.org/wp-content/upl…) OMF is designed to be adaptable. It offers guiding philosophies, operational methodologies, practical considerations, and existing models that ecosystems can adapt or build upon. The goal isn’t to prescribe a single solution, but to give builders something tangible they can use to start addressing a fundamental issue. Because if Web3 ecosystems want to mature, we need to move beyond simply saying we value open source by ethos. We need structures that actually support the maintainers, projects, and community ladders that make these ecosystems work. This framework is my attempt to give something back to the community; a collection of lessons learned and insights from many contributors and peers who helped shape this thinking along the way. I hope others take it, adapt it, and build something even better. Special thank you to my peers on this one. opensourcecowboy.org/publications-2/

@AdamRusch Think I'll drop this here: x.com/DeOpenSourceGu…

A poll for Cardano DReps and Ada Holders. Would you like to see see a larger number of independent developers funded through the Budget Framework? Or would you rather see more umbrella organizations? (i.e. The Pentad, CB DAO, Catalyst, etc...) The framework can handle both!

Cardano is a Cardano day to Cardano on Cardano