Open Source Funding with Open Technology Fund & GitHub

Join GitHub and the Open Technology Fund (OTF) for a conversation on open source sustainability, and how the OTF’s new FOSS Sustainability Fund opens up new avenues for open source funding.

Tune in for a fireside chat with Felix Reda, GitHub’s Director of Developer Policy and former member of the European Parliament, Laura Cunningham, President of OTF and former Senior Advisor for Internet Freedom in the U.S. State Department, and Susan Kennedy, Program Manager at OTF. Their discussion will include policy, internet freedoms, private versus public funding, the implications of the xz Utils vulnerability, FOSS maintainer health and burnout, and more.

With the applications for the inaugural fund open through May 17th, this is a unique chance to learn more about the application process, what the grants look like, and how funding free and open source software is crucial for the security, privacy, and sustainability of online access.

A Fireside Chat with:

• Laura Cunningham, President of the Open Technology Fund
• Felix Reda, Director of Developer Policy at GitHub
• Susan Kennedy, Program Manager at the Open Technology Fund
• Kara Sowles, Open Source Program Manager at GitHub

Details:
Tuesday, May 7th
9:30am EDT / 6:30am PDT / 4:30pm CEST
Watch streaming on GitHub’s YouTube, Twitch, or LinkedIn channels

About the FOSS Sustainability Fund
For the past decade, OTF has helped people around the world exercise their fundamental human rights online by supporting innovative open source technologies. Despite the critical role that open source technologies play in protecting human rights and free expression, they are perpetually under-funded and under-supported. As a result, these critical technologies are in danger of becoming defective or even developing security risks if they aren’t properly maintained.

In response to this challenge, the FOSS Sustainability Fund helps to ensure that free and open source software projects and the communities that sustain them have the resources and support needed for long-term maintenance, security, and community well-being. Ensuring a diverse, vibrant, and sustainable FOSS ecosystem is critical to OTF’s commitment to support the development and maintenance of anti-censorship technologies, and ensures that all users have better access to privacy and security tools. GitHub is proud to be one of the organizations sponsoring the fund.

Speakers

Felix Reda (he/they) is the Director of Developer Policy at GitHub. He has been active in the digital rights field for over ten years, including serving as a Member of the European Parliament from 2014 to 2019 and working with the strategic litigation NGO Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (GFF). His areas of interest encompass copyright reform, freedom of expression, and the sustainability of the open-source ecosystem. Felix is an affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center, serves on the board of the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany, and is a member of the policy committee for Knowledge Rights 21.

Laura Cunningham (she/her) is the President of the Open Technology Fund. She has over a decade of experience working on Internet freedom across a variety of donor, non-profit, and government organizations. Prior to joining OTF, Laura was the Senior Advisor for Internet Freedom in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, where she led the Department’s Internet freedom programs focused on technology development, digital security, Internet policy advocacy, and research. Prior to joining the State Department, Laura was Program Manager of ICT Policy and Programs at Internews, where she designed and launched Internews’ global internet policy and research initiative to support and enhance local internet policy advocacy worldwide.

Susan Kennedy (she/her) is the Program Manager for the Open Technology Fund’s FOSS Sustainability fund. Among other work promoting free, secure, and unrestricted access to information, Susan conducted research on digital equity ecosystems and broadband measurement in U.S. public libraries.

Kara Sowles (she/her) is an Open Source Program Manager at GitHub, whose work focuses on supporting software maintainers. She’ll be hosting the stream.