git.shemshak.org - ~bandali/bndl.org/blob - 2020/05/29/fsf-internship-intro.txt

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