Deb Bryant
I am an independent policy adviser helping open source foundations participate in public policy concerns in the US with strong ties to Europe. I've been an advocate of free and open source software and the communities that make it so since the 1990s. My participation in open source began in Portland, Oregon where I became deeply involved in the community, helped grow OSU's Open Source Lab into an international community resource, founded the Government Open Source Conference, and championed the use of FOSS in the public sector. I've lent my voice to supporting open source projects and developers, building bridges between academia, industry, non-profits and government along the way.
I spent eight years at Red Hat leading their OSPO team before leaving in 2022 to focus on public benefit concerns. I serve on several boards where open source is a critical element of their mission in the public interest. I serve on the advisory boards of the non-profits Open Source Elections Technology Foundation, DemocracyLab, and OASIS Open. I'm also an Open Source Initiative Board member emeritus (served 9 years). My early career was in private sector emerging technology start-ups (high speed computing, Internet) following by a number of years in public service as the State of Oregon's Deputy CIO where I came to appreciate the art and science, joy and agony of public policy development from the perspective of being responsible for implementing it once it was settled business.