Hi, I’m Cassidy!

[cassidyjames]

Hey everyone, I realized nobody had used this category, so I could set a little example. 😅 I'm Cassidy (he/him), OSS community manager at ROOST. I have worn many hats over the years from front-end web development, user experience design, community management, press and communications, partner success, and a bit of desktop app development.

I have a background in open source, mostly around the Linux desktop space: I've contributed to Ubuntu; I co-founded elementary, Inc. working on elementary OS; I'm a GNOME design team member and GNOME Foundation director; I've helped FreeDesktop.org and member projects in defining standards for dark style and accent color on the Linux desktop, which I'm particularly proud of!

When it comes to LLMs and AI models, honestly I'm very much a noob; I've played with the big consumer models in packaged experiences but haven't run things locally (except a tiny bit with Home Assistant…). I'm also a bit of an AI… not skeptic, but maybe "critical realist"? I have concerns about the technology and how it's used, but am excited about how we can improve the trust and safety domain using machine learning models, classifiers, and potentially LLMs of course.

I show up and help run the regular RMC office hours, and am excited to get to know folks in the community better!