Ahmed Nadar

November 10, 2025

Who owns Open Source? (This Gets Controversial)

Part 2 of my conversation with Greg Molnar of The Expert Bench podcast just dropped, and it tackles one of the most controversial questions in open source:

Who owns the code?
We dove into the Ruby Central governance situation, and Greg didn't hold back:
"The source code is not owned by anyone. But who owns that GitHub organization?"

His answer surprised me: "I don't think democracy works well in this sense."
Why? Because how do you even define who gets to vote on project direction?

We also covered:
  • Why ALL his work comes from conference connections (not cold emails)
  • How face-to-face communication beats online every time
  • His security mindset approach to AI
  • Rails community growth in Europe vs. North America
  • The reality of stage fright (even for experienced speakers)

This episode is packed with controversial takes, honest insights and fun moments you won't hear elsewhere.

Best, Ahmed

P.S. - What's your take on open source governance? Hit reply - I read every response.

About Ahmed Nadar

Ruby on Rails enthusiast at heart. I run RapidRails agency focus on Rails development & UI stack. Maker of RapidRails UI component for Ruby on Rails.
Find me on Twitter – @ahmednadar