Fleming2015

Last modified by kpfleming on 2016/04/05 11:27

Who am I?

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I've been a software developer for more years than I'd care to admit and an ardent supporter and contributor of many open source projects. Over the past ten years I've transitioned into a project oversight and ecosystem management role, and I'm currently using my experience and energy to begin fostering open source involvement in the financial services industry. My first notable open source project involvement was with the Asterisk project, where I was hired by the project's founder (at least initially) to provide more development bandwidth, but over time became the leader of the project and worked closely with the global open source community that uses and supports the project. In late 2012, I joined Bloomberg LP, taking on a brand-new role (in the company) of 'open source evangelist and community builder'. My focus at Bloomberg is on improving the company's relationships and involvement with existing open source projects, and working with the talented R&D teams inside the company to publish some of Bloomberg's creations as new open source projects.

Both in the company and on university campuses, I teach the 'open source philosophy', the fundamentals of software licensing (and open source licenses) and related topics. I provide guidance to both publishers and consumers of open source software, and I'm also actively involved in a number of standards organizations and open source community efforts (W3C, OASIS, CII). Where I can, I provide assistance and support to a number of prominent open source organizations, including (of course) the OSI, the Software Freedom Conservancy, and Outreachy (formerly the GNOME FOSS Outreach Program for Women).

I'm also a husband, co-caretaker of a brood of four felines, an avid home handyman, a traveler, a foodie, a cook, and a river paddler, among many other pursuits and passions.

Why should you consider me for the OSI Board of Directors?

Even though I just recently joined the OSI as an Individual Member, I've been promoting its activities for years, and refer everyone who has an interest in understanding open source licenses (and licensing) to the OSI's documentation and materials. The OSI does an admirable job reviewing and certifying licenses, which is a great benefit the global community.

I'd like to see the OSI take a more active role in teaching high school and college students about 'open source', in order to encourage them to participate. All of them are using open source software, many without realizing it. The OSI-EDU-WG could be a big step in the right direction, although I'd like to see its focus expand to incorporate a more student-centric vision. Some work in this area has been done by OpenHatch, but I'd like to see this sort of effort within the OSI itself (providing more 'meat' to the 'Initiative' component of its name).

If elected to the board, in addition to the regular duties of all board members, I'll work closely with the OSI-EDU-WG members, and anyone else in the community who shares my interest in expanding awareness of 'open source' to the global student community, to produce materials and meta-training that can be used to launch training efforts in student communities.

Thanks

Thanks for your consideration, and please feel free to reach out to me on Twitter, via email, or via comments on this wiki if you have any questions at all.

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