Hi there! I'm Michael Downey, I'm running for board member this year because I think we're at a critical point in the evolution of open source. I'm excited that this year's slate of candidates brings the opportunity for many fresh faces to the OSI board, and hopefully with it renewed energy to work for a vibrant future of open source.

What I think

I've been an open source supporter since the turn of the century, and it's been a key component of my career since returning from the United States Peace Corps a decade ago. Since then, I've been working to leverage open source to make the world a better place. When the OSI announced its individual membership program at the Community Leadership Summit in 2012, I was proud to be the 2nd person in line. 

However, I think there's still many untapped opportunities for the OSI, and I fear that if we as a community don't act soon, we may miss our opportunity to have a collective voice.  For a moment, let's look at the 3 main missions of the OSI: 

• educate about the benefits of open source: Today's technology graduates understand open source as a basic tenet of how software is developed. While not everyone participates, it's no longer a revolutionary idea. Without an understanding of why open source matters, we may lose many of the benefits of our collaborative software development methodology. The OSI should work with the many excellent universities teaching open source to help spread this message. 

• advocate for the benefits of open source: I believe we're seeing an increasing number of organizations leverage open source for their downstream products, but doing so without contributing upstream as good open source citizens. This imbalance is not sustainable; if we allow this path to continue, we risk continued dilution of the "open source" ethos, and risk more people turning their backs on the Open Source Definition. The OSI is in a unique position to speak out about the importance of good open source citizenship. 

• build bridges among different constituencies: Long time OSI supporters probably think of this as the "free software" vs. "open source" debate. While I believe the distinction is important, I see that debate as a false dichotomy. I think it's a better use of the OSI's reach to work toward a unified voice about what it means to participate in modern open source projects and to highlight best practices about how that collaboration happens.

What I'll do

In my day job (see below), I've learned the value of building strategic partnerships to maximize impact. While that may sound like a buzz phrase, it's highly aligned with the open source value of collaboration. If I'm elected to the OSI board, I'll work hard to champion new key partnerships with OSI, to help address each of the mission areas above. We need to act now, and we can't continue to act alone. Let's do great things together!

What I'm doing & what I've done

Currently, I'm the Open Source Director of Community for the Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) at the United Nations Foundation. My career in IT and open source spans nearly two decades both in the healthcare and financial services industries, as well as the nonprofit world. In my current role, I'm working to build a vibrant and active open source software community for high-impact technology for development (T4D) projects that advance the mission of DIAL. As a long-time participant in the T4D community, I'm really excited about our unique opportunity to help build a digital society that serves everyone.

I served as a US Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon teaching computer science, and later was the Director of Community for OpenMRS, an open source health IT software project. During my tenure at OpenMRS, it became an affiliate OSI member, and grew from “stealth mode” to a large open source community, receiving the Free Software Foundation’s Award for Projects of Social Benefit.

I received two undergraduate degrees in engineering from Purdue University, and did PhD studies at Indiana University, researching cross-cultural computer supported cooperative work. I'm also on the steering committee for LibreHealth, a new Software Freedom Conservancy member project to foster health IT collaboration. A long-time supporter and advocate for free and open source software, I'm a member/supporter of organizations like the OSI, Free Software Foundation, Software Freedom Conservancy, Internet Society, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Get in touch!

Got questions or ideas to share? Drop me a line on Twitter (@downey), or comment here. Regardless of this election's outcome, I want to hear others' ideas about how to make OSI better!