Public work

Open Source

What opened a door for me should open one for someone else.

Code, community, and Harambee

The work

Open source made room for me. I try to leave the door wider.

A younger Peter Rotich wearing an osTicket shirt at SXSW — From learning in the open to carrying it forward.

I did not enter computing through a personal PC. I entered through the machines I could reach. I could not afford a computer of my own, so the engineering lab became my classroom after hours. Its Unix and Solaris workstations led me to Linux and taught me that access to powerful ideas did not have to begin with ownership.

That is why open source has always felt familiar. It carries the Harambee spirit I grew up with: people pulling together, sharing what they know, and leaving something useful for the next person. I build in the open because someone else’s openness first made room for me.

AccessShared knowledgeContribution

Named work

Featured projects

3 in focus

01 / Flagship open sourceActive

osTicket

A widely used open-source support ticket system for routing and tracking customer support requests.

Visit project ↗

02 / auto-joinerActive

Auto Join Eloquent

A Laravel Eloquent package that derives joins from model relationships, making dynamic queries easier to compose.

Visit project ↗

03 / Systems experimentExploring

lelasticd

An emerging project being considered for the public portfolio. Details will follow as the direction becomes ready to share.

More details soon

Harambee, in code

Why I build in the open

01 / Access

Access before ownership

Before I could afford a computer, shared Unix and Solaris workstations became my classroom after hours. Open source extended that access beyond the lab through documentation I could study, code I could inspect, and communities I could learn from. Curiosity should not have to wait for ownership. The first door into technology can be borrowed, shared, or held open by someone you may never meet.

02 / Distance

Bridge the digital divide

Technology has made distance less decisive, but access remains uneven. Open source lets useful tools and accumulated knowledge travel farther than capital, geography, or the institutions where they began. A student in Eldoret should be able to study the same foundations as a developer anywhere else. That does not erase the digital divide, but it gives more people a bridge they can help strengthen.

03 / Community

Harambee scales

I grew up with Harambee: people pulling together to do what none of them could do alone. Open source carries the same instinct into software. A patch, an answer, a translation, or a patient explanation can become part of something used far beyond its author. The contribution may be small; the circle it joins can be enormous. Progress belongs not only to the person who begins the work, but to everyone willing to carry it.

04 / Context

Let local knowledge lead

Communities understand their own constraints, languages, workflows, and opportunities. When source code is open, people can adapt technology to the places where they live instead of waiting for distant vendors to decide what those places need. Open code makes room for local wisdom to become technical direction. The people closest to a problem should have the power to shape its solution.

05 / Agency

Users become builders

Open source changes the relationship between people and technology. A user can inspect the work, question it, repair it, and grow into a contributor. Agency begins when the tool is no longer a sealed box. That movement from consumer to builder creates confidence, practical knowledge, and the possibility that today’s learner becomes tomorrow’s teacher.

06 / Reciprocity

Leave the door wider

Someone else’s openness made room for me. The obligation I feel is not simply to publish code, but to make the path clearer through documentation, mentorship, thoughtful defaults, and software that the next person can genuinely build upon. The real measure is whether they can begin with less friction than I did. Open source is most generous when access becomes agency and agency becomes opportunity.

01–02 / 06

Still opening doors

The work matters most when someone else can begin.

Open source carried me from borrowed Unix and Solaris workstations to building software used around the world. It taught me that knowledge grows more powerful when people can inspect it, question it, improve it, and pass it on.

Now, from Eldoret, Kenya, I want to widen that path through useful tools, patient documentation, mentorship, and communities that invite people to become makers. The door stays open when each person who enters helps hold it for the next.

AccessAgencyOpportunity

Read about my journey

From the notebook

Notes from this work.

2 connected notes

01 / Open Source

Harambee, in Code

How late-night Unix labs, unaffordable software, and African traditions of collective effort shaped my belief that open source should turn access into agency.

Read note 02 / Product Notes

Useful Work Outlives the Announcement

What began as an experiment with email became a two-decade lesson in usefulness, responsibility, rebuilding, and the team required to carry a promise forward.

Read note

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