The Commons Initiative at SF State

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People

Advisory Board

Alexis Rossi

Alexis is on her second tour of duty at the Internet Archive, working on a program to archive the entire Internet and thinking about questions like "what does 'the entire Internet' mean?" and "do we really want it ALL?" Alexis currently manages all aspects of Internet Archive collections work for every type of media, and runs the Wayback Machine project. From 2006-2008, Alexis managed the audio and video collections and Open Library, as well as working on the Open Content Alliance, and the Zotero/IA project.

Alexis has been working with Internet content since 1996 when she discovered that being picky about words in books was good training for being picky about data on computers. She spent several years managing news content at ClariNet (the first online news aggregator), worked as the Editorial Director at Alexa Internet, and as Product Manager at Mixercast. Alexis has an MLIS, concentrating on web technologies and interfaces, and enjoys making jewelry, dancing, costuming, and baking Cookie Smackdown-winning cookies.

Email: alexis@archive.org
Web:

Alolita Sharma

20 years of industry experience in managing and developing software solutions for web, telecommunications, banking and government markets leveraging web and open source technologies. As an open source strategist, collaborated with leaders in India and Asia to create sustainable ICT policies and best practices.

Specialties

  • Strategies and best practices for leveraging open source.
  • Engineering management.
  • Software development using collaborative tools and techniques.
  • Building communities around open source.
  • International community development and outreach.
  • Deep understanding of open source ecosystems in India and Asia.

Email: alolita.sharma@gmail.com
Web:

Asheesh Laroia

Asheesh loves growing camaraderie among geeks. In the past, he has chaired the Johns Hopkins Association for Computing Machinery and taught Python classes at Noisebridge, San Francisco’s hackerspace. He realizes that most of the work that makes collaborative projects successful is hidden beneath the surface.

He has volunteered his technical skills for the UN in Uganda, the EFF, and Students for Free Culture, and is a Developer in Debian. He has worked at Creative Commons and the Participatory Culture Foundation as a software engineer, designing and scaling web systems. Today, he lives in San Francisco, CA, working on OpenHatch.org.

Email: asheesh@asheesh.org
Web: http://asheesh.org/

Brian Behlendorf

Managing Director, Chief Technology Officer, World Economic Forum

Studies at University of California, Berkeley. 1993-98, Chief Engineer, Wired Magazine and HotWired; 1998-2003, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Organic Online; 1997-2007, co-founded and Director, Apache Software Foundation, a non-profit creating free, open source software for building Web; 1999, founded CollabNet, to bring open source development tools and methodologies to organizations; with Open Government Initiative, Obama Administration; 2009-10, with US Department of Health and Human Services, led implementation of open source platform and standards for exchange of electronic healthcare records.

Expertise: finding great Asian food in Geneva. Interests: music, travel, iconoclasm.

Email: brian@behlendorf.com
Web: http://brian.behlendorf.com/

Stefano Maffulli

OpenStack community manager, Stefano built his career around Free Software and open source. As Italian Chancellor of the Free Software Foundation Europe, he also created the FSFE Fellowship participation program. Later as community manager of leading mobile open source sync solution Funambol, his efforts boosted downloads and bolstered enterprise contributions. For Twitter, he led efforts to expand in the Italian market. In his spare time, he builds furniture and is learning how to sail in the San Francisco Bay.

Email: stefano@maffulli.net
Web: http://maffulli.net

Timothy Vollmer

Timothy Vollmer is Policy Coordinator for Creative Commons, and has worked as a policy fellow, business development assistant, and intern for Creative Commons. Prior to rejoining CC, Timothy was Assistant Director to the Program on Public Access to Information for the American Library Association Office for Information Technology Policy in Washington, D.C. Timothy is a graduate of the University of Michigan School of Information, with a specialization in information policy. While at Michigan, he was a research investigator for the Open.Michigan Open Educational Resource initiative, helped develop a student-centric OCW publishing pilot there.

Email: tvol@creativecommons.org
Web:

Director

Community

Verma Sameer

I am a professor of Information Systems in the College of Business at San Francisco State University. My research is based on how innovations diffuse through a community and why people [don't] adopt innovations. I teach a bunch of courses ranging from Management Information Systems to IT Strategy. I am a proponent of Free and Open Source Software - it truly enables a society to build a lasting digital commons. In my oodles of free time I organize the One Laptop per Child San Francisco volunteer community (http://olpcsf.org). All my computers run Linux. Even the one in my car!

Email: sverma@sfsu.edu
Web: http://verma.sfsu.edu

Robert Demallac-Sauzier

I am an IT Consultant at the College of Education at San Francisco State University.  My field is applied epistemological engineering, which most folks simply call instructional design.  I am a big fan of intuitive user interfaces, and free and open source software, both of which greatly facilitate people using technology to make themselves smarter.

Email: rob@sfsu.edu
Web: https://chaosmind.org/

Christopher Clark

Lead Web Developer for the College of Liberal & Creative Arts and non-stop learner.

Email: cclark@sfsu.edu
Web: http://lca.sfsu.edu

Alexander Keller

Systems Administrator for Academic Technology at San Francisco State University. Interests include network security, privacy issues, data center operations, and virtualization.

Email: alkeller@sfsu.edu
Web:

Taylor Judd

System Administrator at SFSU - DoIT

Email: tjudd@sfsu.edu
Web:

Michael Shiloh

Passionate about sharing knowledge, building stuff, teaching others how to build stuff. Electronics, elecromechanics, open source, Arduino, 3D printing, etc.

Email: mshiloh@sfsu.edu
Web: teachmetomake.wordpress.com

Kevin O'Brien

Founder of Drupal initiatives at SF State. Co-creator of the SF Gateway. Now work for Kiva of www.kiva.org and hack on Drupal all day.

Email: kobrien@sfsu.edu
Web: http://www.coderintherye.com

Grubaugh Bill

MS Human Factors & Ergonomics. Interests: HCI, Human in the Loop Systems. Exploration and development of equivalent facilitation pertinent to ADA Section 508/255 Telecommunications Act, Standards and Guidelines.

Email: grubaugh@sfsu.edu
Web:

Leigh Jin

I am faculty in the Information Systems Department at San Francisco State University.  Through research and teaching, I have been fascinated by the impact of open source software and its adoption and use. I think we should introduce more open source-based curriculum to our students. 

Email: jinlei@sfsu.edu
Web:

Aaron Anderson

Aaron Anderson currently serves as the Acting Executive Director of Graduate Business Programs here at San Francisco State University.  He teaches a course in the Executive MBA Program entitled BUS 888 Managing Organizational Change (the syllabus for which he has opensourced with a creative commons license - http://sites.google.com/site/bus888managingorgchange/ ).  He is also the author of the recently released book, Engaging Resistance: How ordinary people successfully champion change, published by the Stanford University Press (http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=16531 ).

Email: runner@sfsu.edu
Web: mba.sfsu.edu

Brian Beatty

Associate Professor and Chair of Instructional Technologies in the Graduate College of Education at SF State. Primary research interests include online and hybrid learning environments, e-learning development (products and process). Developed the "HyFlex" course concept at SF State as a way to combine online and classroom students in the same courses and allow students to choose their participation mode week to week. Interested in collaborative research and development projects that use technology to connect people, especially to help people learn.

Email: bjbeatty@sfsu.edu
Web: http://drbrianbeatty.com

Joshua Singer

Joshua Singer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Design and Industry and the Coordinator for the Visual Communication Design academic program. He teaches introductory and  advanced graphic design classes. His professional practice specializes in publication and identity design for the arts and academia. His research explores investigative and experimental methodologies in visual communication design with particular interest in mapping and urban history. He rides his bike(s) every chance he gets.

Email: jsinger@sfsu.edu
Web: http://design.sfsu.edu/faculty/363/joshua-singer

Kelleher Tom

I am the Marketing Technology Manager for the College of Business, here at SF State. I am a strong believer in open, and accessible technology for education.

Email: tdkelleh@sfsu.edu
Web: http://cob.sfsu.edu

Arno Puder

Arno Puder received his master's degree in computer science from the University of Kaiserslautern and his Ph.D. from the University of Frankfurt/Main, Germany. After working for Deutsche Telekom AG and AT&T Labs, he is currently a professor of computer science at San Francisco State University. His special interests include distributed systems and wireless sensor networks.

Email: arno@sfsu.edu
Web:

Feliciano Julio

I am a web developer at the Division of Information Technology at  San Francisco State. 

Email: julio@sfsu.edu
Web: www.sfsu.edu

Levine Paula

I am an artist and professor of art  in Conceptual Information Arts at SFSU teaching media and technology and its impact on daily life. My research and the focus on my work uses maps, cartography and locative media as tools to bridge between local and global and visualize the impact of distant geopolitical events in local terms. 

Email: plevine@sfsu.edu
Web: paulalevine.net and art.sfsu.edu

Lovato Brenten

Brenten is a geography and critical social thought student at SF State with experience in open source GIS and web mapping. Past employment has included working with the USGS to map hurricane and tsunami vulnerability of coastal communities, as well as working with SF State's Capital Planning department to create a mobile wayfinding application. Brenten looks for innovative ways to understand and communicate our world and is guided by the ideology of creating more information, with more value, for more people.

Email: brenten@mail.sfsu.edu
Web: http://brentenlovato.tumblr.com/

Weverka Aiko

Aiko Weverka is the Associate Director for the Institute for Geographic Information Science, and has a background in conservation GIS and remote sensing. She supports GIS education and research on campus, and enjoys incorporating open source statistical and geospatial tools.

Email: aiko@sfsu.edu
Web: http://gis.sfsu.edu/
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