For the last several months, I've been incredibly busy. With our former executive director's departure, I've picked up extra work supporting the board and staff, especially in preparing for RubyConf.
Two years ago, when I stepped into this role, I started by observing where we stood as operators of RubyGems. A few gaps jumped out at me: lack of governance, no formal policies, and thin internal documentation. These weren't just nice to haves; I flagged them as critical from the start. What I didn't see yet was that they were also the backbone of a strong software foundation. That realization led me to a bigger question: what would it take to close the gaps standing between us and becoming one?
Learning from other ecosystems
Fortunately, this role introduced me to peers from other ecosystems, including Python, Rust, and JavaScript, among others. There were working groups that met regularly to discuss these kinds of topics. This was unexpected and a major boost. I could talk to people who had already traveled this path, share my challenges, hear their perspectives, and pull in their hard-won expertise. The more conversations I had, the more I realized how much further we had to go.
Sustainability became the focus
In the fall of 2024, one of my first conclusions was that we weren't sustainable. In our State of RubyGems talk at RubyConf that year, I named sustainability as one of our pillars. It became my focus because this mission-critical service has to be sustainable. For years, it had relied purely on volunteers and conference revenue, and it’s not reasonable to expect either of those to hold up over time. Since 2022, generous donations and grants have brought in all-time highs in financial support, but that funding was based on one-time grants. This brings us no closer to having recurring revenue to cover the cost of operating RubyGems.
What’s coming next?
Now that RubyConf 2026 is behind us, more of my attention is going toward defining what it actually means for Ruby Central to become a software foundation. My peers across other ecosystems are already helping to guide that thinking, though every ecosystem is different, so there's no version of this we can simply copy.
Which brings us to today. Later in September, I'll be in Nova Scotia for the Open Source Congress, an invite-only event for leaders across the open source ecosystem. I'll be on a panel about sustainability in open source, sharing what we’ve done to move our package registry toward a sustainable model. I’m excited to talk shop with so many experts in the field, and to see what I can bring back to Ruby Central.
I'm still exploring what this means for Ruby Central. Though I don't have the details yet, it will be a shift for our organization. We have a lot of work to do, but Ruby's package ecosystem needs it, and it's work we're eager to take on. We'll come back with more concrete thoughts about what this means after I return from the Open Source Congress and after we have a little more time internally to work through everything.