Mashologu2021

Last modified by Deb Nicholson on 2021/02/23 16:42

About Me

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Thabang Mashologu (@t_mashologu) has a passion for open source and building diverse, inclusive communities. Originally an engineer by trade, he currently serves as the VP of Marketing and Corporate Development of the Eclipse Foundation, the steward of over 375 open source projects and home to the Eclipse Public License (EPL), an OSI-approved license. Thabang is responsible for driving community outreach and engagement, marketing and brand management, communications, and strategic initiatives. Over the past few years, his team has launched more than a dozen working groups. In a previous life, he led award-winning product teams at three companies.

He has served on the board of directors of Help Lesotho, an international charity that benefits 20,000 people per year in the Kingdom of Lesotho, Africa with its programs in rural communities to promote human rights and advocate against gender-based violence. Other volunteering experience of note includes several years of mentoring engineers new to Canada.

Outside of these pursuits, Thabang loves spending time with his family, running, playing tennis, and making music in his home recording studio.

Agenda

TL;DR: My main mission would be to help grow OSI awareness and membership engagement through effective marketing, partnerships, and diverse community outreach.

First, I would like to see the OSI increase its investment in marketing programs and activities to generate awareness of the organization and to connect with new potential supporters. This could be through sponsoring or participating in industry events and conferences, co-creating content and partnering with affiliates to distribute it to increase audience reach, and using social and digital marketing channels to more effectively amplify OSI’s brand and connect to open source community members where they are. It would also be great for OSI to foster collaboration among its affiliate members and social media influencers to improve the OSI’s profile.

Second, I would like to see OSI do more to advance diversity and inclusion in the open source community. Open source has always been about people with differing opinions and viewpoints coming together to solve problems and innovate. As a member of an underrepresented group in open source, I have a personal stake in creating an inclusive and welcoming environment for everyone. I have repeatedly seen the positive impact that people of different backgrounds and perspectives can have to foster sustainable and healthy open source communities. OSI could be at the forefront of increasing opportunities for people from diverse backgrounds to meaningfully contribute to and effectively participate in open source. Specifically, I would like to see OSI work with affiliate members on programs to educate about the benefits of diversity and inclusion in open source.

Third, I would love to see OSI invest more in programs to increase the effective participation of public sector institutions and universities in open source. Many of these entities are in the early days of adopting and releasing software under OSD compliant licenses and the OSI should find ways to actively support them on that journey. OSI could start by engaging with publicly-funded open source initiatives and government open source program offices (OSPOs) to explore areas of mutual interest. 

Contact

Thank you for considering me for the board. You can reach out to me on Twitter via @t_mashologu if you have any questions.

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