About

Giving Open Source Software Engineers the support and mentorship they need to be effective in teams and most software workplaces.

Join the Defiant effort against mediocre code and foreign actor exploits.

Digital Defiance is a 501c3 (WA State based, federally registered/tax-deductible *filing pending) non-profit group of Software Engineers working together to further projects of value to mankind. Our mission is to create a fellowship of software engineers who work together to mentor new and seasoned colleagues alike.

Founded in 2022 by Jessica Mulein, with the help of BDisp and Rui Campos, Digital Defiance is a group of open source software engineers who are challenging the private and traditional ways of working in the software industry. We are defying the notion that software development has to be done in a closed, proprietary environment, and are instead working together to create open source software that benefits society as a whole.

We believe developers should not only have the tools they need to work on open source projects, but that they should have the tools big enterprises trust and use so that we can set an example for how the industry should be run. The Guild should represent a group of people who ask each other for insight and guidance and give each other the confidence to succeed in our professional lives. We learn new technologies using our pet projects as guinea pigs and it makes the metaphorical carrot that much more appetizing- the carrot being learning the right way to use new technologies.

Our members have their own passion projects, which are generally for the planet and include fun/demonstrative as well as libraries to enable those. We also look for deserving open source projects that need either process coaching, an extra hand fixing bugs, or any other need. Contributors generally help each other’s passion projects and work towards common goals as a team to work more effectively. Contributors receive peer mentoring and learn agile processes and enterprise development methodologies.

Everyone is essentially a partner in an open source group run like a high-velocity agile team at any big enterprise (although, okay, okay, maybe it’s more like a slow velocity team, but we’ll get there!). There is absolutely zero pressure to perform at any given time, but we do ask that you try not to commit to work and then vanish.

Members of Digital Defiance gain access to discounted software and other perks with our nonprofit status. Our dues go towards our software subscriptions and other overhead, and any additional income beyond our needs will possibly be distributed to developers as bug/ticket bounties.

A number of Partners and Donors have contributed substantial resources or funds already to go towards

To become a member of Digital Defiance, check out the Bylaws or email jessica at digitaldefiance.org.

Our current projects include:

HACC HTML5 ANSI Console Canvas: A Blazor WebAssembly Component
Duality Social: An experimental social network built on the Duality framework
- Coming soon
AI Against Humanity: A fun casual web-based multi-player game with an AI engine.
- Keeping the source private until release so the idea isn’t copied
- Coming soon

To learn more about Digital Defiance, check out our website or follow us on social media:

GitHub: https://github.com/Digital-Defiance
Discord: https://discord.gg/8ASAAxzyyM
Keybase: https://keybase.io/team/digitaldefiance | keybase://team-page/digitaldefiance
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DigitalDefiance/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/digital-defiance/about
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/DigitalDefiance/comments/11y3rvu/welcome_to_the_digital_defiance/

501c3 Open Source Software Engineering Guild

When you have someone on your team with DDM or DDGM behind their name^*, you have all of the Digital Defiance Guild behind you. We all help each other on any project- with a focus on open source. You know you are getting a person who has a vocal interest in the open source community and who also has the support of that community.
- * see Bylaws Article II (2) Section 4.
Members get access to discounted software and other perks with our nonprofit status.
- Software useful for and to be used only for open source development.
- Software licenses and other licensed resources should be used only if there is a specific need/project for the resource.
Hopefully members get an email but currently that costs $30-35/user/year beyond the 9 in the current grant from Microsoft.
Members mentor each other using our pet projects that are generally for the public good.
Members try to prioritize working on designated critical tasks from community projects- generally on GitHub.
We’ll have occasional meetings to discuss which project tasks go to the top of the pile and try to generally follow and teach Agile principles.
There is already a 24-7 chatroom on Keybase where we already have several members discussing various projects being worked on.
This is not (yet?) a union and we do not and will not strike as these are open source developers working in an unpaid volunteer capacity.
Dues will go towards our software subscriptions and other overhead
Additional income beyond our needs will possibly be distributed to developers as bug/ticket bounties.
If this sounds good to you, check out DigitalDefiance.org or email jessica@digitaldefiance.org

Mission Statement

To create a fellowship of software engineers, mentoring new and seasoned colleagues alike, who will work together on projects of public utility and interest. We will gain new knowledge on our personal projects and select high priority work from the Open Source community.

The Name

“Digital Defiance” represents a group of open source software engineers who are challenging the private and traditional ways of working in the software industry. They are defying the notion that software development has to be done in a closed, proprietary environment. They are defying the idea that software engineers should develop skills in isolation, without support or mentorship.

By creating a community of software engineers who work together to further projects of value to mankind, Digital Defiance is defying the norm and taking a stand against the status quo and essential projects languishing unsupported. They are also defying the idea that software development is only for profit, by prioritizing projects of public utility and interest.

In short, Digital Defiance is a group of software engineers who are defying the traditional ways of working in the software industry, and instead are working together to create open source software that benefits society as a whole.