I'm the new Chair of the BCS Open Source Specialist Group
By @edent
· bcs Open Source · 7 comments · 350 words
I'm chuffed to bits to announce that I was recently elected to chair the BCS's Open Source community group!
The British Computer Society is an august body, and the OSSG have put on some brilliant talks in the last few years. But I'd like to shake things up a little. I want us to move away from doing talks to a small group of London-centric folk. I want us to spread the message of open source out beyond people who are already interested. I also want us to put our money where our mouth is and start using more open source tools - like Mastodon, Matrix, and Jitsi.
Here's the presentation I gave:
Those slides are, of course, open source!
How you can help
I can't do this by myself. I'm not a BDFL. I need you to help me. Things are going to kick off at the start of 2023 - and here's how you can get involved:
- Join the OSSG - you don't need to be a member of the BCS (although it is tax deductable!)
- Subscribe to our calendar of events
- Tell us about a talk you want to give! We'll help you find a good conference and see if we can help pay for your ticket and travel.
- Tell us about an event you're running! If you want to have a brilliant speaker talk about the power of Open Source, we can help.
- Want to write a small blog post? Or record a short podcast? We can help with that too!
- Know how to configure Mastodon, Jitsi, Matrix and other useful Open Source tools? Contact us!
- Got a better idea? Let us know!
As I say, these are early days. Not everything on this list is going to work out. New things might pop up. But I want to find new ways of making sure that Open Source is for everyone.
@Edent Congrats Terence, completely deserved!
@Edent Congrats!
@Edent amazing news congratulations! Bcs member hoping to attend more OSSG events in the new year!
@Edent Congrats!
@Edent How the times change… I’ve got a vivid recollection of a besuited gammon-tinted BCS branch chairman telling me that open source was “tantamount to anarchy” and that in his experience projects failed because of “inappropriate formal specification languages”. It was hard to tell if the meetings were the BCS or the golf club’s administration subcommittee…
Really excited Terence is the new Chair of the @bcs #OpenSource Specialist Group.
With @AmandaBrockUK of @openuk_uk now on the BCS Influence Board & @edent in this important position, 2023 looks like an exciting year for the OS community at @bcs 🙌
Excellent news and great post. Looking forward to participating with the group!
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