Coraline Ada Ehmke

Tech ethicist, engineer emeritus and open source activist. I make music and I make trouble. Creator of Contributor Covenant & the Hippocratic License. Author of “We Just Build Hammers”.

She/her. Pronounced 🪸—

#SpeechIsSourceCode #TheFutureIsSoft

Personal: https://where.coraline.codes
Music: https://nosignal.zone
Mission: https://ethicalsource.dev
Professional: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coralineadaehmke/

Last Notes

2026-09-01 16:42:51 GMT

I remember way back in 2019 when I created the Hippocratic License, in response to the NoTechForICE movement, and people thought it was ludicrous SJW nonsense to suggest that open source could have anything to do with genocide.
Here we are y'all.

2026-08-30 18:55:29 GMT

When you reach a certain age as a software engineer, for instance my age, you give up the pretense of the rubber duck and just have conversations with yourself out loud.

2026-08-01 17:12:48 GMT

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You’ll see this a lot in the legal system. The way I heard it explained is that they usually combine a Greek-derived term paired with a Latin-derived term.

2026-07-08 20:04:36 GMT

Algorithms have made it harder than ever for independent musicians to get heard, and audiences have become used to not paying for music. It's making a lot of us question what we're even doing and why. So what if we started thinking of ourselves less as independent, and more as interdependent?
https://where.coraline.codes/writing/interdependent-musician/
#disquietjunto #musodon #indiemusic

2026-05-26 18:09:36 GMT

Remember in the late 2010s when some lone voices were calling for tech workers to get serious and unionize? And no one cared because they thought the 6-figure salaries and flex time would continue forever?
Things didn't have to get this bad.

2026-02-28 00:59:59 GMT

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I think you missed that that was intended as a trick question?

2026-02-28 00:16:23 GMT

Y'all still out there building neutral tech or no?

2026-02-28 00:12:46 GMT

What kills me is how many of us software "engineers" happily took a paycheck to code ourselves out of ever having a job again, while simultaneously destroying our own field on our way down. I dunno, seems a little short-sighted. Who needs the AGI apocalypse when we have capitalism?

2026-02-23 20:29:57 GMT

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We could recoup “software architect”?

2026-02-23 20:08:20 GMT

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I hate this timeline. I left corporate tech in 2021, and it would have been hard enough to return had not this rug-pull pulled this particular rug. Now I can only code on passion projects or grant-funded work I guess.
I still care about code. Writing code is transformative, and I don't want to lose that. So for me, I guess it's option 3: Embrace Tradition. (But I'm still not calling myself a "craftsman".)

2026-02-16 21:20:01 GMT

Call me old-fashioned, but "I rented a robot that wrote some code" doesn't seem like participating in FOSS in good faith.

2025-11-04 02:34:37 GMT

If your website only works in Chrome, you have fundamentally missed the point of the web. (And you certainly don't know its history, either.)

2025-10-04 03:05:58 GMT

I'm about a week into using #zotero and just wow. The browser plugin is MAGICAL. I'm cruising a lit review and seamlessly building a research library for a paper I'm working on next week.
This is open source software done right. Cheers to the Zotero team and community (and thanks to all the fedi folk who shared tips and tricks this week!)

2025-09-19 17:32:08 GMT

My heart is with the Bundler maintainers and contributors today. The Bundler project was a huge part of the early success of Contributor Covenant, and I've always thought highly of the team and the project, through many ups and downs over the past decade.
Bundler team, if you want to have a space to talk about a world where our infrastructure is truly a transparently and community-governed resource, may I invite you to https://ethicalsource.dev/join/ ?

2025-05-09 23:31:08 GMT

So where are we going now that Soundcloud is kicking us out? What are some alternatives to consider?
#musodon #soundcloud

2025-04-28 18:28:21 GMT

Join the (m)otherboard book club event this Wednesday the 30th at 8 Eastern/5 Pacific as we discuss Part 2 of We Just Build Hammers: Stories from the Past, Present, and Future of Responsible Tech.
This week we're focusing on the early days of computing, including the story of a mysterious stranger and a naive locksmith. Come for the discussion, stay for the community, leave with a clearer head. Join us!
#ethics #EthicalSource #EthicalTech
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/motherboard-book-club-we-just-build-hammers-tickets-1331042677479

2024-08-03 23:11:49 GMT

In search of a discord/slack server for experimental musicians #musodon #MakeUnpopularMusic

2024-07-13 02:33:00 GMT

Give yourself permission to go down at least one rabbit hole per day. That's how you learn and stretch and make new connections.