Platform for Bruce Perens

I am running for re-election to SPI's board of directors.

I started this organization, although of course I was assisted by many people and there have been many others who have done essential work for it. I played an essential role in the early stages of Debian, and am the creator and primary author of the Debian Social Contract.

I know of few people who do as much for Free Software as I. You can see that on my resume at http://perens.com/Bio.html . Richard Stallman does more, indeed he dedicates his entire life to it to the exclusion of all else. For that we should honor him. I am a husband and the parent of a wonderful six-year-old, and that's mission #1. Hopefully you are satisfied with Free Software being #2.

Currently I am funded by Sourcelabs to spend half of my work time on Free Software issues of my own choice, following my own agenda without their interference. They also pick up my travel bills. I hope to eventually transition to working full-time on Free Software policy issues.

This year, and for the foreseeable future, my primary mission is to help fight Software Patents. Recent examples of my work to shift opinion on the topic are at http://technocrat.net/d/2006/6/30/5032 and http://technocrat.net/d/2006/4/5/2073 You might want to look at my book series at http://phptr.com/perens. 24 books have been published so far under an Open Content license, and most of them are now available for source and unencrypted PDF download.

I've missed SPI board meetings reasonably often because I'm in the air or at a meeting on Free Software community business. As most of the real business of SPI is on a mailing list, that's not been too bad. The hardest part of SPI is the treasurer's job, and that's not one I'm well-suited for. I am, however, encouraged by the progress in moving much of this work to paid professionals.

Please call me at (US) 510-526-1165, or write to me at bruce @ perens.com if you would like to discuss anything. I hope to meet you soon at a Free Software event.