Who We Are
What is the Open Source Digital Voting Foundation?
The Open Source Digital Voting Foundation (OSDV) is a volunteer community of the best and brightest technology and policy experts in the computer technology sector including members of academia, commercial, and public administration segments, and is led and managed by a small full-time team of highly experienced technologists serving as architects and project leads.
About the OSDV
OSDV is a pending 501(c)(3) tax-exempt California Public Benefit Corporation. If you’re new to OSDV, please read our FAQ plus some information here about who we are: our mission, the people behind the OSDV, including our Supporters who are sharing their expertise with us. We’re also building a core team and have some opportunities for the right people.
The OSDV was conceived by a pair of veteran Silicon Valley technologists, both whom have had a growing interest, turned passion, in the processes of democracy, specifically in voting and election reform. You can learn more about the co-founders in the OSDV Blog. We offer some tid-bits on them below.
For more information, please learn more about our work, or see our 2007 Year-End Review, our Charter, our Bylaws, our tax return (as soon as its filed), and our most recent financial statement
About the Co-Founders
The OSDV took form in the autumn of 2006 when E. John Sebes and Gregory Miller, met in the midst of the mid-term election rush (and resulting voting controverises) to discuss their individual interests in election reform and voting processes. Both Sebes and Miller have well over two decades of experience as technologists and have spent several years in the venture start-up arena serving VCs and companies alike as venture advisers on product and business strategies and venture fund raising. By September 2006 both had determined to turn their attention and experiences to a benevolent effort to resolve the challenges of today’s voting technology.
John is a Co-Executive Director and Chief Technology Officer. He brings over 20+ years to bear as a strong technology architect, particularly in digital information security and hardened systems. John has been involved start-ups for years, not only starting and growing organizations, but also in rapid experimental development projects. He's very interested in combining the ”in the trenches” appreciation of technical challenges with a passion for the processes of democracy and in particular voting.
Greg is a Co-Executive Director and Chief Development Officer. He brings 24+ years experience in the tech sector, divided between software development and technology business development. He is also a (non practicing) IP lawyer involved in Internet & technology public policy. His technical experience is in user interface, distributed computing, and digital security. He has significant product management/marketing experience in large firms and start-ups. He's spent the past 7 years advising start-up ventures. He's also developed non-profit industry alliance projects. Greg’s interests in voting technology and digital democracy have become his pursuits.
Both appreciate the challenges before us, as a nation, with regard to how America votes. And they know that the tech sector has never been afraid by hugely difficult problems. In fact, they believe most technologists aren’t all that interested in something unless it is a seemingly intractable challenge.
The OSDV community is tackling the problems of voting technology by creating solutions in the public trust through a transparent process that builds on the principles of open source—some of which dates back to the seminal work of Eric Raymond.
Interested?
If you’ve read this far and looked around the Web site, then we hope you’re the kind of person we can count on for valuable contributions, advice, insights, and/or development talent. Agree? Then get a hold of us! And if you haven’t seen a copy of the first draft of our manifesto, ”Lectio Reformo” then check it out.
