Kaitlin Thaney

Open infrastructure · sustainability · ceramics

Kaitlin Thaney

I help open infrastructure get funded, find business models that hold, and become the default. I also make pots.

Executive Director of Invest in Open Infrastructure. Twenty years helping the open knowledge, data and code we share get funded, restructured when needed, and built to last.

Kaitlin Thaney
→ Kaitlin Thaney

Work

Funding, strategy and sustainability for open science, open source and public-interest infrastructure.

 → Clay Thaney

Ceramics

Hand-built and wheel-thrown stoneware, flowing glazes, and other studio work.

01 — Work

Making open infrastructure durable.

Research runs on shared, open systems that are chronically underfunded. My work is changing how institutions and funders pay for them, and helping the groups that run them through the harder part: new business models, restructuring and the change that comes with it.

Focus

Funding & business models

Endowments, revenue strategy and business models that keep shared infrastructure going.

Focus

Change & transitions

Guiding organizations and their boards through restructures, mergers, leadership changes and business model shifts.

Focus

Program design

Fellowships, grants and leadership programs that grow healthy open communities.

Selected work

  • Invest in Open Infrastructure

    Executive Director · 2020–present

    Inaugural executive leader of the nonprofit helping funders, institutions and providers invest in the open infrastructure research and scholarship depend on — through research, Infra Finder and funding pilots.

  • Wikimedia Foundation

    Director, Endowment · 2017–2020

    Helped launch and scale the first endowment for the open movement, raising $60M to sustain Wikipedia in perpetuity.

  • Mozilla Foundation

    Director, Science → Director, Leadership Network · 2013–2017

    Founded the Mozilla Science Lab, then led a team of ~30 and a $10M+ portfolio across science, learning, advocacy and web literacy, including the Open Leadership Training Series.

  • Digital Science

    Partnerships & community engagement · 2010–2013

    Part of the launch team for Nature Publishing Group's software spinout. Built its relationships with the open science community and scientific software developers, spoke widely on its behalf, and advised early-stage research startups. Also ran the Catalyst grants for research software.

  • Creative Commons

    Program Manager, Science · 2006–2010

    Helped drive Creative Commons' science program (then called Science Commons), laying groundwork for open access, data sharing and CC0, and co-designing the first principles for open science.

Boards & advisory: UPFRONT Global · data.org · Internet Archive Europe. Previously: LYRASIS · Code for Science & Society (chair) · Open Collective Foundation · DuraSpace · DataKind UK (founding director) · UK e-Infrastructure Leadership Council.

Newsletter · on LinkedIn

The Open Stack

Notes on the funding, governance and politics of the infrastructure underneath open research — and what it takes to keep it standing.

Subscribe →Read the archive

02 — Speaking

Selected talks.

Keynotes and briefings for policymakers, funders, libraries and open source communities — from the UN to OSCON.

Highlights

  • Internet Archive Switzerland × UNESCOWith UNESCO
    Nov 2026
  • Sage AssemblySage Bionetworks
    Oct 2026
  • Open @ UN General AssemblyUN General Assembly week · New York
    Sep 2026
  • Software Heritage at UNESCOWith Software Heritage
    2024
  • UNESCO Open Science Working GroupMaking open infrastructure the default in research
    2022
  • RLUK — keynoteThe need for open infrastructure
    2022
  • OSCON — keynoteThe mudslide hypothesis of science
    2012
  • SciPy — keynoteThe reality of digital science
    2011
  • Chinese Academy of Sciences — keynoteSharing scientific data: legal, normative and social issues
    2009

Also: Library Publishing Forum, WOLFCon, NISO+, OASPA, European Committee on Open Science, Royal Institution, Strata, the Sustain podcast and more.

03 — Clay Thaney

Pots, mostly.

The other half of my week happens in the studio: hand-built platters, thrown bowls and glazes that move in the kiln. your words

Three ruffled nesting bowls, deep blue inside with dark metallic rims

Undertow

Nesting bowls & low tide pieces
Large ruffled platter in flowing cream, green and rust glaze

Flow

Bowls, platters & small dishes
Stacked lidded urn in deep red and maroon glaze

Held & Keeping

Urns, jars & keepsakes
→See all collections ~Smoke: raku & pit-fired @claythaney

04 — Held & Keeping

Custom urns, made by hand.

I started making urns for my own family. Now I make them for others: full-size urns to display, and smaller lidded jars for the people who'd like a part close by at home.

Three handmade urns: a stacked red jar, a speckled lidded urn and a wavy pink vessel
Undulating urn in speckled pastel glaze
Small lidded keepsake jar in deep blue, lid lifted

Held · full-size urns, thrown or hand-built, glazed to suit the person.

Keeping · small jars, often made as a set so each family member can keep one.

How commissions work →

05 — Contact

Get in touch.

01

Speaking

Keynotes, panels and closed-door briefings on funding and sustaining open infrastructure.

02

Boards & advisory

Governance roles with mission-driven orgs at an inflection point.

03

Press & podcasts

Open science, open source sustainability, research funding.

04

Studio

Collections, commissions and custom memorial urns.

Contact