# Open and Async

> The collaborative software development playbook for remote and distributed teams

Open and Async is a book by Ben Balter, who spent more than a decade at GitHub, about thriving and advancing your career in remote and distributed software development. Drawing on that time at GitHub—a company that was remote-first before it was fashionable—it shows engineering leaders and individual contributors how to work in the open, default to async communication, and measure impact instead of hours online.

## Book details

- **Title**: Open and Async: The collaborative software development playbook for remote and distributed teams
- **Author**: Ben Balter
- **Publication date**: July 21, 2026
- **Formats**:
  - **Paperback**: $29.99, 576 pages, ISBN 979-8-9957542-1-3
  - **eBook**: $9.99, ISBN 979-8-9957542-0-6
  - **Audiobook**: $14.95, 11.5 hours, synthetic (AI) narration, ISBN 979-8-9957542-3-7
- **BISAC**: BUS071000 (Leadership), BUS085000 (Organizational Behavior), COM051390 (Software Development & Engineering / Tools)
- **Publisher**: Open & Async LLC

## Author

Ben Balter spent more than a decade at GitHub, most recently as Director of Hubber Enablement, where he helped thousands of GitHubbers do their best remote work. Earlier roles there: Chief of Staff for Security, enterprise PM, and GitHub’s first Government Evangelist. Before GitHub: attorney, Presidential Innovation Fellow, and member of the White House’s first agile development team. The US CTO once called him one of “the baddest of the badass innovators.” He holds a J.D. and an M.B.A. from the George Washington University and is a member of the DC Bar.

- [Website](https://ben.balter.com)
- [GitHub](https://github.com/benbalter)
- [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/benbalter.com)
- [Amazon author page](https://www.amazon.com/author/benbalter)

## Who it’s for

- **Engineering leaders** (VP Eng, directors, engineering managers, tech leads): build remote teams that ship without constant meetings, create a culture of transparency and documentation, and keep your best people.
- **Individual contributors** (software developers, senior engineers, tech leads without reports): get visible, effective, and promotable through written communication, async collaboration, and impact instead of presence.

## Key topics

- **Foundations and definitions**: Remote, distributed, open, async—what the terms actually mean and why the distinction matters.
- **The case for open and async**: The business case, the personal case, and why how you work matters as much as what you work on.
- **Core principles and mental models**: Parallelization, flow, impact over input, and optimizing for developer happiness.
- **Working in the open**: Why everything should have a URL, documentation as a superpower, and the rule of no surprises.
- **Asynchronous communication**: Speak like a human, chat responsibly, the etiquette of issues and pull requests, and when async isn’t the answer.
- **Adopting and transitioning**: Refactoring for remote, navigating resistance, and why open and async initiatives fail.
- **Leadership**: Decisions as documentation, leading like an engineer, one-on-ones, and weekly reporting that doesn’t suck.
- **Team health, culture, and sustainability**: Corporate self-care, navigating conflict asynchronously, and making the most of in-person time.
- **Looking forward**: AI as a thought partner and agentic workflows in open, async teams.
- **The playbook in review**: Four threads, two checklists—one for leaders, one for ICs—and where to start tomorrow.

## Where to buy

- [Amazon Kindle](https://open-and-async.com/go/amazon?src=llms)
- [Bookshop.org](https://open-and-async.com/go/bookshop?src=llms)
- [Barnes & Noble](https://open-and-async.com/go/bn?src=llms)
- [Kobo](https://open-and-async.com/go/kobo?src=llms)
- [Apple Books](https://open-and-async.com/go/apple?src=llms)
- [Amazon paperback](https://open-and-async.com/go/amazon-paperback?src=llms)
- [Every other store](https://open-and-async.com/go/ubl?src=llms): Books2Read lists all of them
- [Audiobook](https://open-and-async.com/listen/): Audible, Libro.fm, Apple Books, Spotify, Kobo, Google Play, and more
- [Bulk orders](https://open-and-async.com/bulk-orders/): team and event copies

## MCP server

A Model Context Protocol server that puts the book’s async-first *method* (not the manuscript) in your AI assistant. The method tools work on any project, no book required; the reference tools answer from the book’s public summaries, always cited and linked. Free to run and open source.

- [Package on npm](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@open-and-async/mcp): @open-and-async/mcp
- [Source](https://github.com/open-and-async/mcp): open-and-async/mcp on GitHub
- [One-click Claude Desktop install](https://github.com/open-and-async/mcp/releases/latest/download/open-and-async.mcpb): open the downloaded .mcpb
- Install in Claude Code: `claude mcp add open-async -- npx -y @open-and-async/mcp`
- Install in GitHub Copilot (VS Code): `code --add-mcp '{"name":"open-async","command":"npx","args":["-y","@open-and-async/mcp"]}'`
- Install in Any MCP client: `npx -y @open-and-async/mcp`
- Draft a decision doc from a blank page — a structured ADR with tradeoffs and reversibility.
- Turn “let’s hop on a call” into an async artifact, with an owner and a deadline.
- Pressure-test a status update against the “work loudly, no surprises” rubric before you post.
- Settle sync vs. async in seconds — with the rule behind the call.

## Links

- [Website](https://open-and-async.com/): the book’s home page
- [Quotes](https://open-and-async.com/q/): shareable lines from the book
- [Audiobook](https://open-and-async.com/listen/): where to listen
- [Meeting cost calculator](https://open-and-async.com/meeting-cost/): yearly cost of a recurring meeting in hours, focus time, and dollars
- [Book club guide](https://open-and-async.com/book-club-guide/): discussion questions for teams and reading groups
- [Press & media kit](https://open-and-async.com/press/): bio, cover art, and downloads
- [Sitemap](https://open-and-async.com/sitemap-index.xml): full list of indexable pages

## Optional

- [Full text for LLMs](https://open-and-async.com/llms-full.txt): everything above plus the outline, every quote, the FAQ, and the book club sessions