About Me

Hi, all.  I am interested in serving as a member of OSI's Board of Directors.  I am an attorney with a broad base of business and legal experience relating to patent law, copyright law, trademark law, nonprofit law, and business development.  I currently serve as General Counsel for Software Freedom Conservancy, a public charity dedicated to promoting, improving, developing, and defending free, libre, and open source software.  Conservancy acts as the fiscal sponsor and corporate home of over 30 FLOSS projects.  As Conservancy's attorney, I'm responsible for addressing all of the legal issues facing our organization and our member projects; as such, I deal with nonprofit governance issues, trademark and copyright enforcement (including open source license compliance), employment law issues, and more.  I enjoy working with and supporting the efforts of the 1,000+ developers that comprise Conservancy's member projects.  I also proudly serve as a coordinator for Outreachy, a member project that helps people from groups underrepresented in free and open source software get involved by providing a supportive community for newcomers to contribute to throughout the year, and by offering focused internship opportunities twice a year with many FLOSS organizations.

Prior to joining Conservancy, I worked in private practice, and in IBM's Technology & Intellectual Property group as a licensing and business development  executive.

When I'm not working for Conservancy, I dabble in songwriting and music production, and participate in the masochistic ritual of rooting for Washington, DC-area sports teams.  I'm also a lapsed cartoonist (it's been a while since I've done more than doodle, admittedly).  I live in Harlem, New York, NY with my amazing wife, Beth. 

Why I'm running

I appreciate and support the OSI's mission, and would like to provide my skills and expertise in volunteer capacity.  I think my background in both nonprofit law and technology law (particularly as it relates to open source license interpretation and enforcement) would enable me to add value to OSI's board. 

I also see potential for the OSI to do more.  For starters, I'd like to help OSI recruit more foundations and public charities outside of the open source/technology space for affiliate membership.  The FLOSS foundation community is close-knit, but increasingly, organizations outside of our community are developing and/or using FLOSS to advance their charitable missions.  I'd like to help OSI serve as a connector between NPOs pursuing a range of charitable missions who may not otherwise interact, and provide a platform for sharing best practices about the use and development of FLOSS. 

I also would like to help the OSI to coordinate with existing diversity initiatives to broaden the pool of participants and contributors to FLOSS.  The OSI can take a leadership role in promoting inclusivity in FLOSS, which will result in healthier, more robust communities.

Contact Info

If you have any questions, feel free to ping me on IRC (keynote2k on freenode).  Or, find me on Twitter (@keynote2k).  Thanks for your consideration!