Justin Wheeler is a Free Software activist and Open Source community architect focused on the people behind digital infrastructure. Justin currently works at Red Hat, where he serves as AI Alignment Community Architect for the RHEL Upstreams ecosystem in the Open Source & AI Program Office (OSAIPO). His work asks “alignment with whom?” He guides communities through shaping the adoption of LLM-gen-AI around their own values and interests, centering community values, contributor choice, and equitable access. Justin’s commitment to equitable access connects more than a decade of Fedora participation with earlier work at UNICEF, where he mentored startups building Digital Public Goods.
Recent Posts
What Fedora Copr is, what it offers packagers and users, and why its sandbox-like design makes it a safe place to experiment with RPM packages.
What our joint Fedora and CentOS presence at Boston University taught us about university students, Linux defaults, and modernizing our event playbook.
How I use AI agents for managing multiple Git repos across Fedora's sprawl, and why protecting my time matters more than the tool.
I am moving to Germany by the end of 2026. This is a personal update on family, joining Red Hat GmbH, and shifting my open source focus to Europe.
Reclaiming the term "AI Alignment" for the alignment of LLM-gen-AI models with open source community values.
Red Hat
AI Alignment Community Architect, RHEL Upstreams 🔗
Since October 2026, I serve as AI Alignment Community Architect for RHEL Upstreams in the Open Source & AI Program Office (OSAIPO) at Red Hat. My starting question is “alignment with whom?” I help upstream communities shape the creation, use, and adoption of LLM-gen-AI around their own values and interests, with room for contributors who use these tools and those who choose not to.
My work currently centers on Fedora, where I lead the effort to build the Fedora Agent Skills Library, develop AI/ML SIG documentation and workflows, and serve as a Fedora Docs Team co-lead. I work toward responsible AI-assisted contribution and broader access to inference, so participation does not depend on privileged access to commercial platforms. As this work develops, I aim to extend that community-centered approach to CentOS and other RHEL upstreams.
Fedora Community Architect 🔗
From October 2022 to September 2026, I served as Red Hat’s fourth Fedora Community Architect. Working with fellow organizers, I helped rebuild Flock to Fedora after its pandemic hiatus: attendance grew 75% from 2023 to 2026, reaching venue capacity, while we transformed the in-person conference into an income-generating event and achieved record sponsorship income.
I stewarded Fedora’s community budget and worked to restore transparent access to event support, including reimbursements for non-Red Hat contributors. I also led the effort to restore access to Fedora in Syria, working with Fedora colleagues and Red Hat and IBM legal teams to secure approval for lifting the infrastructure IP block.
Fedora Project
I am a contributor to the Fedora Project and Fedora Linux since January 2014. Fedora Linux is a Digital Public Good created by the Fedora Project community (see recognition).
Current activity in Fedora 🔗
Here is what I am currently doing in Fedora (see Fedora Linux release history):
- AI/ML SIG: Core contributor (Fedora Linux releases 43 to present)
- Ambassadors:
- North American Ambassador (Fedora Linux releases 25 to 44)
- European Ambassador (Fedora Linux releases 45 to present)
- Badges: Core contributor (Fedora Linux releases 24 to 32, 44 to present)
- Community Blog: Editor-in-chief (Fedora Linux releases 22 to 29, 39 to 41, 44 to present)
- Community Ops (CommOps): Founding member and team co-lead (Fedora Linux releases 22 to 30, 33 to 36, 40 to present)
- Data WG: Core contributor (Fedora Linux releases 43 to present)
- Documentation Team:
- Core contributor, writer, & reviewer (Fedora Linux releases 27 to 32, 41 to present)
- Team co-lead (Fedora Linux releases 43 to present)
- AI/ML SIG docs captain (Fedora Linux releases 44 to present)
- DEI Team: Founding member & core contributor (Fedora Linux releases 24 to present)
- Marketing:
- Team lead (Fedora Linux releases 25 to 28)
- Core contributor (Fedora Linux releases 23 to 28, 39 to present)
- Packager:
mpris-scrobbler,playerctl,zork,hugo(Fedora Linux releases 26 to present)
Past activity in Fedora 🔗
I have done more in the Fedora Project over the years. I served in the following positions previously (see Fedora Linux release history):
- Fedora Council:
- Elected member (Fedora Linux release 26)
- DEI Advisor (Fedora Linux releases 33, 34)
- Community Architect (Fedora Linux releases 38 to 44)
- Fedora Happiness Packets: Outreachy 2019 mentor, project manager (Fedora Linux releases 29 to 31)
- Fedora Magazine: Editor-in-chief (Fedora Linux releases 24 to 26)
- Games SIG: Moderator (Fedora Linux releases 24 to 28)
- Google Summer of Code 2016: Student intern (Fedora Linux releases 23, 24)
- i3 SIG: Core contributor (Fedora Linux releases 33, 34)
- Join SIG: Mentor (Fedora Linux releases 23 to 28)
- Mindshare Committee:
- Founding member (Fedora Linux releases 27, 28)
- Fedora Community Architect (Fedora Linux releases 38 to 44)
UNICEF
Open Source Technical Advisor, Office of Innovation 🔗
From June 2020 to September 2022, I was the first Open Source Technical Advisor at the UNICEF Office of Innovation.
There, I supported UNICEF Venture Fund startup companies in launching Open Source products, one of the requirements to receive funding from UNICEF. In all, I mentored 23 companies from 19 countries on community strategies for their Open Source products. Of those, fourteen achieved global recognition as Digital Public Goods and three were acquired in multi-million dollar acquisitions. Additionally, I also designed a fixed-term Open Source community mentoring program for startup companies and developer communities that later expanded to Technical Assistance programs for software development and data science & AI.
My full-time work concluded in September 2022, and I continued as a part-time consultant from October 2022 until June 2023, when my last contract with UNICEF ended.
UNICEF MagicBox, Office of Innovation 🔗
From January to May 2018, I was the first, full-time co-op placement to work exclusively on Open Source community for UNICEF Office of Innovation. I was mentored by Mel Chua and Stephen Jacobs as part of the Project in FOSS Development (IGME-585) course at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
I supported MagicBox, a geospatial data project connecting unrelated datasets into actionable feedback for local governments and municipalities. I improved Open Source best practices to enable continuous integration, agile development practices, and created a 12-month Open Source community roadmap. There, I worked together with UNICEF personnel and Red Hat Open Innovations Lab on MagicBox. This was an engagement highlighted by Jim Whitehurst, former President of IBM and Red Hat CEO, during his Red Hat Summit 2018 keynote.