Biography

Deb Bryant headshot

Deborah Bryant is the Public Sector Communities Manager at Oregon State University’s Open Source Lab “(OSU OSL)”: and chairs the annual Government Open Source Conference (GOSCON) . Deborah has earned an international reputation for expertise in the adoption and use of open source software and open development models in the public sector. Her background includes over twenty years of management experience in information technology in the private and public sectors. Deborah serves on numerous boards with an emphasis on open source as enabling technology – Board Director for DemocracyLab.org; Board Advisor for the Open Source Digital Voting Foundation; Board Advisor for the Oregon Virtual School District; National Steering Committee for Open Source for America; Board Advisor to Code for America; Board Advisor to Civic Commons“; Advisor, “Crisis Commons“; Advisory Council Member, Intrahealth International.

Deborah received an O’Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) 2010 Open Source Award in recognition of her contribution to open source communities and advocating its use in government.

Deborah’s government expertise began as consultant to the Oregon State Legislature during the Year 2000 legislative session and continued at Oregon’s Department of Administrative Services for five years where she served as Manager of Enterprise Strategic Planning and Policy in the Office of the State CIO and also as Deputy State CIO. During the Year 2002 legislative session she represented the State’s Executive Branch position on proposed Open Source legislation and earned a reputation for an open, constructive approach to working with diverse and often conflicting views.

Prior to entering the public sector, Deborah held management positions in several emerging technology areas; parallel and high-speed computing and commercialized internet and web applications in the 80s, commercial wide area networks, advanced telecommunications and data/voice convergence in the 90s.