# What a Healthy Relationship with Open Source Looks Like ft. GitLab's John Coghlan | Dev Interrupted Powered by LinearB

> John Coghlan, Senior Manager of Developer Advocacy at GitLab, discusses the importance of open source contribution & how to get started.

[Podcast](https://linearb.io/dev-interrupted/podcasts)

/

What a Healthy Relationship with Open Source Looks Like ft. GitLab's John Coghlan

# What a Healthy Relationship with Open Source Looks Like ft. GitLab's John Coghlan

By John Coghlan

|

July 8, 2022

![John_Coghlan_Podcast_Card_f016679bb7](https://assets.linearb.io/image/upload/c_limit,w_2560/f_auto/q_auto/v1/John_Coghlan_Podcast_Card_f016679bb7?_a=BAVMn6ID0)

There’s an open secret about open source: Developers use it. Teams use it. Businesses use it. But no one really thinks about how they contribute to it.

That’s why we jumped at the chance to get a state-of-open-source discussion with Gitlab’s John Coghlan, Senior Manager of Developer Advocacy.

Someone who joined the open source community with the goal of making developers’ lives better, John came to the table with a wealth of insights into just how individual engineers leverage open source, how businesses leverage it and, most importantly, how to make our relationship with open source better - not just for you and me, but for the community as a whole.

We hope you find this candid conversation on how to be thinking about using open source in the right ways as empowering and insightful as we did!

### Episode Highlights Include:

* (1:18) From Wall Street to GitLab
* (5:02) Dev Relations? Dev Advocacy? What are we?
* (7:57) John's start in open source
* (14:00) How to start contributing to open source
* (23:44) Open source contribution makes teams happier
* (28:12) How open source has benefited GitLab

## Real conversations with top engineering leaders

Find us on

[](https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/dev-interrupted/)
[](https://devinterrupted.substack.com/)

## Your next listen

[![Cover image for Rebuilding CLIs for agents, it’s time to get MCP-certified, and why human code review will never catch up](https://assets.linearb.io/image/upload/c_limit,w_2560/f_auto/q_auto/v1/agentic_cli_tools_mcp_certification_code_review_23be877e85?_a=BAVMn6ID0)](https://linearb.io/dev-interrupted/podcast/linux-foundation-mcp-certification-agentic-loops-pull-request-bottleneck)

Dev Interrupted

[Rebuilding CLIs for agents, it’s time to get MCP-certified, and why human code review will never catch up](https://linearb.io/dev-interrupted/podcast/linux-foundation-mcp-certification-agentic-loops-pull-request-bottleneck)

This week on the Friday Deploy, Ben and Andrew break down the Linux Foundation's new MCP certification and the fundamental mechanics of agentic loops. Discover...

[![Cover image for How to see in the dark factory | LaunchDarkly's Cameron Etezadi](https://assets.linearb.io/image/upload/c_limit,w_2560/f_auto/q_auto/v1/Blog_Comprehensive_DORA_Guide_2400x1256_66_6f6a37357d?_a=BAVMn6ID0)](https://linearb.io/dev-interrupted/podcast/launchdarkly-cameron-etezadi-dark-factory-agent-runtime-frameworks)

Dev Interrupted

[How to see in the dark factory | LaunchDarkly's Cameron Etezadi](https://linearb.io/dev-interrupted/podcast/launchdarkly-cameron-etezadi-dark-factory-agent-runtime-frameworks)

LaunchDarkly CTO Cameron Etezadi joins the show to discuss why the traditional "two-pizza" engineering team is dead. Discover how runtime agent frameworks and...

[![Cover image for How to cultivate expertise with local models, delegating to subagents, and we all really stopped reading, huh?](https://assets.linearb.io/image/upload/c_limit,w_2560/f_auto/q_auto/v1/local_ai_expertise_subagents_delegation_strategies_616640e057?_a=BAVMn6ID0)](https://linearb.io/dev-interrupted/podcast/open-source-glm-models-local-ai-coding-protecting-first-brain)

Dev Interrupted

[How to cultivate expertise with local models, delegating to subagents, and we all really stopped reading, huh?](https://linearb.io/dev-interrupted/podcast/open-source-glm-models-local-ai-coding-protecting-first-brain)

This week on the Friday Deploy, Ben and Andrew break down the rise of highly capable open-source models like GLM 5.2 and the reality of running local AI for...