Mission First, People Always.

I’d like to take a moment and introduce myself.  I’m Amber Graner, and I’m excited to join Corelight, Inc as the Director of Community for the Zeek project.  

When I volunteered to join the U.S. Army in 1989, the saying “Mission first, people always” was something that was often demonstrated by my senior leadership. We worked hard. We played hard. I served, protected and belonged to something bigger than myself. Being in the Army let me be a part of history as I worked together with those in my unit to protect against enemy threats. The espirit de corps I felt when I was part of the Army, was something I always looked for in every job after the military.

You may be asking yourself, “Ok, Amber, what does joining the Army have to do with becoming the Director of Community at Corelight for the Zeek (formerly Bro) community?”  

I am so glad you asked!

When I was interviewed by the team at Corelight, I heard the words “Mission first,” and I saw “people always,” demonstrated by all of the employees that I met. I leaned in. I listened. I wanted to know more.  

Corelight is a cybersecurity company founded on open source software whose employees are demonstrating the principles and philosophies that I believe in, live by and are passionate about.  I was hooked.

Open Source –  check!

Mission First, People Always – check!

Freedoms – check!

Protect against threats – check!

Belonging to something bigger than myself – check!

Opportunity to serve and collaborate with a community – check!

There was something challenging, yet comfortably familiar about this opportunity. I wanted to be part of this organization. I wanted to get to know the people. I wanted to serve the community.

When Corelight offered me the position, I answered, “yes!”

It seemed like a perfect fit.

Before coming to Corelight I was the community manager and operations director for the Open Compute Project (OCP) Foundation, a 501(c) (6) organization which was founded in 2011 by Facebook, Intel, and Rackspace with a mission to apply the benefits of open source to hardware and rapidly increase the pace of innovation in, near and around the data center and beyond.

Prior to OCP I was the first community manager for Linaro, a collaborative engineering organization consolidating and optimizing open source software and tools for the Arm architecture.

Before diving headfirst into applying open source principles and philosophies to hardware development and innovation, I got involved in the Ubuntu community. I began my personal journey into open source in 2009, when I was given an Ubuntu 8.10 live CD, a laptop and instructions to “use the community” if I ran into any problems.

Once involved in the Ubuntu community, I was elected to the Ubuntu Community Council and became the editor-in-chief for the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter (UWN) as well as an Ubuntu Women Project leader. Later I was asked to be a technical reviewer of edition 5 of the Official Ubuntu Book and later co-author for editions 6 and 7 of the same book.  I was also a technical reviewer for Jono Bacon’s Art of Community, Editions 1 and 2 and have written for the Linux New Media publication which featured my “You in Ubuntu” blog. My articles have also appeared in print in the Ubuntu User magazine.

However, my love for open source began way before 2009, when in 1994 I sat on the dropzone at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, watching members of the 82nd Airborne Division establish an uplink to an aircraft in flight using Red Hat Linux (Halloween Edition) and the early Acer laptops. This feat proved intelligence could be provided en route to a battlefield allowing our troops to have the best possible information before they had to exit the aircraft, and ensured the safety and protection of the troops and their area of operations.

“Mission first, people always”

The opportunity to work for Corelight and collaborate with the Zeek community completes the circle and brings me back to my roots.

I’m looking forward to getting to know the community. If you are passionate about open source, protecting your network and want to get involved in the Zeek community, ask me how.  

Look for me on the Zeek.org mailing lists, blog, twitter and in person at various Corelight and Zeek.org events. Without “U” there is no commUnity, so let’s work together to protect your network and beyond!