The success of this Internet is widely understood to depend on open source software development and the hacker gift culture. Our cofounder Dan Kaminsky was a paragon of that gift culture.
Open source software is so critical to the Internet, it is now supported by a wide variety of programs, from Google’s Summer of Code to the Linux Foundation’s Core Infrastructure Initiative.
However, monetary support is not always sufficient to support focus and deep work. Sometimes, great code contributors need more support infrastructure. A grant for open source development is great, but a rental application asks for pay stubs, not a grant letter. Tax withholdings, healthcare enrollment, and other overhead are regularly provided by the support infrastructure of a company, and can be challenging to coordinate for someone newly “freed” by a grant to work on their open source project.
To fill this gap, HUMAN is creating a unique new fellowship program, offering its Fellows a year of full time paid employment to dedicate to deep work on their open source project. Fellows will enjoy the same employment benefits as the rest of us. HUMAN will also help the Dan Kaminsky Fellows to share their work with the world at the conferences Dan loved, like Black Hat, DEF CON, and RSA Conference.
The Dan Kaminsky Fellowship will be awarded to a human (or humans) who epitomize the spirit of internet innovation. The recipient’s project will touch on a problem that, if solved, will improve people’s lives on the internet. This is a selfless open-source project aiming to help without expectation of a “thank you,” they just have the skills and knowledge to answer the call. Dan got his start with open-source work, launching his career and presenting his groundbreaking solutions at the largest stages the cybersecurity industry has to offer. That’s what we want from the Fellowship recipient. We know there are good hackers out there doing work that protects us all for free. This is a thank you.
Dan wasn’t just a great builder; he was also a great presenter. Sharing is as big a part of the hacker gift culture as creation.
As your Fellowship year progresses, we will help you prepare to present your work. With a year’s worth of deep work time, what could you pull off that you hadn’t been able to before? What venues would be best to share:
• What did you do?
• Where did the idea originate?
• How did you do it?
• When and why did you learn that thing you learned along the way?
• Who else can learn from what you have done?
We will help you select the right conference(s), prepare RFP submissions, and refine your presentation. We will give you a rehearsal audience and help you practice. We will help you coordinate press and, if necessary, get you the PR training needed to brief the press to ensure that your work is properly understood.
As part of your Fellowship, you will have complete access to the HUMAN team and our resources. You didn’t think we’d leave you alone, did you?
You will:
• Report to an advisor who will lead you through your experience at HUMAN
• Share your progress with the Fellowship committee once a quarter
• Call upon our community for peer-reviews and support as you see fit
• Attend our all-hands meetings (lovingly called “Bot or Not”) where you’ll have access to HUMAN-only information and insights that can aid your project
• Present your project at Bot or Not, where you will receive critical feedback on your presentation and open-source work from our Humans
By fully integrating you into the HUMAN experience, we hope to equip you with everything you need to successfully complete and present your project.
Dan Kaminsky was not only HUMAN's co-founder and Chief Scientist, but one of the most brilliant minds in cybersecurity. Dan rose to hacker fame when, in 2008, he notably uncovered a major flaw in the fabric of the internet’s Domain Name System (DNS) that could be manipulated by cybercriminals if exposed. Instead of exploiting the significant vulnerability for his own advantage or monetary gain, he led a stealth, collaborative effort with the brightest security minds in the world to fix it and then presented his findings at Black Hat to further educate the industry and ensure security of what he would later call “this” Internet. Dan’s work to help better the internet community did not stop there. Throughout his life he’d fund up-and-coming hackers to get to Black Hat and was a mentor to many. If he saw a problem, he yearned to fix it. When his friend was having problems with color blindness, Dan created DanKam - a mobile app that uses a phone’s camera to discern colors otherwise unseen by people who are colorblind. Dan was exceedingly selfless, always thinking about how he could use his skills to help others.
