Episode 9 - Olaf Kolkman (part 1)

*** WHOA THERE!!! *** During the Perl Toolchain Summit 2026 in Vienna, we interviewed Merijn Brand, the Configure maintainer, about this indispensable piece of the Perl build setup.

Olaf Kolkman has had a long career in networking and Open Source that led him to be working on Internet Technology, Policy and Advocacy at the Internet Society. In September 2025, we had a long conversation with him. In this second part of our discussion, we discussed the Internet Society (ISOC) and managing volunteer organisations.

Olaf Kolkman has had a long career in networking and Open Source that led him to be working on Internet Technology, Policy and Advocacy at the Internet Society. In September 2025, we had a long conversation with him. In this first part, we discussed his involvement with Perl, DNSSEC and NLnet Labs.

As preparations are underway for the Perl Toolchain Summit 2026, this short episode is the last excerpt recorded during PTS 2025 (as a tangent during the CPAN Testers interview, published as episode 6). BooK starts by explaining the selection process for the Perl Toolchain Summit and some of the history, and then Doug, Ruth, Breno and Ferki reminisce about what makes the event so special.

This is the last of the interviews recorded during the Perl Toolchain Summit 2025 in Leipzig, this time with the CPAN Security Group. We talked about how the group was formed, the security landscape for Perl and CPAN, and how volunteers are always needed.

During the Perl Toolchain Summit 2025 in Leipzig, we interviewed the CPAN Testers team. They told us about the history of the project, its recent problems, and how a new team formed around its (then) lone maintainer. They also told us about their plans for the future.

During the Perl Toolchain Summit 2025 in Leipzig, we interviewed Merijn Brand, Test::Smoke's founder, and Thibault Duponchelle, its new maintainer following the passing of Abe Timmerman, about the history of the project, and how to contribute to it.

During the Perl Toolchain Summit 2025, Salve Nilsen and I had a long conversation about the CRA and Steward Organizations. We thought it would be great to record another, to reach a larger audience with this topic. So we invited Olaf Alders and Julien Fiegehenn to join us, and pressed the record button.

During the Perl Toolchain Summit 2025 in Leipzig, we interviewed the MetaCPAN team about the history of the project, how it's managed and where it's going to.

The next version of Perl is going to be v5.42.0. Or maybe 42.0? Listen to Perl leaders arguing about what version numbers represent, and what it means to change one. (This is part two of a longer conversation started in the previous episode.)