Open Source Summit + Embedded Linux Conference + OSPOCon 2021

In November of 2019, Professor Stephen Jacobs, who'd been teaching courses, running student groups and finding/creating FOSS internships with NGOs, wrote a white paper on the creation of an OSPO for the Rochester Institute of Technology. The University administration then charged him with arranging and holding a university-wide meeting to gauge faculty and staff interest in the creation of such an office. He received 50 positive responses from 37 different units across campus. The OSPO opened five months later. Open@RIT has led the creation of FOSS policies and procedures for RIT, released guidelines for assessing the impact of Open Work (Software, Hardware, Data, Science, etc), and created and run the Open@RIT Fellows program. Funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the program opens a call for proposals for the support of Open Work. Fellows whose proposals are accepted get access to a team of staff and student interns to help them release their projects as Open and/or work to build a stronger community around the projects. This presentation will share the case that was built to create the OSPO, the policies and programs it's been able to put into place, what's unique about the academic environment, what's worked, what hasn't and what's next.