Bdale Garbee joins Software Freedom Conservancy’s Evaluations Committee

December 15, 2016

Bdale Garbee joins Software Freedom Conservancy’s Evaluations Committee

BdaleSoftware Freedom Conservancy announces today that it has appointed Bdale Garbee to its Evaluations Committee. The committee evaluates projects applying to Conservancy and selects which ones get offered membership. Meeting monthy, the committee serves as a gatekeeper, monitoring Conservancy’s mission to support, promote and defend software freedom. The evaluations conducted by the comittee are often complex and require a very broad collective skill set to be successful. Ensuring that there are a strong group of independent commttee members who are experts in the field is fundamental. The Evaluations Committee is appointed by Conservancy’s Board of Directors.

Garbee is a technologist and community builder. He has deep connections to free and open source software communities, having been an early participant in the Debian community and board member of Software in the Public Interest for a decade. He also has substantial coporate experience in the field, and has recently retired (for the second time) from an impressive career at HP/HPE. Garbee also serves on the boards of the Freedombox Foundation and Aleph Objects. He is a co-founder of Altus Metrum, LLC, is a small business that designs, builds, and sells completely open hardware and open source avionics solutions for use in high power model rockets. Garbee is a frequent speaker and presence at free and open source software events.

“The Software Freedom Conservancy plays an important role in the world of Free Software,” said Garbee, “and I am happy to further support the organization by adding my experience and perspective to the Evaluation Committee.”

“Bdale brings a unique background which will help us make sure that we’re partnering with the right member projects,” commented Karen Sandler, Executive Director of Conservancy. “I can think of few free software contributors with the breadth of experience that Bdale brings to the table. We’re excited to have him on the committee!”