Apereo Micro Conferences

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2023 Micro Conference Speakers

Apereo Foundation invites you to join us for our monthly micro conferences! 

Apereo Foundation’s MicroConferences bring together leaders from across open source education technology to discuss the latest topics and trends impacting higher education.

Each month, leaders and influences in the open source world will speak about topics ranging from research and community building to policy shifts impacting the world of open source and education. 

This free service provided by the Apereo Foundation and our partners requires registration to attend the live event. Contact registrar@apereo.org to join the invitation list. All are welcome!

Emmy Tsang

October 2024

Date: October 9, 2024
Time: 11 AM Eastern
Speaker: Emmy Tsang, Engagement Lead at Invest in Open Infrastructure 

Talk Topic: Invest in Open: The State of Open Infrastructure

Open infrastructures, which include open-source solutions, systems, and supports that facilitate the creation and dissemination of open research and data, are critical in ensuring access to knowledge and fostering innovation. Earlier this year, Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI) released the first State of Open Infrastructure report to shed light on the trends, patterns, issues, and gaps in the investment and adoption of open infrastructure for research, with the aim of identifying areas for potential change or intervention. 
In this session, Emmy Tsang, Engagement Lead at IOI, will highlight key findings related to:
  • Characteristics of selected open infrastructures 
  • Sources and characteristics of the grant funding those infrastructures receive and the research they enable
  • The influence of procurement and information technology governance processes on the adoption of open infrastructure

Emmy will also share a sneak peek at an upcoming update on Infra Finder, IOI's open infrastructure discovery tool. Q&A and discussion will follow the short presentation.

About our speaker:
Emmy Tsang is passionate about open and meaningful community designs, strategic communication, and sustainable and equitable innovation. Previously, she led the communication and community engagement efforts for the Open Science Programme at the Delft University of Technology to widen researchers', teachers', staff' and leadership's adoption of open science practices at the university. At eLife, she helped build a community of open-source practitioners to advance the development of open-source tools to change the ways research is shared, consumed, discovered, and evaluated.

Emmy is also a co-director at Open Life Science, which runs a global cohort-based training and mentoring programme to support individuals and stakeholders in research in becoming open science ambassadors. She holds a PhD in Neuroscience from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and the University of Heidelberg. Originally from Hong Kong, she now lives in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

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Karen Sandler

November 2024

Date: November 13th, 2024
Time: 11 AM Eastern
Speaker: Karen M. Sandler, Executive Director of Software Freedom Conservancy and Lecturer-in-Law at Columbia Law School

Talk Topic: Building a Thriving Community: The Software Freedom Conservancy’s Approach to Sustaining an Engaged Community 

Join us for an interview with Karen Sandler, Executive Director of Software Freedom Conservancy and Lecturer-in-Law at Columbia Law School. Karen will introduce us to SFC, her work, and FOSSY.

We'll explore SFC's approach to community building and delve into their "Sustainers" program. Karen will explain what Sustainers are and the benefits for both SFC and members. She'll share insights on engaging Sustainers and lessons learned from growing the program.

Learn about SFC's practices in cultivating this supportive community and how you can become a Sustainer yourself.

This discussion promises valuable insights into community support for free and open-source software, drawn from Karen's extensive experience in the field.

Register Now

Past Micro Conferences

Martin Dougiamas

September 2024

Join the Apereo Foundation as we welcome Martin Dougiamas, founder of Moodle and OpenEd Tech, who will share his session, Open EdTech in an AI Future.

 

Date: September 11, 2024

Session Title: Open EdTech in an AI Future

 

About Martin
Martin Dougiamas is a highly influential figure in online education. He is known jokingly as “that Australian guy who founded and led Moodle,” an open-source learning management system that revolutionized online learning. Martin’s roots are in higher education. He developed Moodle while working at Curtin University, aiming to make education more accessible and collaborative. His vision grew into a global movement, with Moodle now used by millions of students and educators worldwide. 

In recent years, Martin has shifted his focus to Open EdTech, an international association founded in 2023 dedicated to developing and promoting open source educational technology. They focus on creating a trustworthy, sustainable, and interoperable ecosystem that supports educators and community developers with enhancing lifelong learning opportunities.

 

May 8 - Dr. Heidi Ellis and Dr. Greg Hislop

Wednesday, May 8th, 2024

Dr. Heidi Ellis, professor of Computer Science at Western New England University, is one of the founding members of the Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software (HFOSS) project, which focuses on involving students in FOSS projects that improve the human condition. And...

Dr. Greg Hislop is a professor in the Information Science Department of the College of Computing and Informatics at Drexel University. Dr. Hilsop is an advocate for the educational and societal benefits of the free and open source movement. He facilitates the coordinating committee of Teaching Open Source, a member project of the Software Freedom Conservancy. 

Dr. Ellis and Dr. Hilsop will join the Apereo community to discuss Teaching Open Source. 

VM (Vicki) Brasseur

April 10 - Vicky Brasseur

Wednesday, April 10th, 2024
Time is 2 PM, US Eastern Time

Topic: Open Source Governance By Example

Speaker: Vicky Brasseur, author of Forge Your Future with Open Source, the only book detailing how to contribute to free/open source (FOSS) projects.

https://archive.org/details/apereo2024-governancebyexample

Ben Cotton

March - Ben Cotton

Wednesday, March 13th, 2024
12 PM Eastern U.S./6 PM Central European

Speaker: Ben Cotton, a longtime contributor to the Fedora Linux project and author of Program Management for Open Source Projects: How to Guide Your Community-Driven, Open Source Project 

Topic: Coopetition: open source projects working together. 

Be sure to let us know if you’d like to join the invitation list for micro conferences by emailing registrar@apereo.org.

Philippe Krief

February 14, 2024

Time: 10 AM Eastern U.S./4 PM Central European

Speaker: Philippe Krief, Director of Research Relations at Eclipse Foundation, France

Topic: Research @ Eclipse: 10 Years of commitment and support

Contact: registrar@apereo.org

Simon Phipps

January 17, 2024

Time: 1 PM Eastern U.S.

Speaker: Simon Phipps, Director of the AlmaLinux OS Foundation

Topic: Discussion ranging several open source topics such as:

  • Do open source projects need foundations to host them?
  • How should projects and adopting organizations respond to the coming waves of software regulation?
  • What impact will/does open source have on AI, IoT and Cloud?

Contact: registrar@apereo.org

Wayne Mackintosh

December 13, 2023

Speaker: Wayne Mackintosh, managing Director of the OER Foundation headquartered at Te Pūkenga – the New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology and holds a UNESCO Chair in OER

Topic: Reflecting on anomalies in OER: Is ‘Open’ broken, and if so, can education fix it?

Anne-Marie Scott

November 2023

Speaker: Anne-Marie Scott, Board Chair of the Apereo Foundation

Topic: OSPOs in the Academic World

Georg Link

September 2023

Speaker: Georg Link, Open Source Strategist and Founder of Linux Foundation's CHAOSS Project

Topic: Project Health in Academic Open Source

Samson Goddy

August 2023

Speaker: Samson Goddy, co-founder of Open Source Community Africa

Topic: From Users to Contributors: Strategies for effective community management

Stefano Maffulli

June 2023

Speaker: Stefano Maffulli, Executive Director of the Open Source Initiative (OSI)

Topic: Defining an Open Source AI

Mike Milinkovich of the Eclipse Foundation

May 2023

Speaker: Mike Milinkovich of the Eclipse Foundation

Topic: Government Regulation of Open Source Is Here

RCOS

April 2023

Speakers: Wes Turner, Senior Lecturer at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Director of the Rensselaer Center for Open Source (RCOS); Alice Bibaud, RCOS Student Leadership team member

Topic: Getting Students Involved in Open Source Software

Hong Phuc Dang

March 2023

Speaker: Hong Phuc Dang, Founder of FOSSASIA; Open Source Business Alliance Board Member; Vice Chair of the Open Source Committee, IEEE SA OPEN; Innersource Manager, Zalando SE

Topic: Opportunities through Open Source in Education in Asia

Apereo A

February 2023

Speakers: Deb Nicholson, Executive Director of the Python Software Foundation, and OW2 CEO Pierre-Yves Gibello

Topic: Open Source 2023 - Professionalization Benefits and Challenges

Apereo A

January 2023

Speakers: Dr. Cable Green, Director of Open Knowledge at Creative Commons, and Deb Bryant, former senior director in Red Hat's Open Source Program Office and current policy director for the Open Source Initiative and Eclipse Foundation

Topic: Open Source 2023 - A short list of important trends in open source software + public policy