Karen Sandler Wins the Prestigious Free Software Award

[Software Freedom Conservancy]

URL:
<https://sfconservancy.org/news/2018/mar/26/sandler-fsf-free-software-award/>

This past Saturday at the LibrePlanet conference, Conservancy’s
Executive Director, Karen Sandler won the most prestigious Award in the
area of software freedom: the Free Software Foundation’s annual Award
for the Advancement of Free Software. The award is given annually by the
Free Software Foundation (FSF) to an individual who has made “a great
contribution to the progress and development of free software, through
activities that accord with the spirit of free software.”

Richard Stallman, President of the FSF, presented Sandler with the award
during a ceremony. Stallman highlighted Sandler’s dedication to software
freedom. Stallman told the crowd that Sandler’s “vivid warning about
backdoored nonfree software in implanted medical devices has brought the
issue home to people who never wrote a line of code. Her efforts,
usually not in the public eye, to provide pro bono legal advice to free
software organizations and [with Software Freedom Conservancy] to
organize infrastructure for free software projects and copyleft defense,
have been equally helpful.”.

In her acceptance speech, Sandler spoke about her dedication to free
software as a patient, advocate and professional:. “Coming to terms with
a dangerous heart condition should never have cost me fundamental
control over the technology that my life relies on”, said Sandler. “The
twists and turns of my own life, including my professional work at
Conservancy, led me to understand how software freedom is essential to
society. This issue is personal not just for me but for anyone who
relies on software, and today that means every single person.” The
audience responded enthusiastically with vigorous applause and a
standing ovation.

Sandler has worked for over a decade in free and open source software.
She is known for her advocacy for the issue, particularly in relation to
the software on medical devices. Sandler is Executive Director of
Conservancy, leading the organization to provide a nonprofit home for
over 40 member projects and tackle the most critical issues facing free
software today. Sandler previously served as the Executive Director and
and later member of the board of directors of the GNOME Foundation, and
before that, she was General Counsel of the Software Freedom Law Center.
She co-organizes Outreachy, the award-winning outreach program that
provides paid internships in free software for people who are typically
underrepresented in these projects. She also serves as on the advisory
committee of the Center for Research in Open Source Software at
University of California, Santa Cruz.

As is traditional for the award winner, Sandler gave a Sunday session
talk at LibrePlanet describing her work and its context in the future of
software freedom. She also participated in a panel about medical
software and data. Other Conservancy’ staff members including
Distinguished Technologist, Bradley Kuhn, Director of Strategic
Initiatives, Brett Smith, and Compliance engineer, Denver Gingerich also
delivered talks at the conference.

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