Cherishing every moment of this coming week

[Gabriele Columbro]

Dear Community,

As I get ready to fly to NYC for OSSF this week, I realized it's been a while since I last wrote to all of you. Likewise, for all of you who are based in NYC, it's been a while since I saw you in person. Way too long.

When, almost exactly 2 years ago in the picture below, we were wrapping OSSF 2019 we knew that it had been the largest FINOS gathering on record. And we knew deep in our hearts that an Open Source Community was born. Because yes, the Foundation might have been a little over 1 year old then, but that was only the first building block. 

Communities are not built at swanky events like our launch event (although, as you can see in the picture below, we certainly took a lot of pride in announcing FINOS to a quite packed crowd of industry leaders). Communities are fundamentally built over a beer or a mocktail or whatever excuse we make to bring passionate people together. Folks like you who are driven by always trying to do the right thing, to collaborate for the greater good, even though that means sometimes going above and beyond. 

And it shouldn't be counterintuitive that Communities, while remote and distributed in nature, do need once in a while to come together in person. Because, while it's that very nature that helped us not only to survive but to grow exponentially in this over 18 unthinkable months of pandemic, there's something inexplicably emotional to the energy and sense of belonging that only meeting with other fellow contributors can bring to a Community.

And, as I pack my bag to head out to NYC for the FINOS Member Meeting and OSSF this week, I am feeling that excitement once again. I know I'll see a lot of old and new faces, and I'll get the chance to thank all of the wonderful contributors that have brought us to where we are - an industry recognized entity driving innovation, collaboration and the vision for a modern financial stack powered by open source. 

What we didn't know 2 years ago is that we would be two years apart. What we didn't know (but we hoped for) was that we would reach over 50 member and 1000 contributors over time in the next two years, that we'd have almost 50 projects, most of which led and contributed to directly by the largest financial institutions in the world, that we'd become part of the largest shared technology investment in the world, the Linux Foundation.

https://twitter.com/TweetFromHilary/status/1455931912703209474

Last week I was so lucky to participate in the celebrations for 30 years of Linux. It's been inspiring to see not only Linus but so many folks involved since the very beginning of the open source movement celebrating what massive impact Linux has had on our daily lives. Technology as we know it exists in so many ways because of Linux and Open Source. 

So I left with the even stronger feeling that, by leading the way in openly collaboration in such an influential industry, our Community has the potential to make a similar impact in the next 10 or 20 years not only on technology, but in so many fundamental challenges like financial inclusion, ESG, DEI and so much more. 

I truly hope you'll be joining us this week because we are making a lasting impact on this industry and your voice, your feedback, your contributions will be key to lead us there. We hope you'll make the most of it and please do reach out and say hello - we have been looking forward to meeting you! And if you think you or someone in your network deserves a free ticket, please reply to this email, let us know why and we'll do our best to accommodate.

These are exciting times for FINOS, I hope we can celebrate together this week.

Thank you for your contributions, 

Gab

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Gabriele Columbro | Executive Director | FINOS

📱 +1 (404) 432-7652 | 🕊 @mindthegabz

   

The FINOS Member meeting and Open Source Strategy Forum come back in person in NYC this fall! Join us NYC on Nov 9/10 to learn how open source is revolutionizing the financial technology landscape!