Bridging tech, activism, and the future of software archival

Forget polite chit chat about historic buildings or the perfect waffle. When our new Ambassador, Neha Oudin, met team member Nicolas Dandrimont in Belgium, their conversation took a hard turn. They had known each other for years, but as usual, for almost an hour, they went deep, dissecting the nitty-gritty of building efficient, rock-solid hash tables. She had attended a keynote about Software Heritage back when it was a brand-new project and wanted to contribute more. Now, Oudin joins the ambassador community, eager to raise awareness about preserving technical and scientific knowledge.

She’s a Data Platform Engineer at Canonical, a company founded to market commercial support and related services for Ubuntu and other related projects. Fluent in Python, Rust, and Zsh, she also has knowledge of several other languages. Her technical interests include software engineering, security, free software, backend development, and scalable database deployment.

Oudin is also a privacy advocate. She’s a member of “La Quadrature du Net”, a French non-governmental organization dedicated to promoting and defending fundamental freedoms in the digital world. Within the activist community, it operates at the intersection of two influential forces: the free (libre) software activist movement, fueled by the emancipatory spirit of hackers and early internet pioneers, and various human rights associations, both French and international.

Oudin is also involved in free software projects like Tor, a free overlay network for anonymous communication. She contributes to BorgBackup, too, a deduplicating backup program that efficiently and securely backs up data, optionally supporting compression and authenticated encryption. She also presents at the Chaos Communication Congress and FOSDEM each year.

While Oudin’s background makes her right at home talking tech, she’s also a big believer in software archival as vital for many communities. She’s convinced that the earlier children start learning about the societal role of software, the better, and suggests weaving this topic into school lessons.

She views software archiving as a crucial element on which society is built. Their perspective brings an important, diverse view while actively protecting the rights of minorities and transgender individuals.

While Oudin is at home in technical conversations thanks to her background, she’s also a strong advocate for software archival as a vital need across many communities. She believes that the earlier, the better: the societal role of software should be integrated into school curricula. And, indeed, tech discussions may quickly lead to broader topics; therefore, she views software archiving through the lens of protecting transgender rights. Software is a vital component of our cultural heritage.

You can find more about her projects and contact information on her Ambassador profile.
We’re also seeking passionate individuals and organizations to volunteer as Ambassadors and help grow the Software Heritage community. If you’re interested in becoming an Ambassador, please share a bit about yourself and your connection to the Software Heritage mission.