San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is honored to announce the two newest members of its Board of Directors: tech executive and advocate Anil Dash and free and open source software advocate James Vasile. Both Dash and Vasile have spent their careers blending technology and community, and are dedicated to using technology to make the world better both online and off.
Anil Dash is the CEO of Glitch, a coding community where millions of creators collaborate and create apps together. He has been a prominent and welcome voice, advocating for a more humane, inclusive, and ethical technology industry through his work as an entrepreneur, activist and writer. Dash also hosts Function, a podcast exploring how tech is shaping culture and society. Dash was an advisor to the Obama White House’s Office of Digital Strategy, and today advises major startups and non-profits including Medium, DonorsChoose, and Project Include. He also serves as a board member for Stack Overflow, the world’s largest community for computer programmers; the Data & Society Research Institute, which researches the cutting edge of tech's impact on society; and the Lower East Side Girls Club, which serves girls and families in need in New York City.
“EFF has risen to the moment—fighting for the most vulnerable and prioritizing those with the most to lose,” said Dash. “Technology can be a force for good in the world, and those of us who create it can be part of the fight for making the world more just. I want lend my skills and voice to the essential efforts that EFF leads in the world.”
James Vasile is a partner at Open Tech Strategies, a company that offers advice and services to organizations that make strategic use of free and open source software. He has 20 years’ experience as a user, developer, advocate, and advisor. Vasile was also the founding director of the Open Internet Tools Project, which was the launching pad for community-based projects like the Circumvention Tech Festival, which later became the influential Internet Freedom Festival, and Techno-Activism Third Mondays, a meetup that gathered people in over 20 cities around the world every month. He serves on the boards of Brave New Software, which makes the Lantern censorship circumvention tool downloaded 100 million times around the world, and Horizons Media, which supports the study of the artistic and scientific uses of psychedelics. Previously, Vasile was a Senior Fellow at the Software Freedom Law Center, a director of the FreedomBox Foundation, and a founding board member of Open Source Matters, the non-profit behind Joomla.
“The challenges facing technologists and their users grow more complex every day, so we need to shore up our communities and fight for digital rights together,” said Vasile. “For example, an EFF project like Let's Encrypt delivers first-class technical work, but that is not why it succeeds. Its outreach and coalition building have delivered its benefits to many more people than the technical work alone could reach. When we help people connect to each other—by providing enabling technology and removing barriers to free communication—we build communities that tackle our biggest problems.”
“I am so proud that these two stellar technologists and community-builders are joining our Board of Directors,” said EFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn. “In the midst of this difficult time, we are constantly reminded of how important community is, and how much we need technology to maintain it. Both Anil and James put their values to work every day, and we are eager for their insight and support.”
In addition to Dash and Vasile, EFF’s Board of Directors includes Chair Pamela Samuelson, Vice Chair Brian Behlendorf, Sarah Deutsch, David Farber, John Gilmore, Brewster Kahle, Bruce Schneier, Gigi Sohn, Shari Steele, and Jonathan Zittrain.
