She’s a Data Platform Engineer at Canonical, a company founded to market commercial support and related services for Ubuntu and other related projects. Fluent in Python, Rust, and Zsh, she also has knowledge of several other languages. Her technical interests include software engineering, security, free software, backend development, and scalable database deployment.

Oudin is also a privacy advocate. She’s a member of “La Quadrature du Net”, a French non-governmental organization dedicated to promoting and defending fundamental freedoms in the digital world. Within the activist community, it operates at the intersection of two influential forces: the free (libre) software activist movement, fueled by the emancipatory spirit of hackers and early internet pioneers, and various human rights associations, both French and international.

Oudin is also involved in free software projects like Tor, a free overlay network for anonymous communication. She contributes to BorgBackup, too, a deduplicating backup program that efficiently and securely backs up data, optionally supporting compression and authenticated encryption. She also presents at the Chaos Communication Congress and FOSDEM each year.

While Oudin’s background makes her right at home talking tech, she’s also a big believer in software archival as vital for many communities. She’s convinced that the earlier children start learning about the societal role of software, the better, and suggests weaving this topic into school lessons.

She views software archiving as a crucial element on which society is built. Their perspective brings an important, diverse view while actively protecting the rights of minorities and transgender individuals.

While Oudin is at home in technical conversations thanks to her background, she’s also a strong advocate for software archival as a vital need across many communities. She believes that the earlier, the better: the societal role of software should be integrated into school curricula. And, indeed, tech discussions may quickly lead to broader topics; therefore, she views software archiving through the lens of protecting transgender rights. Software is a vital component of our cultural heritage.

You can find more about her projects and contact information on her Ambassador profile.
We’re also seeking passionate individuals and organizations to volunteer as Ambassadors and help grow the Software Heritage community. If you’re interested in becoming an Ambassador, please share a bit about yourself and your connection to the Software Heritage mission.

The post Bridging tech, activism, and the future of software archival appeared first on Software Heritage.

Our newest ambassador works full-time at the Eclipse Foundation, whose mission is to host and sustain Open Source projects by enabling healthy collaboration and nurturing communities. His mandate is to help large accounts manage open source and open as much code as possible, preferably on well-known public instances of GitLab and on GitHub, archived by Software Heritage. Beyond his professional role, he’s been a dedicated free software enthusiast since 1999.

In his free time, he geeks out as an administrator and board member at LinuxFr.org, a leading French-speaking, community-driven website for open source. His nearly two decades in open-source consulting have seen him advise on everything from software quality to governance, licensing, InnerSource, and change management for the likes of ENGIE (previously Gaz de France), Bouygues Telecom, Henix, and others.

Today, as Open Source Services Team Lead at the Eclipse Foundation, he’s helping members and projects better understand, manage, and master Open Source with a focus on the automotive industry, mobility sector, and research organizations. As an active contributor to the OSPO Alliance, serving as Vice-Chair, and the Good Governance Initiative, his efforts focus on building an open community. This community shares guidance, empowering organizations to manage the use, contribution, and publication of open-source software. 

As an ambassador, he aims to expand Software Heritage’s reach, inviting more to join the ascent.

If you’d like to learn more about our mission or connect with him, please don’t hesitate to use the links below. We’re also seeking passionate individuals and organizations to volunteer as ambassadors and help us expand the Software Heritage community. If you’d like to become an ambassador, please tell us a bit about yourself and your interest in the Software Heritage mission.

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/florentzara 
• https://mamot.fr/@flzara

The post Why software preservation may be an extreme sport appeared first on Software Heritage.