SeaGL speaker Q&A: Nithya Ruff

Nithya gives her talk titled, “Many ways of Contributing to Open Source without Coding” on Friday afternoon.

Q: Could you introduce yourself and tell us a little about your background?

A: I run the open source office at Western Digital which is a very large storage company storing the world’s data. I first encountered Open Source in 1998 when I worked at SGI and have never looked back. Have worked in many aspects of open source from being a part of a community to product managing an open source based product to running an open source program office. I enjoy the intersection of opensource, business and community.

Q: Without tipping your hand on the actual talk, can you give us an idea of what we might expect?

A: There are 3 main takeaways from my talk for the attendee:

1. Why open source needs other forms of contribution besides code and that they should be valued

2. How women are contributing to open source in all aspects

3. Opening the audience’s eyes to new careers in open source and how to get started in them

Q: Is this your first visit to SeaGL? If so, what are your expectations?

A: Yes! And I am very excited about it. I have heard wonderful things about the SeaGL community and want to experience it for myself. And when Deb Nicholson calls I listen.

Q: What are you passionate about?

A: I am passionate about opening doors in open source to new and underrepresented people. This is why I am involved in Women of open source at the Linux Foundation and at OpenStack, as well as participating in numerous other activities and events to share how people can become more familiar and learn how to contribute to open source.