Guus der Kinderen Application 2023

This is the 2023 Q2 re-application for XSF membership of Guus der Kinderen, a software engineer from Rosmalen, the Netherlands.

My previous applications can be found here, here, here, here, here, here and here. You'll find that this application builds on the previous ones.

= Personalia &amp; Contact Details =
 * Name: Guus der Kinderen
 * Jabber IDs: [xmpp:guus.der.kinderen@igniterealtime.org guus.der.kinderen@igniterealtime.org], [xmpp:guusdk@jabber.org guusdk@jabber.org]
 * E-mail address: [mailto:guus.der.kinderen@gmail.com guus.der.kinderen@gmail.com]
 * Company name: GoodBytes
 * Github: guusdk
 * Twitter: @guusdk
 * LinkedIn: guusderkinderen

Affiliations


 * Owner of Goodbytes, that primarily takes on Openfire-related development and consultancy work
 * Board member of the Ignite Realtime Foundation
 * Developer of the Openfire server, Spark client

= Motivation =

Over the years, I've been working on XMPP-related implementations on and of, both voluntary as well as in a professional capacity. My primary reason for applying for XSF membership is to contribute back to the community that has provided me with a lot of opportunities over these years.

= Background & Contributions to the XMPP community =

I got introduced to XMPP in the early 2000s, when I was working on my thesis. That thesis later evolved into Nimbuzz, where I was employed for a number of years.

We based Nimbuzz on Openfire, a project that I continued to support in my spare time after I left the company. After Jive Software slowly but surely pulled out, I became the de facto project lead for Openfire. Although somewhat hard to combine with my daytime jobs at the time (didn't have a remote connection to XMPP), I helped keep the project and the broader Ignite Realtime community afloat until dwd stepped up.

Around 2015, I leaped and/or plunged, quitting my job and starting a business of my own: Goodbytes (dot nl). Now that I'm self-employed, I find myself more and more involved in projects that relate to XMPP (Yey). As a result, the amount of time that I spend on XMPP-related activities has increased a lot. Being more active as ever, and having to owe part of my paycheck to XMPP, I thought it to be good and contribute back to the community, starting by signing up as an XSF member (okay, I started by fixing a link on the xmpp.org website, but this is the next best thing, right?)

Outside of the XSF, I've been contributing to XMPP as a member of the Ignite Realtime community. For Ignite, apart for my continued work on Openfire and other project, I was involved in revitalizing [1][2] the Spark client project and creating a legal entity for that community[3], serving as the Chair of the board for the Ignite Realtime Foundation. Other than that, I continue to be a regular contributor to various XMPP-related software projects, most of which are available via my Github profile.