Conservancy Announces Partnership with the Digital Impact Alliance

[Software Freedom Conservancy]

URL: https://sfconservancy.org/news/2017/oct/23/osc-conservancy-partnership/

  Conservancy Announces Partnership with the Digital Impact Alliance

Software Freedom Conservancy is honored to 
partner with the Digital Impact Alliance 
(DIAL) to provide services in support of 
its new Open Source Center. DIAL, an 
initiative of the United Nations 
Foundation, is supported by the Bill and 
Melinda Gates Foundation, the US Agency 
for International Development (USAID), and 
the Swedish International Development 
Cooperation Agency (Sida). The Center will 
provide resources to free and open source 
software projects serving international 
development and humanitarian response.

Conservancy is positioned to help 
participating projects deal with a variety 
of challenges including basic asset 
stewardship services and trademark 
management. Software projects 
participating in the DIAL Open Source 
Center will have priority access to 
Conservancy’s comprehensive fiscal 
sponsorship services, enabling them to 
offload the complex management issues that 
a standalone foundation would involve.

“The DIAL Open Source Center is founded 
upon the belief that the techniques 
evolved by the free & open source software 
movement are the best ways to create 
inclusive, collaboratively-designed 
software,” said Michael Downey, the 
Center’s Director of Community. “That 
movement is built around the idea of 
leveraging excellent work by others, so 
we’re pleased to be partnering with 
Software Freedom Conservancy to connect 
their industry-leading services to our 
participating projects.”

“Conservancy is committed to supporting 
software development communities who 
create ethical technology for the public’s 
benefit,” said Karen Sandler, 
Conservancy’s Executive Director. “Our 
team is strongly aligned with DIAL’s 
mission to build more mature technology 
products and communities to support 
international development. We are eager to 
increase the impact of those projects by 
connecting them with our expertise and 
services.”

The Center will also provide participating 
projects with ongoing funding 
opportunities. Over the next few weeks, it 
is currently offering a first round of 
catalytic grants to projects serving 
international development and humanitarian 
response that foster a healthy, 
sustainable free and open source software 
community. The program website is now 
active in beta mode at 
<http://www.osc.dial.community/> and is 
soliciting potential members to join and 
help shape the program.

Relevant links:
  DIAL: <https://digitalimpactalliance.org/>
  Open Source Center: <http://www.osc.dial.community/>
  UN Foundation: <http://www.unfoundation.org/>
  Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: <https://www.gatesfoundation.org/>
  USAID: <https://www.usaid.gov/>

--
Become a Conservancy Supporter Now: https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/
  (And then ask a friend to become a Supporter, too! :)