About
I got my start in Open Source in 2001. I participated in the Python web development boom of the 2000s that gave rise to Django and Flask (my own contribution was Aspen). Along the way, I experienced first-hand the tension between volunteer Open Source work and paid closed source work, so I spent the 2010s as founder of a crowdfunding startup called Gittip (later Gratipay). Now here in the 2020s my role is Head of Open Source at Sentry, where I lead the Open Source Pledge and Fair Source initiatives.
Current employer
Sentry
Other affiliations
Open Source Pledge, Fair Source
What areas of the Board’s work do you see yourself contributing towards?
I’m happy to participate in practical aspects of board work such as financial oversight, though my leadership skills and interests lie more in the realms of strategy and goal-setting, program oversight, relationship building, and conflict resolution.
What goals do you hope to achieve for OSI and the world of open source by serving on the Board of Directors?
The next five years are set to be transformational for Open Source, as independent maintainers—the heart and soul of Open Source—face increasing pressure from both governmental and economic realities. On the government side we have the CRA going into effect in Europe, and related policy issues coming to bear in the United States and other jurisdictions. On the economic side we have yet to resolve the Open Source sustainability crisis. Efforts such as Tidelift have made a dent, but we are still burning out non-corporate-affiliated maintainers at an unacceptable rate. In the face of these pressures, preserving the spirit of Open Source is not a foregone conclusion.
The spirit of Open Source is autonomy within community, gifts freely given and freely reciprocated, creating abundance for all. Open Source has managed—against all odds—to introduce this counter-intuitive logic into our civilization’s economy and governments. As a member of the OSI Board of Directors, I would work to ensure that the foothold we’ve gained is not lost, but rather that the gift of Open Source continues to grow.
Previous board service
local church
Main social media account or blog
Ask this candidate questions in our forum!