Platform for Robert Brockway

I've been a Linux user and OSS advocate since 1994 and a contributing member of SPI since 2004. Professionally I am a Linux system administrator and have dedicated myself to the OSS cause personally and professionally.

Over the last 13 years I have endeavoured to educate IT and non-IT people alike about open source, open standards and why they are important. With our society so dependent on computers and the information held within them, OSS and open standards become a necessary tool in the defence of democracy and freedom. I have given a number of public talks over the years on Linux and open source and always try to incorporate aspects of the philosophy of open source in to these events.

In 1995 I founded the Home Unix Machine - Brisbane User Group (http://www.humbug.org.au) in Brisbane, Australia to support the use of (predominantly OSS) Unix in the home. I served on the executive of HUMBUG for the first 4.5 years and have remained involved with the club for its entire life. I've also run an OSS consultancy that contributes 2% of gross profits in support of OSS. In the last 13 years I have donated thousands of hours of my time in support of OSS, answering technical questions on mailing lists and on irc and I have also assisted many times in projects such as Software Freedom Day.

I now reside in Toronto, Canada and am involved with the Greater Toronto, Area Linux User Group (http://www.gtalug.org), being the Talks Coordinator.

I would like to join the board to assist SPI in becoming more central in the OSS world. It is my belief that a higher profile for SPI can only be beneficial to OSS.

I previously proposed to the board the idea that SPI could become a UN Non-governmental Organisation (NGO) as this would allow us to advocate on behalf of OSS to people who really can make a difference. This did not proceed, no doubt due to the work load on the board members at the time. If elected to the board I promise to proceed with this process as a top priority.

I can be found on the OFTC irc network as Solver.