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# Open Source Is Not Just Code: Designing Communities That Actually Scale


- **Date:** Friday, Jul 10, 2026
- **Time:** 09:40–10:10 (30 min)
- **Room:** Stage 3 - powered by AWS
- **Event:** World Congress 2026 Europe

## Recording

[Watch recording](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100204-open-source-is-not-just-code-designing-communities-that-actually-scale)

## Description

Open source projects rarely fail because of bad code. They fail because the social system around the code does not scale. Contribution paths are unclear, expectations are implicit, and a small group of maintainers quietly absorbs all the pressure until burnout hits.

This talk reframes open source as a socio-technical system, where community design decisions are as important as technical ones. Drawing from real-world examples, we’ll look at how governance, contributor experience, and local communities influence long-term sustainability. Instead of abstract ideals, this session focuses on practical trade-offs: what to optimize for early, what to delay, and which “best practices” often backfire at scale.

The goal is to give developers and community builders a clearer mental model for why some projects thrive while others slowly decay, and what they can realistically influence without becoming full-time maintainers.

## Speaker

### [Sinduri Guntupalli](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/@sinduri-guntupalli)

Sr Developer Programs Engineer at Dynatrace


## Related talks at this congress

- [Vendor Neutral by Design: Building Healthy Open Source Ecosystems with Diverse Stakeholders](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe/sessions/1018-vendor-neutral-by) — Hendrik Ebbers
- [Microfrontends: Lessons Learned from Growing a Design System and Shared Libraries Across 20+ teams](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe/sessions/1160-microfrontends) — Erasmo Hernandez
- [Five Ways to Break Silos in Your Engineering Organization](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe/sessions/1153-five-ways-to-break) — Daniel Schniepp
- [Why Distributed Teams Lose Momentum – Even When Everyone Means Well](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe/sessions/1276-why-distributed) — Franziska Höhne