About me?

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I am Stéphane Ribas, a french "lucky" boy, as I lived the rise of the internet, its infrastrucutre, its protocols, its applications but as well as the rise of the open source movement. I am discret guy who prefers actions coupled with a good communication - but always behind the scene.

I spent 12 years in software industries and services, mostly in innovative technologies - open source oriented -. Thanks to the people I meet and the projects I collaborated on, I developed very strong skills in building and fostering Internet communities.

I joined INRIA, a french public research institute in mathematics and computing, in 2008 to co-lead OW2 Europe Local Chapter and contribute(d) to several other Open Source projects & consortiums. I wrote several articles on how to "build and sustain Open Source Communities". I presented my ideas and approaches in different conferences.

Today, I joined the INRIA direction team. I am helping INRIA research teams to create and develop their own communities (community over code!), I help them in the choice of governance model, oss licences, project dev. lyfe cycle and how to animate the project and create a vibrant community. I am following them, helping them, monitoring them. I am also helping the INRIA at large in their Open source governance/strategy.

In parallel, I am one of the main organizer of the fOSSa conference (Free Open Source Software for Academia). fOSSa is a conference about Open Source and beyond: Open education, open collaboration, open data, open standard, open hardware & … open-ness. Simon Phipps & Martin Michlmayr participated to the first and third edition.

I am also working on two projects as a community manager: Poppy - Humanoid robot and Natron.

Thanks to my job, I meet and regularly collaborate with many small, medium and important open source organisations :-)

Last but not least, I teach Open Source (culture, business models, licences, etc) at a business school in Grenoble, french alps, France. I also teach open source, robotics and music to schools and high schools.

Why should you consider my application ?

I am proposing my application through the AFUL organisation. This consortium adresses the usage of open source in France by industrials, small companies, and institutions, provide advices and reports to our government, defends users, defend opensource, spend a lot of time to educate, etc.. I am proud to work at their board and I do the interface between AFUL and research institutions in France. I help them also to animate the AFUL community. I have a good knowledge of the french universities and engineering schools eco-system. I have also several industrial contacts. I do also spend a lot of time in studying open source at large, and especially the licences. I gather a lot of experience thanks to the role I have at INRIA and AFUL.

By applying to OSI board, I want to bring my help and knowledge to:

• the animation of the OSI community,
  • asking/answering questions that members have
  • update regularly the website and the social networks media,
  • help to organise current initiatives
  • helping in the organisation of the different meetings, improving the architecture of participation if needed.
• the promotion the OSI initiative,
  • spread the world!
  • I would like to increase OSI presence in France
• the daily duties of all board members ;-) ,and,
• attract new members (example, from france)
  • I will first listen and understand the OSI goverance, and then propose ideas.

Finally, I will make regular report to AFUL community and try to mutualise events/initiatives that our organisation makes in France for OSI.

I would also like that INRIA becomes a member of OSI. I am working on it !

Thanks!

Thanks so much for reading, and I'm happy to answer questions over Email :-)