I didn’t know it at the time, but my appreciation for open-source began as young kid learning how to ride a skateboard in Florida. Skate culture was all about learning out loud and sharing tips and ideas on executing new tricks. A collaborative community based on sharing and pushing each other to go bigger, faster, more technical.

Like my skating experience, my HR/Talent career was largely built on the generosity of mentors, peers, and friends who invested in me and allowed me to learn from them. That experience cemented a deep passion for giving back to the field that’s given me so much. It led me to create and curate and range of open-source projects and initiatives like the ones below.

Open-Source Projects I’ve Built

Featured

HR Open Source

HR Open Source is an initiative I co-founded in 2014 with my friend, Ambrosia Vertesi. The aim of HROS was to accelerate the spread of progressive practices in HR and recruiting by creating a global community of practitioners willing to “work out loud” and share their work. The community has grown to over 9,000+ practitioners in over 100 countries. In 2019 we introduced a new operating board that now drives the community management and growth.

Coronavirus HR Communications & Resources Guide

In the early days of COVID-19, I knew that we’d be experiencing a seismic shift that would turn dramatically impact the world of work. I built this open-source Google Doc and leverages my network to curate resources and templates on how companies were responding to the crisis, news, information, and aggregating external resources including layoff lists, resources for home schooling, and more.

Reimagining Work Idea Board

This open-source idea board was created to solicit thoughts on how and where we might reimagine work in our current COVID-19 world. Not just today, but over the next 3–5 years and longer. The aim is to crowdsource ideas that can spark conversations and plans as people and business leaders adjust their operations to our current times.

Amplify Black Voices in HR

This doc open-source doc was launched to help editorial leaders/publishers and event organizers diversify their contributors with more Black voices and perspectives and ensure there’s better representation in what we read and see in the industry. It’s an opt-in collection of Black writers and speakers in HR, people ops, talent, and recruiting — both established and aspiring - grouped by role and experience and includes bios and links to make it easy for editorial and event organizers to identify new contributors.

Other Open-Source Projects, Resources, and Communities I Love ❤️

The beauty of the open-source movement in HR is that it’s global and growing. What began as a niche approach has broadened to a much larger phenomena of grass-roots conferences, resources, tools, platforms, and more. These are some I keep an eye on for my own learning. If you have any great platforms, communities, or resources I should check hit, email me and let me know.

Resources

Google re:Work
Better Wiki - a curated directory of people ops tools, templates, and practices
Resources for Education on Racial Justice - a robust collection of racial equity resources shared by FirstMark Capital portfolio companies
Homebrew Guides - A collection of HR resources and templates from this seed stage VC.
Almanac People Ops Templates - open-sourced docs and templates
Atlassian Team Playbook - self-guided workshops to support teams
GitLab Remote Work Resource - a collection of distributed work templates, tools, and resources
Workable Resources - A collection of free templates, resources, and toolkits

Community/Conferences/Events:

Hacking HR (Global)
DisruptHR (Global)
DBR - The largest recruiting community in London (UK)
Talent Brand Alliance - Talent & Employer Brand community (U.S.)
Recruiting Brainfood - The best weekly newsletter in talent that’s grown to a global community. Curated by Hung Lee.