August 1, 2025
Free software projects can't thrive without support for their contributors to communicate and collaborate. For over 18 years, Lance Albertson has devoted himself to providing critically needed infrastructure for hundreds of the most important free and open source projects through his work at Oregon State University's Open Source Lab (OSUOSL). Besides doing technical work to maintain and improve these services, he has selflessly mentored and supported generations of the Lab's students as they develop their own skills. Even prior to OSUOSL, he contributed to free software as a developer and package maintainer for Gentoo Linux.
Lance Albertson receiving award from Pono Takamori, copyright John Sullivan, CC-BY 3.0
Today at the Free and Open Source Software Yearly conference in Portland, Oregon, USA, the Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) honored Albertson's invaluable work with its first ever Distinguished Service Award in Software Freedom.
SFC Community Organizer and Non-Profit Problem Solver Daniel Pono Takamori -- himself an OSUOSL alum -- presented the award on FOSSY's keynote stage, sharing, "Lance Albertson has helped the free and open source community in innumerable ways. Whether it's training and supporting students, helping them work with large open source projects and foundations, or just learning what it's like to work as part of a team in the open, Lance provides critical support for invaluable free software projects; infrastructure that without which we wouldn't have the robust ecosystem able to power today's modern technology stacks. I'm so proud and honored to be able to give this award to Lance."
After receiving the Award, Albertson said, "I'm so surprised and very thankful. I've been doing this work for a very long time and it's nice to see a lot of many familiar faces that have come through my program sitting out there in the audience."
"It's so great to see our work recognized, and I'm so happy to share this with the lab."
The Award includes a cash gift of $1,024 and a laser-cut wooden plaque made with free software and free hardware by SFC's Operations Manager Tracy Homer. Award winners are listed on the awards page.
FOSSY runs through Sunday, August 3rd. Those in Portland, OR, can register on-site and attend. A public livestream is also available on the streaming page.