restore se212-19, now as a folder with material through git-annex
[~bandali/bndl.org] / 2020 / 05 / 29 / fsf-internship-intro.txt
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1Internship with the FSF tech team
2---------------------------------
3
4 Originally published on the Free Software Foundation's sysadmin
5 blog:
6 https://www.fsf.org/blogs/sysadmin/introducing-bandali-intern-with-the-fsf-tech-team
7
8Hi there, I'm Amin Bandali, often just `bandali' on the interwebs.
9I wear a few different hats around GNU as a maintainer, webmaster, and
10Savannah hacker, and I'm very excited to be extending that to the Free
11Software Foundation (FSF) as an intern with the FSF tech team for
12spring 2020.
13
14Growing up around parents with backgrounds in computer engineering and
15programming, it did not take long for me to find an interest in
16tinkering and playing with computers as a kid, and I first came into
17contact with GNU/Linux in my teenage years. My first introduction to
18the world of free software came a few years later, when a friend
19kindly pointed out to me that what I had vaguely known and referred to
20as "open source" software is more properly referred to as free
21software, and helped me see why "open source" misses the point of free
22software[1]. After learning about and absorbing the ideas and ideals
23of free software, I have since become a free software activist. As a
24computer scientist who enjoys studying and hacking on various programs
25and sometimes writing my own, I have made a point of releasing all I
26can under strong copyleft licenses, particularly the GNU AGPL[2]
27license.
28
29[1] https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html
30[2] https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl.html
31
32My involvement with the GNU Project[3] started in 2016, first as a
33volunteer webmaster, and later as one of the maintainers of GNUzilla
34and IceCat[4] late last year. Also around the same time, I led a
35group of volunteers in organizing and holding EmacsConf 2019[5] as a
36completely online conference, using only free software tools, much
37like the excellent LibrePlanet 2020[6]. I love GNU Emacs[7], and use
38it more than any other program. GNU Emacs helps me do a wide variety
39of tasks such as programming, reading and composing emails, and
40chatting via IRC.
41
42[3] https://www.gnu.org
43[4] https://www.gnu.org/software/gnuzilla/
44[5] https://emacsconf.org/2019
45[6] https://libreplanet.org/wiki/LibrePlanet:Conference/2020
46[7] https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/
47
48More closely related to my internship with the FSF tech team, I have
49been familiarizing myself with various pieces of the GNU Savannah[8]
50infrastructure with help from veteran Savannah hacker Bob Proulx,
51gradually learning and picking up tasks helping with the
52administration and maintenance of Savannah. I am also a member of the
53Systems Committee of my university's computer science club, overseeing
54and maintaining a large fleet of GNU/Linux servers for our club
55members.
56
57[8] https://savannah.gnu.org
58
59For my internship with the Free Software Foundation, I will be working
60with the FSF tech team on a number of tasks, including helping with
61the free software forge[9] project, as well as various improvements
62for gnu.org. I look forward to learning many new things and picking
63up valuable skills through my internship with the FSF's exceptional
64tech team, who do *so much* for the GNU project and the wider free
65software community.
66
67[9] https://www.fsf.org/blogs/sysadmin/coming-soon-a-new-site-for-fully-free-collaboration
68
69
70 -*-
71
72Copyright (c) 2020 bandali
73
74Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
75are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
76notice and this notice are preserved. This file is offered as-is,
77without any warranty.
78
79published: 2020-05-29
80plain text: https://bndl.org/2020/05/29/fsf-internship-intro.txt