Let’s Open Ag-Tech

If you follow my Mastodon feed at all, you’ll know that I post and share a lot of articles about climate change and facets of our food systems (among other things, of course). These are topics that are near and dear to my heart. I even use an agriculture-related company—Bees4Less 🐝—in all the examples in my latest book.

So when I received an email asking for a chat with Semios—a successful ag-tech that helps improve sustainability in our food systems—it would be an understatement to say I was interested in talking to them. I really liked what I heard, and thankfully they did as well.

I’m excited to announce that as of today I’ve joined Semios to lead open source strategy and start an open source program office (OSPO)!

Yes, I know that everyone says “I’m excited!” when they announce a new job. It’s just That Thing You Do. But in this case, it’s also very much true.

While there have been a few initiatives to bring FOSS to ag-tech (AgStack for one, with which I’ll be spending a lot of time), in general it’s still a literal green field. There’s a lot of potential here, which Semios sees and understands. Together, we’re going to open ag-tech. It’s gonna be great, but it ain’t gonna be easy. Eventually I’ll be building a team to help us, once I get settled in and see where we’ll be starting.

But first, I’ve a lot of onboarding and learning to do from my new Semios colleagues. 🤩