From info at sfconservancy.org Mon Mar 22 12:09:02 2021 From: info at sfconservancy.org (Software Freedom Conservancy) Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2021 05:09:02 -0700 Subject: Free Software Foundation Honors Conservancy's Policy Fellow; Bradley M. Kuhn wins FSF's Award for the Advancement of Free Software for His Copyleft Advocacy & Enforcement Message-ID: <87o8fbcrvl.fsf@ebb.org> FREE SOFTWARE FOUNDATION HONORS CONSERVANCY'S POLICY FELLOW Bradley M. Kuhn wins FSF's Award for the Advancement of Free Software for His Copyleft Advocacy & Enforcement Bradley M. Kuhn, Policy Fellow and Hacker-in-Residence at Software Freedom Conservancy, on Saturday night received the Free Software Foundation's annual award for the Advancement of Free Software. This unique FSF award is currently the only award given for individual achievements in software freedom activism. Bradley received this award in his very first year of eligibility. In his acceptance speech, Bradley gave advice to software freedom activists, noting that all should follow a few simple principles: take care in the words they choose in their communications, be prepared to "speak truth to power" (both to powerful proprietary software companies and to other Free Software leaders), stubbornly refuse to use or develop proprietary software, and find ways to bolster and coordinate with other important social justice causes, such as those that seek to ameliorate systemic bias and combat climate change. John Sullivan, Executive Director of the FSF, presented Bradley with this prestigious award. After the ceremony, John noted: “Bradley earned FSF's Award for the Advancement of Free Software for many contributions, but most importantly, his tireless and absolutely necessary work on copyleft education and principled, community-oriented GPL enforcement. Bradley has done more for GPL compliance than anyone. He continues that work with Conservancy and the 2017 winner of this award, Karen Sandler. These awards show both FSF's appreciation for what they've already done and our support as they continue standing up for our software freedoms.” Bradley expressed gratitude for the hundreds of individuals who have helped him in his lifelong activism for software freedom — thanking in particular Larry Wall — creator of Perl and inaugural winner of this same award. In the Perl community that Larry founded, Bradley learned the value of FOSS collaboration and software sharing. After the award ceremony, Conservancy hosted a virtual reception open to the public via Big Blue Button (a FOSS alternative to Zoom and other proprietary video chat platforms). A mix of longtime software freedom luminaries as well as newcomers joined to congratulate Bradley, and express the positive impact he has had on the movement and their lives personally. “My paramount goal is always to make a real difference for the better, and it is heartwarming to know that so many of you appreciate my work”, Bradley responded in the final toast of the evening while choking back tears. Bradley also acknowledged that his work in collaboration with Conservancy's Executive Director, Karen Sandler, has allowed them “to achieve accomplishments in Free Software that neither of [them] could achieve working alone”. While thrilled to receive this individual honor, Bradley views his collaboration with Karen and Conservancy's staff as an excellent example of how software freedom activism is bigger than any single individual's achievements or views. Bradley added: “we succeed with the best results for the future of software freedom when we work together, set aside personal ambition, and reject cult of personality.” Bradley joins many winners of FSF's awards associated with Conservancy. In addition to Karen, Deb Nicholson (who volunteered on our Project Evaluation Committee from 2014-2020 and was employed our Director of Community Operations from early 2018 until late 2020) won this award in 2019. Outreachy (a diversity initiative for FOSS projects and a Conservancy member project) received FSF's Award for Project of Social Benefit in 2014. Finally, Outreachy graduate Clarissa Lima Borges, received the first Outstanding New Free Software Contributor Award last year. Also honored with other FSF awards on Saturday were: Alyssa Rosenzweig, a developer who leads the important Panfrost project (receiving the Outstanding New Free Software Contributor Award), and the CiviCRM project (receiving the Award for Project of Social Benefit). Conservancy also congratulates Alyssa and CiviCRM on their well-deserved awards. Relevant URLs and Related Links: https://sfconservancy.org/news/2021/mar/22/fsf-award-bkuhn/ https://sfconservancy.org/videos/2021-03-20_bkuhn-accepts-FSF-award.webm https://twitter.com/conservancy/status/1373967370197209088 https://mastodon.technology/@conservancy/105933354257006205 https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/principles.html https://www.fsf.org/news/free-software-awards-winners-announced-civicrm-bradley-kuhn-and-alyssa-rosenzweig -- Become a Conservancy Supporter Now: https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/ (And then ask a friend to become a Supporter, too! :) From pono at sfconservancy.org Tue Aug 3 21:28:48 2021 From: pono at sfconservancy.org (Daniel Pono Takamori) Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2021 14:28:48 -0700 Subject: The Institute for Computing in Research announces new interns in Portland Message-ID: URL: https://sfconservancy.org/news/2021/aug/03/icr-portland/ The Institute for Computing in Research Announces Portland Cohort One of Conservancy's member projects The Institute for Computing in Research is launching a new branch of their mentoring and internship program for high school students this week in Portland, Oregon. This unique paid internship introduces high school students to software freedom as part of a summer research position that focuses on computing in the sciences. We're very happy to be hosting and facilitating an initiative that is lending long time experience to fostering a new generation of scientists. The program has run in Santa Fe, NM in the past, due to its founder's proximity to the Los Alamos National Laboratory, but this year it has expanded to a second cohort in the pacific northwest. Portland has a rich history of technology and computing institutions (the so called Silicon Forest), so we're very hopeful that this program will help get more young people involved with STEM minded trajectories in their careers. Mark Galassi (a board member of Conservancy's) founded the program in 2019 and this is the third year it has run. In it's first year 5 internships were given out and 9 in 2020. This year there are 17(11 in Santa Fe and 6 in Portland)! Focusing on pairing 10th, 11th, and 12th graders with mentors in the sciences, the students will work on computing focused research projects in various disciplines. Supported by academics at Portland State University, Reed College, and Oregon State University, the cohort in Portland has projects in computational biology, natural language processing, pure math, and AI and game theory. Exposure to mentors, communities and the varied academic disciplines is a great opportunity for these budding scientists. Bridging the gap between programs like Outreachy (another member project of Conservancy's, Outreachy, which provides internships to historically underrepresented groups in technology), Google Summer of Code and other open source internship options with the academic programs like Research Experience for Undergraduates, the ICR is filling a vital role in connecting FOSS and the academy. Showing students computing tools used in industry and the workflows and day to day experiences of academics doing research. Typically these kind of positions are unpaid and not everyone has the luxury of working unpaid for a summer. It's this kind of equitable thinking that makes the ICR standout to us and why we are pleased to work with them. This pilot program in Portland is supported by funding from the Oregon Community Foundation with space donated by Beaverton Round. If you would like to donate to The Institute for Computing in Research[0] or The Software Freedom Conservancy please visit our support page[1]. About The Institute for Computing in Research: The Institute for Computing in Research is a consortium of scholars and students who work on research and pedagogical aspects of using advanced computing methods for research and scholarship. Any application of computing to physical science, life science, social science, arts and humanities is of interest to our researchers. We are located in Santa Fe, New Mexico and in Portland, Oregon. About Software Freedom Conservancy: Conservancy is a resourceful, non-profit organization dedicated to helping people take control of their computing experience by growing the software freedom movement, supporting community-driven alternatives to proprietary software and defending free software builders with practical initiatives. Conservancy believes that the future of software should be for everyone, and in particular, home users of small electronic devices such as wireless routers. Social Media posts: https://mastodon.technology/@conservancy/106694185922754295 https://twitter.com/conservancy/status/1422662006016942084 [0]: https://computinginresearch.org/support-us/ [1]: https://sfconservancy.org/donate/ -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 228 bytes Desc: not available URL: