Speaker
Description
The R language provides essential infrastructure for statistical computing, research, and data science worldwide. Yet, the labour that sustains this infrastructure remains largely invisible: maintaining legacy upstream code, triaging complex systems-level bugs, and hardening build pipelines. This work underpins the reliability and security of the ecosystem, but remains difficult to measure, resource, and systematically support.
In 2025, the Sovereign Tech Agency invested in work to strengthen and sustain R as a critical open-source infrastructure. The investment focused on improving the security, stability, and reusability of the R ecosystem. Some of the tasks involved the modernization of CRAN packages, bug fixes, and implementation of better provenance and documentation of R’s internals and architecture.
This talk presents both the technical outcomes of this investment and a methodology for evaluating its impact. Recognizing that much of the work done by maintainers cannot be captured by quantitative metrics alone, we aligned the project’s sustainability goals (reliability, security, and reproducibility) with concrete questions, such as: “Did the investment improve outreach and lower barriers for new contributors?” We then mapped these questions to quantifiable metrics, combining qualitative insights from maintainers with quantitative data to assess impact. The resulting methodology provides a framework for evaluating investments in open-source infrastructure, with broader implications for funding agencies and maintainer communities. This work demonstrates how public investment can measurably improve the sustainability of critical open-source infrastructure.
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| Keywords: Please list up to 5 keywords to help us find the right session for your contribution. | sustainability metrics, infrastructure funding, quantitative metrics, impact framework, public investment |
|---|---|
| Virtual Option | This submission is for onsite presentation primarily, but I would also like it to be considered for pre-recorded virtual presentation if I don't get an onsite slot |
| Video Recording | Video sharing is fine |
| The author(s) agree(s) to take responsibility and be accountable for the contents of the submission and is/are authorized to present it. | Confirm |