Deb Nicholson joins Conservancy as Director of Community Operations

[Software Freedom Conservancy]

URL:
<https://sfconservancy.org/news/2018/may/01/deb-nicholson-director-community-operations/>

Today Software Freedom Conservancy announces its newest employee, Deb
Nicholson. Nicholson is a prominent software freedom advocate and
organizer. Nicholson’s professional roots are in the world of local
community organizing in Massachusetts. Her first roles in the free
software movement were as a staff member at the Free Software
Foundation. Nicholson won the O’Reilly Open Source Award for her
volunteer work with GNU MediaGoblin, a federated media-hosting service
and OpenHatch, an initiative to help bring newcomers into free software.
She is also a founding organizer of the Seattle GNU/Linux Conference, an
annual event dedicated to surfacing new voices and welcoming new people
to the free software community in the Pacific Northwest. Most recently,
she served as the Community Outreach Director for the Open Invention
Network, a company that builds a defensive patent pool for open source
software. Nicholson has volunteered for Conservancy for many years,
including on Conservancy’s Evaluations Committee since 2015.

“Deb did an extraordinary job as OIN’s Director of Community Outreach,”
said Keith Bergelt, CEO of Open Invention Network. “While we will miss
her, she will remain part of the OIN family and the extended open source
community. We are confident she will be a great asset to Software
Freedom Conservancy and wish her all the best as she takes on this new
and exciting challenge.”

Nicholson recently delivered the opening keynote at the Free Software
Foundation’s LibrePlanet, an annual conference for free software
contributors, enthusiasts and activists. In the talk, “Free Software
Forever,” Nicholson outlined her vision for building a vibrant, diverse
free software movement that enthusiastically welcomes and empowers new
people.

“Deb has been a force for software freedom,” said Karen Sandler,
Conservancy’s Executive Director. “In her jobs and as a volunteer she
has had a strong impact on the communities she’s participated in. She’s
a great fit for Conservancy and we’re all excited to work with her.”

As Director of Community Operations, Nicholson will be working with our
member projects to find more ways to help them achieve their goals and
increasing our member engagement opportunities. She will also be
deepening relationships with other free software organizations,
facilitating public outreach efforts and helping with some of our
internal operational duties.

Links:
 
<https://media.libreplanet.org/u/libreplanet/m/free-software-forever-with-slides/>