Dawn Foster
Open Source Strategy Consultant
Stony Stratford, England, United Kingdom
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolDawn Foster is an open source strategy consultant and community leader with two decades of experience helping companies like VMware, Intel and Puppet shape contributor programs, governance, and community health. She currently directs the CHAOSS data science initiative and serves on the CHAOSS Governing Board and OpenUK board, bringing rigorous metrics and research-driven approaches to community strategy. Dawn’s background ranges from UNIX system administration to executive roles, and her PhD research examined collaboration in the Linux kernel—fueling a rare combination of academic insight and hands-on industry practice. She has led corporate open source programs, co-chaired the CNCF Contributor Strategy TAG, and delivered over 100 invited talks at major conferences. Beyond strategy, she authors the Fast Wonder Blog on online communities and balances technical leadership with a passion for running, science fiction, and world travel.
11 years of coding experience
14 years of employment as a software developer
MBA Executive Management, MBA Executive Management at Ashland UniversityDoctor of Philosophy - PhD, Doctor of Philosophy - PhD at University of GreenwichBS Computer Science, BS Computer Science at Kent State University
Github Skills (200)
github10
mechanics10
infrastructure10
dx10
governance10
microservices10
monitoring10
unix10
software-design10
faas10
listings10
linux10
populate10
data-visualization10
git10
Programming languages (16)
Github contributions (5)
geekygirldawn/project-api-metrics
Jan 2022 - Oct 2022
Python scripts that query the GitHub API to gather metrics related to project health and other activities.
Contributions:75 commits, 1 PR, 58 pushes in 8 months
gather-metricsapiquerypythonhealth
chaoss/wg-data-science
Aug 2023 - Mar 2025
CHAOSS Data Science Working Group: collaborate and improve open source project health using data science-based approaches
Contributions:1 release, 11 reviews, 136 PRs in 1 year 7 months
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