Open Source Cowboy Consulting

Pioneering Open Source Frontiers

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  • Decentralization: The Antidote to Major Internet Outages

    In the last few years, the internet has suffered a series of high-profile outages that felt less like random glitches and more like structural warnings. From content delivery networks to hyperscale clouds to endpoint security platforms, the pattern is the same: a single point of failure inside a centralized provider can disrupt entire industries. This…

  • Navigating Contribution Pathways in Open Source Projects

    Every successful open source project depends on people who care enough to contribute, learn, and grow. But for newcomers, that first step can feel uncertain. How do you go from someone who is curious to someone who shapes the project’s direction? The answer lies in contribution pathways—clear routes that guide people from their first contribution…

  • Forks, Fences, and Freedom: When to Open-Source Your Code (and When Not To)

    Open source still feels like the wild frontier, a place where code runs free and communities rally behind big ideas.But every founder eventually hits that fork in the trail: “Do I open-source this… or keep it behind the fence?” That question isn’t about ethics. It’s about design, your business design.Answer it wrong, and you can…

  • Lessons from the SVB Collapse: Building Resilient Systems in Web3 and Open Source

    The 2023 SVB Collapse: A Wake-Up Call in Finance In March 2023, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) – a cornerstone financial institution for tech startups – collapsed virtually overnight. Within 48 hours, a panic run on deposits drained the bank of liquidity. Over $42 billion was withdrawn in a single day, leaving SVB with a negative…

  • 🪶 What It Really Means to Be a Steward of a Web3 Open Source Ecosystem

    When people talk about Web3 governance or decentralized ecosystems, they often point to DAOs, foundations, or “the community” as the stewards of the network. But real stewardship isn’t about control — it’s about care. A steward in an open-source ecosystem doesn’t dictate outcomes. They ensure the environment stays healthy enough for others to build, contribute,…

  • The npm Attacks of 2025: How Supply Chain Compromises Shook Open Source

    A series of supply chain attacks in September 2025 compromised widely used npm packages, including “chalk,” “debug,” and others, sending shockwaves through the JavaScript community. These incidents highlighted vulnerabilities in maintainer accounts and the broader ecosystem. Phishing the Gatekeepers – How the Initial Attack Unfolded On September 8, 2025, one of the largest npm supply…

  • Cardano’s New Government Era: Time to Govern Like a Digital Nation

    Voltaire isn’t on the horizon anymore—it’s here. Cardano has entered its government era and completed its first treasury budget round. That milestone closes the chapter on “just building” and opens a more demanding one: governing. The question is no longer whether we can vote, but whether we can run a digital nation with clarity, discipline,…

  • Open Source Sustainability in Web3: Challenges, Mechanisms, and Case Studies

    Introduction Open source software underpins most of today’s digital infrastructure, yet sustaining open source development remains a persistent challenge. Web3—the blockchain-based, decentralized web—promised new solutions for this problem, bringing abundant funding and novel incentive models. Ironically, despite large capital flows in the crypto ecosystem, the sustainability of open source projects in Web3 is still underdeveloped.…

  • Decentralized Open Source Program Offices (dOSPOs) in Blockchain Ecosystems

    Open source software development has historically been guided and supported by Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs) inside large technology companies. An OSPO coordinates an organization’s open-source strategy, ensures license compliance, manages contributions, and engages with the broader community. These traditional OSPOs are centralized entities within a corporation: they report to company leadership and align open-source…

  • Modding: Gaming’s Untapped Open-Source Frontier

    I’ve been thinking a lot about how video game modding communities resemble open-source software projects—and why this might be one of the most underrated opportunities in tech and gaming. If you’ve ever installed a user-made patch or custom quest in Skyrim, you’ve experienced the power of community-driven innovation firsthand. Players tinkering in their spare time…