1 Internship with the FSF tech team
2 ---------------------------------
4 Originally published on the Free Software Foundation's sysadmin
6 https://www.fsf.org/blogs/sysadmin/introducing-bandali-intern-with-the-fsf-tech-team
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
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]
29 [1] https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html
30 [2] https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl.html
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
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/
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
57 [8] https://savannah.gnu.org
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
67 [9] https://www.fsf.org/blogs/sysadmin/coming-soon-a-new-site-for-fully-free-collaboration
72 Copyright (c) 2020 bandali
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,
80 this file: https://bndl.org/2020/05/29/fsf-internship-intro.txt
projects / ~bandali / bndl.org / blob