[September '20]

Regina makes FOSS and takes our Twitter mic from September 30 to October 07. Thank you, Regina!

Please tell us about yourself

My name is Regina Nkemchor Adejo. I am the Vice president of the board of directors at the GNOME Foundation championing the GNOME Africa projects. I am actively involved in promoting diversity and inclusion in FOSS and helping open source communities grow in Africa.

I am the founder of Pranet Initiative whose aim is to introduce projects that will increase the use of technology innovation around Africa. In the initiative we are presently partnered with PWC UK on her Tech She Can Charter to help achive her aim of inspiring and educating young girls and women to get into tech careers early.

Over the years, I have worked as a database and application specialist and I have been involved in supporting information technology projects that helps the digital transformation of businesses in the Tax and financials sectors in Nigeria.

What are you working on right now?

In open-source, I am building the GNOME community in Africa and working with other communities to promote diversity and inclusion in FOSS. At pranet initiative, through the Tech She Can Charter collaboration with PWC UK we are introducing schools and parents in Africa to customize lesson plans and webinars that will help kids to advance into choosing tech careers in the future.

In the Parent Teach Tech project, we are creating contents and building collaborations that will help parents, guardians, and educationists promote early adoption of technology in Kids around Africa.

What is most interesting about that?

All the projects I am working on are helping to promote diversity and inclusion in IT.

How did you first discover FOSS?

I first learned about it six years ago when I was working as a database administrator and faculty member at an Information Technology institution in Nigeria. I lectured software engineering students on modules related to Linux and database administration.

What prompted you to start contributing to FOSS?

I decided to start contributing mainly because I saw a gap in open source awareness in Africa and I wanted to help advocate for it through the GNOME project. After my onboarding session with Nuritzi Sanchez, I decided to join the engagement team. The team is focused on marketing, user outreach, and event management.

Why should others get involved with FOSS?

I believe getting involved in FOSS has a lot of benefits which include but not limited to learning how to work collaboratively, acquiring new skill sets, and meeting people.

How should they get started?

Basically, I will say start by knowing the community through the platforms available, engage old members on social media, ask questions to gain more clarity, join the newcomer’s channel, get familiar with the environment in general and most importantly be sure that the projects align with your goals.

What difficulties and limitations do you see with FOSS?

The limitations I see for now is fewer programs and structure to help onboard beginners into FOSS projects

How can they be solved?

It is more like a work in progress. We have to keep developing models and concise documentation of how to onboard newcomers into FOSS projects.

What does a perfect day off look like?

When all my daily goals are met.

Do you want to tell us something else we didn’t ask?

Thanks for having me.