The social network is joining the Foundation at its highest level, with its head of Open Source set to join the Linux Foundation’s board
Most web-based companies are built on Linux and open-source software. Two-billion member social network Facebook is no different. For years, Facebook has not only relied on open-source, it’s been an active contributor to major open-source projects. These include the React JavaScript library; the Open Compute Project, which open sources data-centre hardware; and Linux’s cGroup2 container software. Now Facebook is joining The Linux Foundation membership at the Platinum level.
It’s a natural move. While Facebook’s open-source group has long been a member, the main company is finally joining the Foundation at its highest level. As a Platinum member, Facebook’s head of Open Source Kathy Kam will join the Linux Foundation’s board. Kam is a 20-year engineering, product management, and developer relations leader with vast open-source management experience. She’d previously worked at Google and Microsoft.
While Facebook has been criticized for how it deals with privacy and politics, it has impeccable open-source credentials. It was already the lead contributor of many Linux Foundation-hosted projects, such as Presto, GraphQL, Osquery, and ONNX. The company also employs many Linux kernel key developers and maintainers.
In addition to that, Facebook can boast of numerous important open-source projects such as:
Facebook Connectivity and the open-source Telecom Infra Project (TIP) Foundation, which is bringing fast, reliable internet to underserved populations. The related Magma open-source project enables telecom operators to easily deploy mobile networks in hard-to-reach areas — reducing the costs of building and maintaining telecom networks.
Facebook created a unique dataset of over 100,000 videos and launched the Deepfake Detection Challenge in order to accelerate the development of new ways to detect deepfake videos.
Facebook’s Data for Good program enables geographic data to be shared with the aim of addressing some of the world’s greatest humanitarian issues, including COVID-19.
By creating and sustaining PyTorch, Facebook also accelerates machine learning’s pace of innovation.
Facebook’s React.js library powers many popular websites and has become the standard for frontend web development due to its simplicity and flexibility.
In working with Github to sponsor Major League Hacking’s first-ever remote open source fellowship, Facebook hopes to create a trend of empowering a new generation of diverse open-source contributors.