CHAOSScon Africa 2025 Recap

CHAOSScon Africa was held for the second time in Lagos, Nigeria, on the 13th of August 2025, and it brought together 110+ participants from Zambia, Togo, Kenya, Nigeria, and the US, with the first-ever panel on Inclusion for People with Disabilities in the open source ecosystem in Africa, making it our most inclusive edition yet.

If you’re new to the CHAOSS community and the CHAOSScon gatherings, here is a quick introduction:

CHAOSScon provides a venue for discussing open source project health, CHAOSS updates, use cases, and hands-on workshops for developers, community managers, project managers, and anyone interested in measuring open source project health. In the past, these gatherings have been held in North America, Europe, and Africa.

BTS: Our Planning Process

Every great event is driven by the strength of its community, and CHAOSScon Africa 2025 was no different. This year, we reimagined how we planned by embracing a truly open source approach to organizing.

Instead of the traditional ‘closed-off’ planning model, we moved our work to a GitHub Project board. When I proposed the idea, I focused not just on the platform but on embodying the values of openness, transparency, and collaboration – values defined in section 5 of the project’s charter.

Here’s what it meant for us:

• Openness at every step. Anyone, whether on the committee or outside, could see our plans, updates, and decisions as they unfolded.
• Accountability. Contributors had clear responsibilities, making it easier to know who was working on what.
• Progress we could track. From big milestones to small tasks, nothing got lost. We could actually see the work done in real time.
• The spirit of community. More than just managing logistics, the process reflected the essence of open source: working together, in the open, for the benefit of all.

Session Highlight

With an expanded lineup, CHAOSScon Africa 2025 delivered more sessions than in the previous edition, including our first-ever panel – a milestone for the African open source ecosystem. While every session offered valuable insights, here are a few I’d like to spotlight in this piece.

1. Metrics and the Business of Open Source by Brian Proffitt – It is true that the value of communities in open source has long been recognized, but in that light, some businesses hesitate to engage fully without a clear business benefit. How does community work in open source translate to business? In this keynote, Brian explained ways Red Hat is attempting to do that. He went on to share what licenses are and their role in the business value of open source. He also highlighted the challenges of open source business models, some strategies, the role of community health metrics, and so much more.
2. Open, but Not Accessible: Redefining Inclusion for People with Disabilities in Open Source, moderated by Victoria Ottah -This panel discussion centers on the critical need to include people with disabilities (PWDs) in open source projects and communities, emphasizing proactive accessibility and genuine inclusion rather than mere accommodation. The panel had representation of people with disabilities and advocates in accessibility and disability inclusion, who shared their personal experiences, challenges, and strategies for making open source more inclusive by not seeing people with disabilities as an afterthought.
3. My Journey into Open Source and Why You Belong Here Too by Eunice Eze – When you first encountered open source, did you think it was only for coders and the elite? In this talk, Eunice, a proactive design contributor at the CHAOSS Project, walks us through her journey of becoming an open source contributor as a designer, and six months later, she joins us onstage at CHAOSScon Africa 2025 to share exactly how she started and why you belong here, too.
4. Accessibility = Consideration by Precious Onyewuchi – Accessibility is more than compliance—it is a deliberate act of consideration that ensures products, services, and environments are usable by all people, regardless of ability. Precious in her talk re-frames accessibility not just as a set of technical requirements for people with disabilities, but as a mindset of consideration for all.
5. Outsourcing AI Data Annotation and ML with Open Source Tools by Blessing Akanle – Did you know that data annotation is critical to the development of AI and that open source tools have a role to play in that, too? Blessing, in her talk, highlighted what data annotation is, broke down the phases of AI training, the benefits of open source tools in developing AI models, and, most importantly, why ethics and responsible AI are non-negotiable.

You can access all session recordings on our YouTube channel here: Link to YouTube Playlist.

Impact in Numbers

This year’s CHAOSScon Africa made some significant strides. We experienced doing things for the ‘first time,’ and it was quite the experience. Honestly, numbers don’t tell the whole story, but you can see through them the intent and impact of organizers.

Firsts that Mattered

• The first time we used GitHub Projects for planning.
• The first time we had a panel on inclusion for people with disabilities, with a representation of people living with disabilities and advocates alike.

Community at Scale

• 110+ people joined us from Kenya, the USA, Zambia, Togo, and the host country, Nigeria, marking the most diverse CHAOSScon Africa yet.
• 16 speakers, workshop facilitators, and panelists shared their expertise, bridging the gap between community, inclusion, metrics, and data.
• Our online reach extended to 95,465 impressions of tweets on X (formerly Twitter), with a 4.90% follower increase.
• The CHAOSS community attracted new members during and after the conference, showing their commitment to further engage with the community.

Contributions in Action

• 20+ volunteers and contributors supported the planning and execution.
• 36 GitHub issues and tasks were tracked openly in a GitHub Project board, ensuring accountability and transparency; 33 issues were marked as done, and 3 were undone.
• 15+ new contributors joined the CHAOSS community through the event.
• A Silver Badge from the CHAOSS Event Badging Initiative.

For a complete breakdown of the metrics and detailed insights on CHAOSScon Africa, you can explore the full report presentation.

Sponsor, Partner, and Contributor Appreciation

Big appreciation to Red Hat for their sponsorship at CHAOSScon Africa 2025. This support was crucial in executing the conference and hitting the goals we intended. 

As part of our DEI commitment, we partnered with Accessibility Nigeria to bring sign language interpreters for People with Disabilities in attendance at the conference. They were very supportive and made sure this group of people made it to the venue at no cost to them. 

Lastly, our planning committee was the heart of the conference. Without their contributions, the conference wouldn’t be what it is. We’re sending a heartfelt thank you to every member of the CHAOSScon Africa 2025 Planning Committee, but most especially to this edition’s program managers, Ruth Ikegah,  Maryblessing Okolie, and Busayo Ojo, for their leadership, wisdom, and help in making sure everything runs smoothly.

See the full list of committee members on the event webpage – CHAOSScon-2025-Africa – CHAOSS.

CHAOSScon Africa 2025 came to life through the support of our sponsor, partner, and contributors. We’re truly grateful for your trust, time, and energy!

Looking Ahead

While CHAOSScon Africa 2025 may have ended, we’re truly excited about what we accomplished together and even more inspired by the inclusive space we built for participation, connection, and partnership. 

To keep improving, the program committee will review feedback from speakers and attendees and incorporate it into future conferences. If you participated in this year’s conference but have yet to fill out the post-event feedback survey, please take 3-5 minutes to share your feedback using this link.

We hope that more contributors can join us in the CHAOSS community and get involved in the metrics, inclusion, and sustainability conversations. To stay up-to-date on the CHAOSS Africa chapter activities and initiatives, consider joining the CHAOSS Project Slack community.