Blog

Introducing Jon Ericson

From the very beginning of the project, OpenSSL has depended on a community of experts to enable secure and private communication. It’s safe to say that without volunteers contributing code, tests and documentation, we wouldn’t have the modern internet. In order to preserve and grow that ecosystem, the OpenSSL Foundation has brought in Jon Ericson as its first Communities Manager.

Jon began his programming career as an intern at the US National Weather Service where he designed software to test instruments for the Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS). He continued as a programmer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) with the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) ground-data team. When that project ended, he managed data processing for the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) mission which collected global atmospheric data from heliosynchronous orbit. Along the way he participated in open source projects such as Perl and Emacs via Usenet groups and mailing lists.

Connect with us at FOSDEM

The OpenSSL Foundation will be attending FOSDEM in Brussels, Belgium on 1-2 February 2025, and we’d like to connect with you!

The Free and Open Source Developers’ European Meeting (FOSDEM) is a volunteer-organized event to promote the widespread use of free and open source software. The conference includes 1,001 events across two days, taking place in 40 rooms on the ULB Solbosch Campus. There is no fee to participate and attend.

OpenSSL Foundation publishes first ever annual report

The OpenSSL Foundation is pleased to share its Annual Report for fiscal year 2024, covering the period of August 1, 2023 through July 31, 2024. This public document is a first for the Foundation, reflecting a renewed commitment to transparency with our communities and the sponsors and donors whose contributions provide critical financial support.

One year ago, we celebrated the 25th anniversary of OpenSSL, marking the release of version 0.9.1c on December 23, 1998, and it seemed fitting to share this Annual Report today, on OpenSSL’s 26th birthday. So much has changed over those 26 years, but our reliance on our community of committers, contributors, and funders has not. We greatly appreciate the many contributions of many types that keep OpenSSL strong and secure and hope you enjoy reading about all that we achieved together.

Foundation BAC Distributions seat

As previously communicated the recent election for the Distributions seat on the Foundation BAC resulted in a tie between Dmitry Belyavsky (Red Hat) and John Haxby (Oracle). As a result we will be re-running this election in early January with just these two candidates. Voting will open on 3rd January 2025 and will close on 10th January 2025.

The “Distributions” community includes maintainers of operating systems or significant packages that integrate OpenSSL Foundation and OpenSSL Corporation projects. If you are involved in an OpenSSL distribution then we encourage you to sign up to the community and vote in the second round of the election in January.

Announcing the Results of the Business Advisory Committee Elections

Upon certification of the election results by the Election Committee, the OpenSSL Foundation and the OpenSSL Corporation are pleased to announce the official results of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) elections. After a thorough nomination and voting process, the OpenSSL community has selected a group of distinguished individuals to provide guidance and advice to OpenSSL.

Newly Elected Members

The following candidates have been elected to serve on the Business Advisory Committee:

OpenSSL Foundation BAC Members

Re-opening donation opportunities to OpenSSL Foundation

The OpenSSL Foundation is pleased to announce that we are reopening the opportunity for individuals to financially support our work through donations on Github Sponsors. Individual contributions of time, expertise, and financial support have always been critical to our ability to keep improving the OpenSSL software library, and we are excited to once again welcome financial contributions at all levels.

Business Advisory Committees Elections Are Now Open - Vote for Your Community Representative

Thank you to everyone who registered, as well as those who took the extra step to nominate candidates, for the Business Advisory Committees of the OpenSSL Foundation and OpenSSL Corporation. We are now at the final step - voting - which is essential to complete the process.

Start Date: December 5, 2024
Deadline for Voting: December 15, 2024 11:59pm Pacific Time (US/ Canada)

Election Committee

The Election Committee is composed of the directors of the OpenSSL Foundation and the OpenSSL Corporation. This marks the first inaugural Election Committee, tasked with overseeing and managing the election processes across various communities. The committee is dedicated to ensuring that voting is conducted fairly, transparently, and in alignment with the established rules and procedures.

Nominations Remain Open Until Wednesday, December 4, 2024 - Based on Your Feedback!

Thank you to everyone who attended our Q&A sessions about the formation of Business Advisory Committees. We received valuable input from our communities, including requests to allow more time for nominations.

We have heard you, and we would like to announce that:

  • The nomination period has been extended until Wednesday, December 4, 2024.
  • The election period starts on Thursday, December 5, 2024 and ends on Sunday, December 15, 2024. You can change your vote up to the end of the election period.

This extension provides additional time to ensure everyone has the opportunity to nominate the individuals who can best represent the community’ s view and needs.

Upcoming Webinar - Working with X.509 Keys and Certificates

Advance Your Skills in X.509 Certificate Management with OpenSSL

  • Date: Nov 21, 2024
  • Time: 04:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
  • Duration: 1 hour
  • Location: Online Webinar (link to be provided upon registration)
  • Register Here

Are you looking to deepen your understanding of X.509 keys and certificates or sharpen your command-line skills?

Join us for a comprehensive webinar on X.509 certificate management led by Viktor Dukhovni, an OpenSSL Software Engineer. This session covers essential concepts and hands-on techniques using OpenSSL’s command-line tools.