GNU and Free Software Speakers

We often get requests for speakers who can represent the GNU project and/or the Free Software Movement at a conference, event or panel discussion. You can use this page to find someone to speak on behalf of the GNU project and/or the Free Software Movement. Speakers are listed in alphabetical order by last name. If you would like to invite one of these speakers to an event, please contact the speaker directly via email.

Robert J. Chassell <bob@rattlesnake.com>

Biography

Robert J. Chassell was a founding Director and Treasurer of the Free Software Foundation. Chassell writes and edits. He is the author of Programming in Emacs Lisp: An Introduction. He graduated from Cambridge University, in England. He flies his own airplane, enjoys astronomy, and has an abiding interest in social and economic history.

Topics

Chassell is especially good at introducing the concepts of free software to audiences who have little or no previous experience with the technology.

Chassell can address the following topics:

• He can explain how your legal rights to copy, study, modify, and redistribute software encourage people to work collaboratively and profitably.
• He can describe the way freedom shapes the technology of software to make it accessible and empowering for both programmers and users.
• He can discuss the various business models used by companies to make profits with free software, both in rich and poor countries.
• He can speak on the ethical implications of free and restricted software, and how to arrange matters such that acting in a cooperative and law abiding manner is without doubt the best action, for legal, moral, and practical reasons.
• He can walk an audience of lawyers, and others who enjoy legal discussion, through the GNU General Public License paragraph by paragraph, and compare that license with other, somewhat different licenses.
• From his own experience, he can describe the history of free software from its beginning in the GNU Project through the rise of the phrase "open source" to the present flowering of GNU/Linux.

Languages

Chassell speaks English, and has experience speaking to crowds for whom English is a second language.

Georg C. F. Greve <greve@gnu.org>

Biography

Georg C. F. Greve is a Physicist (German Diplom from the University of Hamburg) with experience in the medical science, physical oceanography, biophysics and nanotechnology areas although computer science has always been a focal point. Example activities are his authorship of the monthly GNU forum "Brave GNU World" and the GNU Xlogmaster. He is also initiator and president of the FSF Europe. More information available at http://gnuhh.org.

Topics

Topics Georg Greve can speak about include

• Visions for Free Software and the FSF
• Background, concept and future of the FSF Europe
• History, background and philosophy of Free Software and the GNU Project
• "Copyright in the internet age": implications for copyright by the digital revolution.
• Commercial, practical and sociological aspects of Free Software and the GNU Project
• The Brave GNU World

Languages

Greve speaks English and German fluently, and can deliver speeches in either language.

Bradley M. Kuhn <bkuhn@fsf.org>

Biography

Bradley M. Kuhn is a supporter of the Free Software Movement. He hacks on, teaches about and documents Free Software and advocates the importance of software freedom. He began working with the Free Software Foundation and the GNU project as a volunteer in the mid-1990s. In February 2001, he was hired full-time as Vice President of the FSF. When not putting in overtime for his official duties, Mr. Kuhn contributes to GNU as a volunteer by hacking on various Free Software programs and Free Documentation.

Mr. Kuhn holds a summa cum laude B.S. in Computer Science from Loyola College in Maryland, and an M.S. in Computer Science from University of Cincinnati. Before working full-time for the FSF, he worked as a Free Software consultant in the technology industry.

Topics

Mr. Kuhn can speak about:

• Software Freedom, the GNU Generation, and the GNU General Public License
• Using GNU Kawa to Port Perl to the Java Virtual Machine

Languages

Mr. Kuhn speaks English, and can also converse some in Spanish.

Eben Moglen <moglen@columbia.edu>

Biography

Eben Moglen is a professor of Law and Legal History at the Columbia Law School. Professor Moglen studies the history and changing nature of intellectual property ideas.

Topics

Professor Moglen is willing to deliver speeches about the following topics:

• The Free Software Movement, in relation to other ideas of how to produce and distribute ideas.
• Why the current movement in technology will overcome the conventional idea in law.

Languages

Professor Moglen speaks English, and can also converse some in French.

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>

Biography

Richard Stallman is the founder of the GNU Project, launched in 1984 to develop the free operating system, GNU.

Richard Stallman is the principal author of the GNU C Compiler, the GNU symbolic debugger (GDB), GNU Emacs, and various other GNU programs. Stallman currently serves as president of the Free Software Foundation.

Topics

Richard Stallman has prepared speeches on the following topics:

• The Free Software Project and the GNU/Linux Operating System (Audio recordings and a textual summary of this speech are available.)
• Copyright vs. Community in the Age of Computer Networks An audio recording of a similar speech is available.
• The Danger of Software Patents

Dr. Stallman is also available for press interviews and panel discussions concerning all aspects of the GNU project and the Free Software Movement.

Languages

Dr. Stallman speaks English and French fluently, and can deliver speeches in either language.

Tony Stanco <Tony@FreeDevelopers.net>

Biography

Tony Stanco is the founder of FreeDevelopers.net, an international CommunityCompany for the development of GPL software with members from over 50 countries. Before starting FreeDevelopers, he was a senior attorney with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Internet and software group, in Washington, DC. He has a LL.M. in securities regulation from Georgetown University Law Center.

Topics

Tony's speeches can include the following topics:

• How free software is a continuation of the ancient human quest for equality and freedom.
• Why free software is vastly more efficient than proprietary software development.
• Why free software marks the end of the Industrial Age and the beginning of the Intellectual Age, which will focus on human rights, not property rights.
• Why software is like law that controls people through a non-human digital police force, and thus non-free software is not appropriate in a free and democratic society.
• The CommunityCompany concept, and how it could fit for the Intellectual Age just as the corporation structure fit the Industrial Age.

Languages

Tony Stanco speaks English.

FSF & GNU inquiries & questions to gnu@gnu.org. Other ways to contact the FSF.

Comments on these web pages to webmasters@gnu.org, send other questions to gnu@gnu.org.

Copyright © 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111, USA

Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.

Updated: $Date: 2001/09/24 12:38:14 $ $Author: bkuhn $