Build & maintain complex distributed systems
October 1–2, 2017: Training
October 2–4, 2017: Tutorials & Conference
New York, NY
Deb Nicholson

Deb Nicholson
Director, Community Operations, Software Freedom Conservancy

Website | @baconandcoconut

Deb Nicholson is the director of community operations at Software Freedom Conservancy, where she supports the work of its member organizations and facilitates collaboration with the wider free software community. A free software policy expert and a passionate community advocate, Deb previously served as the community outreach director for the Open Invention Network, a shared defensive patent pool on a mission to protect free and open source software, and the membership coordinator for the Free Software Foundation. She won the O’Reilly Open Source Award for her work with GNU MediaGoblin, a federated media-hosting service, and OpenHatch, Free Software’s welcoming committee. She’s also a founding organizer of the Seattle GNU/Linux Conference, an annual event dedicated to surfacing new voices and welcoming new people to the free software community. She lives with her husband and her lucky black cat in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Sessions

11:35am–12:15pm Tuesday, October 3, 2017
Find your way: Orienteering for managers
Technical Leadership
 Location: Grand Ballroom West
VM Brasseur (Juniper Networks), Deb Nicholson (Software Freedom Conservancy)
Average rating: *****
(5.00, 1 rating)
Are you managing distributed teams with very different stakeholders—perhaps even a mix of hobbyists and paid staff? It probably seemed easy at first, but the further you travel, the more unfamiliar the terrain appears. Luckily, this is not new ground. Many have gotten lost here before and found their way out again. VM Brasseur and Deb Nicholson share a map to productive, happy teams. Read more.
3:05pm–3:50pm Tuesday, October 3, 2017
Meet the Experts with VM Brasseur and Deb Nicholson
Location: Table A
Deb Nicholson (Software Freedom Conservancy), VM Brasseur (Juniper Networks)
Deb and Vicky will answer all your questions about team composition, conflict resolution, communication strategies, goal and expectation setting, or anything else dealing with creating a healthy cross-functional team. Read more.