I’ve had great opportunities to travel and attend a variety of conferences and events. Along the way, I’ve been able to share some of my open source, open government, and open data insights. In fact, I wrote a book about those topics titled The foundation for an open source city.
Bio

Jason Hibbets is a senior community architect at Red Hat where he is a community manager and project manager for Opensource.com. He has been with Red Hat since 2003, graduated from North Carolina State University, and resides in Raleigh, NC.
My full bio and headshot is available on gravatar.
Topics I talk about:
- Civic hacking / Code for America
- Community building/management
- Community engagement
- Content marketing
- Burnout and stress management
- DevOps
- Open government & open data
- Open organizations
- Open source
- Social media
- Uncoference planning
For speaking engagements or design thinking and brainstorming moderation sessions, you can contact me at jhibbets at gmail.com.
2020
2020 is shaping up to be another great year to share some of my experiences and tell people about the new Enable Sysadmin blog on redhat.com. Here is a list of confirmed talks and conferences I’m attending.
- 10 things I wish I knew before experiencing burnout – Open Source 101 meet-up – March 3, 2020 (Columbia, SC)
- 10 things I wish I knew before experiencing burnout – SCaLE 18x (Southern California Linux Expo) – March 5-8, 2020 (Pasadena, CA)
- Terminal acceleration: 10 hacks to increase your productivity at the command line – Open Source 101 – April 14, 2020 (Austin, TX) | Canceled
- Sysadmin’s wanted for #EnableSysadmin – Community Central minitheater at Red Hat Summit – April 27-29, 2020 (San Francisco, CA) | Virtual
- 10 things I wish I knew before experiencing burnout – Texas LinuxFest – May 1-2, 2020 (Austin, TX)
- OSCON – July 13-16, 2020 (Portland, OR)
- All Things Open – October 18-20, 2020 (Raleigh, NC)
2019
- A community-generated content strategy that works – High Five Conference – March 4, 2019 (Raleigh, NC)
- Open data: The new oil fueling civic tech – SCaLE 17x (Southern California Linux Expo) – March 7-10, 2019 (Pasadena, CA)
- 25 things I wish I knew before becoming a community organizer – SCaLE 17x (Southern California Linux Expo) – March 7-10, 2019 (Pasadena, CA)
- 25 things I wish I knew before becoming a community organizer – DrupalCon Seattle – April 8-12, 2019 (Seattle, WA)
- Open everything: Education, government, hiring, and culture (Panel with Deborah Leipziger, Babson College; Alexandra Machado, Red Hat; Ben Owens, Open Way Learning; Jason Hibbets, Red Hat; Mike Brady, Greyston) – Red Hat Summit – May 7-9, 2019 (Boston, MA)
- Open source culture in a bottle: Making key organizational decisions at scale (Speaking with Rebecca Fernandez) – Red Hat Summit – May 7-9, 2019 (Boston, MA)
- Building sustainable civic tech with open data – DevNation Federal – June 27, 2019 (Washington, DC)
- Building and maintaining open source communities – OSCON 2019 – July 15-18, 2019
- Open data: The new oil fueling civic tech – All Things Open – October 13-15, 2019 (Raleigh, NC)
2018
- Avoiding the DevOps Pit of Misery: Tips from the trenches – Open Source 101, February 17, 2018 (Raleigh, NC)
- Building sustainable civic tech with open data – SCaLE 16x (Southern California Linux Expo) – March 8-11, 2018 (Pasadena, CA)
- Co-host UpSCALE – SCaLE 16x (Southern California Linux Expo) – March 8-11, 2018 (Pasadena, CA)
- Avoiding the DevOps Pit of Misery: Tips from the trenches – Open Source 101, April 17, 2018 (Columbia, SC)
- Building and maintaining open source communities (panel) – Red Hat Summit 2018, May 8-10, 2018 (San Francisco, CA)
- Attending – Code for America Summit 2018, May 30 – June 1, 2018 (Oakland, CA)
- Building sustainable civic tech with open data – North America Open Source Summit – August 29-31, 2018 (Vancouver, BC)
- Survive and advance: Life of a community manager – North America Open Source Summit – August 29-31, 2018 (Vancouver, BC)
- Attending – DevOpsDays Raleigh (organizing committee) – September 10-11, 2018 (Raleigh, NC)
- All Things Open preview (emcee) – September 26, 2018 (RTP, NC)
- Attending – Code for America Brigade Congress – October 19-21, 2018 (Charlotte , NC)
- Survive and advance: Life of a community organizer – All Things Open – October 21-23, 2018 (Raleigh, NC)
2017
- Building Community with Twitter Chats – Open Source 101 – February 4, 2017 (Raleigh, NC)
- The Evolution of Chat: Growing Your Community with Twitter – Open Source Leadership Summit – February 14-16, 2017 (Lake Tahoe, CA)
- The 3 keys to successful civic hacking – SCALE 15x (Southern California Linux Expo) – March 2-4, 2017 (Pasadena, CA)
- Ignite talk: The Future of Civic Hacking is Open – SxSW (South by South West), March 14, 2017 (Austin, TX)
- A Taste of Red Hat Culture – Campbell School of Business, Business Week Dinner Keynote – April 4, 2017 (Raleigh, NC)
- So Who’s Using Open Source Anyway? (panel discussion at SIM RTP) – April 20, 2017 (Raleigh, NC)
- Open culture: A driving force for IT transformation (Panel discussion) – Red Hat Summit – May 4, 2017 (Boston, MA)
- The evolution of chat: Growing your community with Twitter – Red Hat Summit – May 4, 2017 (Boston, MA)
- 5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Becoming a Community Organizer – Community Leadership Summit 2017 – May 6-7, 2017 – (Austin, TX)
- The Future of Civic Hacking is Open – RTP 180 – August 17, 2017 (RTP, NC)
- 5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Becoming a Community Organizer – Open Source Summit – September 11-14, 2017 (Los Angeles, CA)
- Building and Maintaining Open Source Communities (Panel discussion) – Open Source Summit – September 11-14, 2017 (Los Angeles, CA)
- Unconference facilitator – Raleigh Neighborhood Exchange – September 16, 2017 (Raleigh, NC)
- Civic Hacking 201 – Guest lecture at Duke University- September 20, 2017 (Durham, NC)
- The Future of Civic Hacking is Open – A Night of Open Source – All Things Open 2017 Preview – September 26, 2017 (RTP, NC
- 5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Becoming a Community Organizer – All Things Open – October 23-24, 2017 (Raleigh, NC)
2016
In 2016, I spoke at almost 20 different events on a variety of topics including open source, civic hacking, community building, social media, and content marketing.
- Community building the open source way – SCALE 14x (Southern California Linux Expo) – January 21-24, 2016
- Government/Smart Communities panel – Emerging Issues Forum – February 9, 2016
- Building Community with Twitter Chats – Great Wide Open 2016 – March 16, 2016
- Keynote presentation: The Power of Community – 2016 Evergreen International Conference – April 21, 2016
- Drupal Powered Community Building – DrupalCon North America (New Orleans) – May 12, 2016
- Building Community with Twitter Chats – Community Leadership Summit 2016 – May 15, 2016
- Content Marketing the Open Source Way: Concrete Lessons from Red Hat’s Community-Building – Richmond AMA – May 19, 2016
- Civic Engagement with CityCamp NC – National Day of Civic Hacking Triangle Code for America – June 4, 2016
- Innovate NC panel – Raleigh, NC – June 6, 2016
- Book signing at Red Hat Summit – San Francisco, CA – June 29, 2016
- 3 Civic Hacking Models for an Open Source City – Legal Hacker International Summit, New York, NY – July 15-17, 2016
- Emcee and Co-Chair, CityCamp NC – Raleigh, NC – September 22-24, 2016
- Civic Hacking 201: Successful techniques for civic hacking – All Things Open, Raleigh, NC – October 26-27
- Book signing at All Things Open – Raleigh, NC – October 26-27
- 7 big reasons to contribute to Opensource.com – All Things Open, Raleigh, NC – October 26-27
- The nitty gritty about working with your community on open source projects – Code for America Summit, Oakland, CA, November 2
- Co-creating the future of the Brigade network – Code for America Summit, Oakland, CA, November 3
- Building Community with Twitter Chats – Internet Summit, Raleigh, NC – November 16-17, 2016
2015
- Innovate Lab: Open source government and open citizen engagement – Emerging Issues Forum – February 9, 2015
- Community building the open source way – SCALE 13x – February 19-22, 2015
- Open source community building – POSSCON – April 14-15, 2015
- Keynote: Why Your Open Source Story Matters – POSSCON – April 14-15, 2015
- How to Give a Tech Talk (YouTube video)- TriLUG, May 14, 2015
- Community building the open source way – DevNation, June 21-25, 2015
- 10 Ways to get Started with Open Source (lighting talk) – RTP 180, September 17, 2015
- How to Build Community the Open Source Way – All Things Open 2015, October 20, 2015
- Guest lecture: Open source all the cities: 3 models for civic hacking – Elon University – October 30, 2015
- Civic Engagement with CityCamp NC – 2015 Public Administration Conference, UNC Chapel Hill – November 6, 2015
- Open source all the cities: 3 models for civic hacking – Code for Greensboro – November 6, 2015
2014
January 23, 2014 – Leadership North Carolina Forum – Introduction to CityCamp NC and Unconferences
I co-presented with Raleigh City Councilor Bonner Gaylor about the CityCamp NC unconference. Part of the presentation at the Leadership NC State of the State involved walking the 40 attendees through a mock pitch and voting session.
February 18, 2014 – NonProfit Connection – Tap into the Power of the Unconference
I gave a 45-minute presentation where I shared my experience from attending and organizing numerous unconference events. I explained what and unconference is, what situations it works in, and how to run an unconference for non-profit organizations or events. The NonProfit Connection is a “Club within the Club” at the Downtown Clubs of Raleigh promoting learning, involvement, and the advancement of community non-profits. (For club members and guests.)
February 21-23, 2014 – SCaLE 12x (Southern California Linux Expo) – Open Source All The Cities
I gave a 45-minute presentation with an updated version of my Open Source All The Cities talk at the Southern California Linux Expo in Los Angeles, California. There were about 80 attendees in this session and excellent questions, conversations, and sharing of ideas during Q&A.
Don’t miss this SCaLE 12x speaker interview.
March 1, 2014 – FOSS Fair 2014 – Open Source vs Open Data
I co-presented with my Opensource.com colleague, Jason Baker, with a new presentation about open source and open data. FOSS Fair is a one day open source unconference primarily attended by NC State students.
March 12, 2014 – DesignBox Lunch & Learn – Open Source, Open Government, Open Data
I gave a lunch presentation at DesignBox about the principles of open source and provided examples of the open government and open data activities and initiatives happening in Raleigh, NC.
April 2-3, 2014 – Great Wide Open – Open Source All The Cities: Transforming Government & Cities with Open Source and Open Source Principles
I gave a 45-minute presentation after an inspiring keynote from Clay Johnson, who talked about taking a more critical look at the open government, open data, and open source movements, to start looking at them for ways to build more sustainable, and more scalable government. My session dovetailed nicely with those topics as I explained the open source and open government movement happening in the Triangle, NC adding in thoughts around what it means to be a Citizen CIO.
April 7-9, 2014 – ApacheCon –Keynote: Open Source All The Cities
I was very excited to deliver a 30-minute keynote address at ApacheCon to almost 500 attendees. I shared my civic hacking experience from Raleigh, NC and highlighted the principles of the open source way to an audience that was probably familiar with many of the ideals, but may not have thought about applying their open source knowledge to another discipline, especially government.
Don’t miss this interview with Linux.com promoting the ApacheCon keynote presentation: Red Hat’s Jason Hibbets: How Open Source Software is Changing City Government
May 15, 2014 – Drupal Business Summit Atlanta – Open Source Beyond Technology
The organizers of the Drupal Business Summit Atlanta attended my talk at Great Wide Open. After my presentation, they asked me if I would keynote at their event. After checking my calendar, I learned that I would already be in Atlanta for the OpenStack Summit and agreed.
I presented on Open Source Beyond Technology to almost 200 people, sharing the core principles of the open source development model and sharing some exciting things happening in the open government and open data space from Raleigh, NC. The presentation was adjusted for an audience new to open source, so the talk had more emphasis on some of the basics around understanding the open source way.
July 22, 2014 – OSCON: Presentation: How does Raleigh use open source?, co-presentation with Raleigh CIO, Gail Roper
City of Raleigh CIO, Gail Roper, and I presented to a room of more than 50 people describing how the City of Raleigh and passionate citizens can partner to promote the principles of open source in their community and how to change the culture of your IT department to favor open source.
August 27, 2014 – North Carolina Digital Government Summit, Presentation: Open Data, Crowdsourcing and Mitigating Information Requests
Wearing my Code for Raleigh brigade captain hat, I co-presented with Anil Chawla, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, ArchiveSocial and Reid Serozi fellow brigade captain at Code for Raleigh in a room with more than 75 attentative govies. Our presentation talked about how open data is still evolving, but transparency and open government are clearly here to stay. We talked about trends, standards, policies, and lessons learned. A fun part of this talk was talking about the role that social media plays in citizen engagement.
September 10, 2014 – Innovate Raleigh – Open community culture
I was a moderator for a 120 minute brainstorming session around the idea of Open community culture along with Marc Gracieux and other volunteers during Innovate Raleigh Summit. We had over 70 people creating mind maps around different questions that ultimately led us to determine the main initiatives for this community-driven component of Innovate Raleigh in 2015.
October 16, 2014 – Triangle AMA Luncheon – Featured speaker: Community Building, The Future of Marketing
I gave a dynamic presentation about our community building efforts at Red Hat around Opensource.com to a room of more than 200 marketing professionals. My talk took folks behind the scenes to see the nuts-and-bolts, the tools, the metrics, and the strategy behind Opensource.com.
The talk was trending on Twitter for a while!
October 23, 2014 – All Things Open – Keynote: How Raleigh Became an Open Source City
City of Raleigh CIO, Gail Roper, and I presented to a room of more than 500 people describing how the City of Raleigh and passionate citizens can partner to promote the principles of open source in their community and how to change the culture of your IT department to favor open source.