Position statement for Gregers Petersen

My name is Gregers Petersen and I'm running for a seat on the SPI board. Currently I act as the OpenWrt relationship manager. In this position I initiated the process of OpenWrt becoming a SPI associated project and hereby transforming the OpenWrt project into a non-profit entity. Professionally I work as a system administrator and anthropologist (when I can find funding for research projects). My anthropological research has until date focussed on the ethnographic study of relations of ownership in a free software context, technology use, community based wireless networks and digital archiving amongst other topics. I have also in the past worked with user-driven design, change management, organizational consulting and teaching.

I have been using free and open source software since the mid-90's which over the years has brought me to a deep interests in embedded systems, wireless networking, virtualization and resilient storage solutions. - From an early onset it has been important for me to help others with learning the "ins and outs" of free software. In the beginning of my own path as user it was the organisation of a mobile hackerspace, today it is a hacker club at my children's school.

SPI is quickly increasing its number of associated projects and the focus of the projects is diversifying. This does ask questions in terms of a potential need for changes in the services offered by SPI and the form of organization. I would love to engage the challenges of these questions as SPI board member. One change I would like to see happen is to facilitate that each associated project has an appointed contact amongst the SPI board members. The intention would be to improve ease of communication and a more direct way of responding to requests and needs from associated projects. My background as an anthropologist has given me solid experiences with building and maintaining productive relationships and I have for years utilized my skills within the world of free and open source software.

It is my opinion, a position similar to what Jimmy Kaplowitz has argued, that it is worth considering to expand the operational mission of SPI. SPI is simply due to the increase in associated projects being scaled up and this does offer challenges likewise as potentials. It would be a personal delight to work with these topics as SPI board member.

It is my hope that I will be given the opportunity to be elected to the SPI board. I believe that I can add valuable skills and experiences to the future work and development of Software in the Public Interest. My nick on both OFTC and Freenode is glp.