Dear all,
I would like to contribute to our working group, and hereby present my self-nomination for the Steering Committee, bringing to bear the experience from 25 years dedicated to advancing Open Source, Open Science and software. Here follow my short bio and a position statement, as requested.
Bio
Roberto Di Cosmo is an alumnus of the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Pisa. After serving as an associate professor at École Normale Supérieure in Paris, he became a full professor at Université Paris Diderot in 1999, where he also headed the doctoral program in Computer Science from 2004 to 2009. Currently on leave at Inria, he is President of the board of trustees and scientific advisory board of the IMDEA Software Institute and chairs the Software chapter of the French National Committee for Open Science.
As a committed advocate for Free Software since 1998, he worked to promote open-source principles across research, industry, and government settings, coordinating significant projects like the European Mancoosi initiative, which united 10 partners and a €4.4M budget to improve package-based Open Source systems, the Free Software Thematic Group in the Systematic competitiveness cluster, that shepherded over 50 fully free software R&D projects involving industry and research institutions, for a total funding of over 250 million euros, and the IRILL research structure dedicated to studying the new problems arising from the massive availability of open source software.
Since 2015, he directs Software Heritage, an ambitious initiative founded to create a universal, enduring archive of all publicly available source code in partnership with UNESCO.
Position Statement
I am deeply committed to fostering robust, resilient software infrastructure within an open and collaborative framework, and I believe that strengthening cybersecurity in Open Source systems is paramount. My involvement with the National Committee for Open Science, along with my experience leading Software Heritage, has sharpened my understanding of regulatory challenges in Open Source, particularly regarding transparency, security, and long-term digital preservation.
As a member of this steering committee, I aim to contribute my expertise in software quality assurance, large-scale software analysis, and the governance of open-source ecosystems. I look forward to helping shape policies that can support and safeguard the open, interconnected software infrastructure on which our society increasingly depends.
Thank you for considering my application, and the opportunity to contribute to this essential initiative.
Best regards,
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Roberto Di Cosmo
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Computer Science Professor
(on leave at INRIA from IRIF/Université Paris Cité)
Director
75647 Paris Cedex Tel : +33 1 80 49 44 42
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