Team profile: Veronika Divišová, head of strategic partnerships
Veronika brought Sourcefabric a wealth of experience in fundraising and development when she joined the team in 2012.
In the 1990s she worked in the British governmental aid programme for transitioning countries. This experience gave her significant insight into the financing of the Czech non-profit sector.
Later she spent more than 10 years working with the Czech NGO People in Need. Here she was active in humanitarian aid, international development and human rights, gaining direct experience in Afghanistan, Kosovo and Myanmar.
What is your role on the team?
Sourcefabric makes and implements tools to produce quality journalism. It’s my job to find media organizations around the world who need technology, and then find the funding that will help us build that technology — for them and for the global community of open source users.
Why open source?
The open source model relies on users sharing solutions. When one user finds a way to fix a problem or builds a new function, he or she shares it with all users. Not only do open source developers borrow ideas from one another, they also build on existing technology.
This sharing lowers the costs of development, which means even independent media in developing countries can afford professional tools. A newsroom shouldn’t have to be rich to produce quality journalism. That’s why all Sourcefabric software is free to download and install.
And sharing means development happens faster. Any media organization with the skills can add new features, functions or fixes to open source software. As a member of the open source community, you can improve the product yourself. You don’t need approval from the board of a Silicon Valley company.
What motivates you?
When we develop software, we continually try to get a good understanding of users’ needs. Any feedback is good, of course, but it’s always great to hear from someone who has heard about our projects and who likes what we do.
I am surrounded by highly skilled developers and software architects. Their work is very creative and therefore inspiring for me. I always try to keep up with current trends and changes in media, and I’m constantly learning about new technologies and software.