Why Open Source? While successful from a technical or business perspective, on the human side of things, the promise of the Open Source Software community has gone unfulfilled. Open Source culture, left to grow untended, has been co-opted, diluted, and leaves too many individuals behind. It is a garden in need of tending, with too few gardeners available—we want to change that.

Why Feelings? Writing software can be emotionally difficult. Some of us talk about it with others, but many of us don’t, or aren’t encouraged to share. We need to be sharing our struggles, however, as we are the most natural support for each other. Being supportive and using this support takes practice and it takes intention.