Steering Through Open Source Waters with Madelyn Olson

Screaming in the Cloud

This episode features Madelyn Olson, maintainer for the open-source project Valkey, to discuss the growth and impact of open-source projects in the tech industry. Corey and Madelyn explore the transformations within these projects, particularly the challenges and shifts in governance and licensing practices that affect how companies like AWS contribute to and utilize open-source software. Furthermore, Madelyn shares insights into the motivations behind Valkey, its differentiation from Redis, and the broader implications for open-source sustainability and corporate involvement.

Show Highlights:

(00:00) Introduction and discussion on AWS's approach to open-source

(01:41) Recap of the Redis controversy and licensing changes

(02:35) Madelyn's role at AWS and her work on ElastiCache and MemoryDB

(04:11) The enduring relevance and importance of open source in solving global technology problems

(06:15) The freedoms of open source and the broad implications for software development

(08:19) The evolution of governance and project management in the Valkey project

(09:53) The full transition of Madelyn's efforts from Redis to Valkey

(17:27) Why Valkey was created and its future direction

(24:57) The separation of duties between Madelyn's roles at AWS and the Valkey project

(32:34) Closing thoughts and where to find more information on Valkey

About Madelyn:

Madelyn Olson is a co-creator and maintainer of Valkey, a high-performance kev-value data store and Principal Engineer at Amazon Web Services (AWS). She focuses on building secure and highly reliable features, with a passion for working with open-source communities.

Links Referenced:

Website: https://valkey.io/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/madelyn-olson-valkey/

GitHub: https://github.com/madolson

Twitter: https://x.com/reconditerose

*Sponsor

Panoptica: https://www.panoptica.app/