Building the next generation of Postgres contributors: what’s working & what’s getting in the way
Friday, October 02 · 14:30–15:20
How do we build the next generation of Postgres contributors, and what’s getting in the way?
The Postgres open source project celebrates 30 years in 2026. That’s a huge milestone, and also a good moment to think about the future. Because unlike commercial companies, open source projects don’t have legions of recruiters—and yet they still depend on a steady stream of new contributors.
This talk is an update to one I gave earlier this year on the Main Track at FOSDEM, about building the next generation of open source contributors. In that talk, we looked at the Postgres project through three lenses: the soul, the machine, and the fuel.
- The Soul is the human ecosystem, the community, the culture of Postgres
- The Machine is the workflows, tooling, decision-making, & governance
- The Fuel is the economics & funding that underpin the open source project
If you depend on Postgres—and want it to be thriving a decade from now—this talk will give you a clearer picture of what’s working, where we have more work to do, and how you can have real impact on the future of the project.
