Bruce Perens

There Goes the Neighborhood!

This is Bruce Perens' statement of candidacy for the SPI board.

I created the Debian Social Contract, the Debian Free Software Guidelines, and SPI in collaboration with a lot of you folks.

To fill you in on some of the things I've been doing lately:

• My book series with Prentice Hall. All texts are under a DFSG-free license. Here's the New York Times coverage.
• I'm a Senior Research Scientist with the Cyber Security Policy Institute at George Washington University. Here's their press release. That's a podium from which I can speak upon security issues that would effect Free Software. It's grant-funded, and I'm currently writing a grant to deal with the trojan-horse problem in Free Software.
• I'm flying around the world talking about Sincere Choice, a campaign for fairness in government and corporate software purchasing.
• I do policy consulting for companies that would like to be good members of the Free Software community.

If you aren't familiar with me, here's my bio.

Somehow, I have become one of the best-known figures in Free Software. I can't say I was seeking it, but notoriety is a useful tool when we want the outside world to hear our concerns. Because they already know who I am, I can get many major media outlets to cover a story that is important to us, and most corporate executives will take a phone call from me. I spend a lot of time fighting threats to Free Software like DRM and software patents.

I've been representing SPI for the past two years at the W3C Patent Policy Working Group, where I've helped fight off patent-farming in so-called "open standards" that would have locked out Free Software. I also represent SPI to other standards organizations.

I used to be a lot more angry, as SPI old-timers will tell you. I haven't done any of that stuff in years. The SPI board member who complained about me the most, back then, has endorsed me for this position. Becoming a dad has probably helped balance my priorities. Baby pictures are here.