Why software preservation may be an extreme sport
Extreme sports magazines likely wouldn’t feature software preservation, but perhaps they should. Florent Zara views Software Heritage co-founder Roberto Di Cosmo as a mountaineer. He first learned of Software Heritage during its infancy, at a presentation Di Cosmo gave. The vision of a universal source code archive struck him as a daring Himalayan ascent. As a result, he closely followed the project’s transformation: vision became project, project became infrastructure.
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.