Joshua Simmons Email & Phone Number

London, Gb

Helped fundraise for and organize Petaluma's first ever pride event and the first pride float in the annual Butter & Egg Days Parade. My role on the board is about channeling my operations and former board experience to help set this new organization up so that it outlasts the involvement of any one individual.

Open Chapters works at the intersection of social and technical systems, specializing in open source strategy. We offer expertise and services to build each other up: people, policy, process, programs, communities, organizations, and knowledge. Let’s go further, together.

Boston, Ma, Us

Build and manage relationships with open source foundations to support member projects, maintainers, and design novel programs to create healthier, more resilient open source communities. Advocate for open source foundations in a changing industry and regulatory environment.

Boston, Ma, Us

Built a team with a Program Management and Developer Relations practice that prioritized operational excellence, organization-wide enablement, and an improved experience for upstream partners. Eliminated process and documentation debt, establishing institutional knowledge and cross-departmental partnerships to support consistent operations.

Boston, Ma, Us

Chaired the Upstream conference, creating the vision and recruiting high profile speakers in partnership with Marketing, and co-founded Maintainer Month in collaboration with colleagues at GitHub. Recruited maintainers to participate in pilot programs in support of Product and Engineering work toward product-market fit and an improved user experience. Assessed process, data, and staffing to identify gaps and illuminate a path to operational excellence.

Built a core team of 12 dedicated volunteers, and 3 paid staffers, that engaged hundreds more to reach the more than 100,000 people in Sonoma County’s District 2. Established infrastructure, meeting cadences and practices, and a team culture that’s been described by many volunteers as the most humane and nontoxic political organization they ever worked with. Managed budget priorities and ended with just enough in reserve to maintain basic infrastructure. Drove design and production processes, as well as press relations, online marketing, and advertising.

Palo Alto, California, Us

Landed the many years project, across multiple classes of board members, to transform OSI from a working board to a supervisory board and empower staff to carry out the mission of the organization. Fulfilled my promise to the organization and the greater community to retire the role of President, handing the power and responsibility of being the public face of OSI over to the Executive Director. Presided over a massive expansion of membership and further professionalization of fundraising, fiscal sponsorship, and communications.

Palo Alto, California, Us

Steadied the organization through pandemic-driven staff churn, temporarily taking on staff duties while recruiting and onboarding, first, an interim General Manager, and then an Executive Director. Engaged a leadership consultant to lead the board through candid self-reflection, vision and goal setting, ultimately redefining the role of the board and the way it worked with staff. Reinvigorated board engagement, ensuring every officer role and committee was staffed and had the beginnings of a succession plan in place.

Palo Alto, California, Us

Represented OSI in the media and at critical industry events to protect and promote the open source amid efforts, by both activists and VC-backed startups, to coopt the Open Source Definition. Supported staff-driven efforts to channel and focus the board’s passion through annual exercises including goal setting and performance evaluations. Continued recruiting new board candidates to fill key gaps and enable succession planning.

Palo Alto, California, Us

Created an organizational development proposal, regrounding a fractious board in our mission and values, while clarifying short and long term staffing needs and driving board reform toward that end. Built a budget and financial projections to help the board make better informed decisions about how to allocate resources and drive increased fundraising activity. Recruited enthusiastic people from a diversity of backgrounds to run for the OSI board, helping to welcome the board’s first class of all women board members.

Palo Alto, California, Us

Recruited organizations OSI’s to strengthen the alliance to protect and promote open source. Established productive working relationships with fellow board members and critical industry luminaries. Built enthusiasm for OSI’s work and increased its individual membership.

San Francisco, California, Us

Created open source documentation hub, leading collaboration with security and legal stakeholders. Streamlined compliance review for open source contributions, driving 25% increase in contributions. Started Salesforce’s FOSS Fund, engaging staff to direct regular donations to open source projects.

Mountain View, Ca, Us

Created a working group of communications managers, marketers, and open source leadership across strategy, outreach, and compliance to harmonize open source communications across Alphabet. Built the communications program, managed 7 social channels and served as editor-in-chief publishing 80 blog posts from 70 authors per year, doubling audience size and read time. Designed, built, and maintained tools and infrastructure to support programs like Google Summer of Code, saving time, reducing error rates, and providing a better experience for program participants.

Sebastopol, Ca, Us

Pioneered the Community Manager role for O’Reilly, writing guidelines, developing processes, building tools, and helping to grow the team from one to five. Navigated multiple crises that spilled onto social media and into in-person events, each time prioritizing safety, managing the story, and using the experience to mitigate future risk. Advised on editorial and marketing strategy, doing research and outreach to recruit readers, authors, attendees, sponsors, and community partners.

Journalism

Philosophy, Interactive Media

Education record