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41 <h1>Internship with the FSF tech team</h1>
42 <p>by <a href="https://bndl.org"><b>bandali</b></a>
43 on May 29, 2020 <small>(also
44 in <a href="fsf-internship-intro.txt">plain text</a>)</small></p>
45
46 <p class="box">Originally published on the Free Software Foundation's
47 sysadmin blog:<br />
48 <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/sysadmin/introducing-bandali-intern-with-the-fsf-tech-team">Introducing
49 Amin Bandali, intern with the FSF tech team</a></p>
50
51 <p>Hi there, I'm Amin Bandali, often just <code>bandali</code> on the
52 interwebs. I wear a few different hats around GNU as a maintainer,
53 webmaster, and Savannah hacker, and I'm very excited to be extending
54 that to the Free Software Foundation (FSF) as an intern with the FSF
55 tech team for spring 2020.</p>
56
57 <p>Growing up around parents with backgrounds in computer engineering
58 and programming, it did not take long for me to find an interest in
59 tinkering and playing with computers as a kid, and I first came into
60 contact with GNU/Linux in my teenage years. My first introduction to
61 the world of free software came a few years later, when a friend
62 kindly pointed out to me that what I had vaguely known and referred to
63 as "open source" software is more properly referred to as free
64 software, and helped me see
65 <a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html">why
66 "open source" misses the point of free software</a>. After learning
67 about and absorbing the ideas and ideals of free software, I have
68 since become a free software activist. As a computer scientist who
69 enjoys studying and hacking on various programs and sometimes writing
70 my own, I have made a point of releasing all I can under strong
71 copyleft licenses, particularly the
72 <a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl.html">GNU AGPL</a>
73 license.</p>
74
75 <p>My involvement with the <a href="https://www.gnu.org">GNU
76 Project</a> started in 2016, first as a volunteer webmaster, and later
77 as one of the maintainers of
78 <a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/gnuzilla/">GNUzilla and
79 IceCat</a> late last year. Also around the same time, I led a group
80 of volunteers in organizing and holding
81 <a href="https://emacsconf.org/2019">EmacsConf 2019</a> as a
82 completely online conference, using only free software tools, much
83 like the excellent
84 <a href="https://libreplanet.org/wiki/LibrePlanet:Conference/2020">LibrePlanet
85 2020</a>. I love <a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/">GNU
86 Emacs</a>, and use it more than any other program. GNU Emacs helps me
87 do a wide variety of tasks such as programming, reading and composing
88 emails, and chatting via IRC.</p>
89
90 <p>More closely related to my internship with the FSF tech team, I
91 have been familiarizing myself with various pieces of the
92 <a href="https://savannah.gnu.org">GNU Savannah</a> infrastructure
93 with help from veteran Savannah hacker Bob Proulx, gradually learning
94 and picking up tasks helping with the administration and maintenance
95 of Savannah. I am also a member of the Systems Committee of my
96 university's computer science club, overseeing and maintaining a large
97 fleet of GNU/Linux servers for our club members.</p>
98
99 <p>For my internship with the Free Software Foundation, I will be
100 working with the FSF tech team on a number of tasks, including helping
101 with
102 the <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/sysadmin/coming-soon-a-new-site-for-fully-free-collaboration">free
103 software forge</a> project, as well as various improvements for
104 gnu.org. I look forward to learning many new things and picking up
105 valuable skills through my internship with the FSF's exceptional tech
106 team, who do <em>so much</em> for the GNU project and the wider free
107 software community.</p>
108
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111 <summary>Copyright &copy; 2020 bandali</summary>
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