Bruce Perens (born around 1958) is an American computer programmer and advocate in the free software movement.
(SourceLabs was acquired by EMC in 2009.) ===University faculty=== Between 1981 and 1986, Perens was on the staff of the New York Institute of Technology Computer Graphics Lab as a Unix kernel programmer. In 2002, Perens was a remote Senior Scientist for Open Source with the Cyber Security Policy Laboratory of George Washington University under the direction of Tony Stanco.
(SourceLabs was acquired by EMC in 2009.) ===University faculty=== Between 1981 and 1986, Perens was on the staff of the New York Institute of Technology Computer Graphics Lab as a Unix kernel programmer. In 2002, Perens was a remote Senior Scientist for Open Source with the Cyber Security Policy Laboratory of George Washington University under the direction of Tony Stanco.
After that, he worked at Pixar for 12 years, from 1987 to 1999.
One of his visits was to Iceland, where he had half of that nation's radio amateurs in the room, and their vote in the International Amateur Radio Union was equivalent to that of the entire United States. ===BusyBox=== In 1995, Perens created BusyBox, a package of Unix-style utilities for operating systems including Linux-based ones and FreeBSD.
He stopped working on it in 1996, after which it was taken over by other developers. Starting in 2007, several lawsuits were filed for infringement of BusyBox copyright and licensing.
Because he was denied participation in the Busybox cases on the side of the plaintiffs, Perens started a consulting business to assist the defendants in coming into compliance with the GPL and arriving at an amicable settlement with the Software Freedom Law Center. ===Debian Project Leader=== From April 1996 to December 1997, while still working at Pixar, Perens served as Debian Project Leader, the person who coordinates development of the Debian open source operating system.
He keynoted the Festival de Software Libre 2013, in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. In 2014–2015, Perens took a break from Open Source conferences, having spoken at them often since 1996.
Because he was denied participation in the Busybox cases on the side of the plaintiffs, Perens started a consulting business to assist the defendants in coming into compliance with the GPL and arriving at an amicable settlement with the Software Freedom Law Center. ===Debian Project Leader=== From April 1996 to December 1997, while still working at Pixar, Perens served as Debian Project Leader, the person who coordinates development of the Debian open source operating system.
He replaced Ian Murdock, the creator of Debian, who had been the first project leader. ===Software in the Public Interest=== In 1997, Perens was a co-founder of Software in the Public Interest (SPI), a nonprofit organization intended to serve as an umbrella organization to aid open-source software and hardware projects.
It was originally created to allow the Debian Project to accept donations. ===Debian Social Contract=== In 1997, Perens was carbon-copied on an email conversation between Donnie Barnes of Red Hat and Ean Schuessler, who was then working on Debian.
Perens proposed a draft of the Debian Social Contract to the Debian developers on the debian-private mailing list early in June 1997.
He is credited as a studio tools engineer on the Pixar films A Bug's Life (1998) and Toy Story 2 (1999). ===No-Code International=== Perens founded No-Code International in 1998 with the goal of ending the Morse Code test then required for an amateur radio license.
After that, he worked at Pixar for 12 years, from 1987 to 1999.
Perens presently volunteers as the Open Source Initiative's representative to the European Technical Standards Institute ("ETSI"), and is a frequent participant in review of license texts submitted to OSI for certification as Open Source licenses. ===Linux Capital Group=== In 1999, Perens left Pixar and became the president of Linux Capital Group, a business incubator and venture capital firm focusing on Linux-based businesses.
In 2000, as a result of the economic downturn, Perens shut down Linux Capital Group.
(Progeny Linux Systems would end operations in 2007.) ===Hewlett-Packard=== From December 2000 to September 2002, Perens served as "Senior Global Strategist for Linux and Open Source" at Hewlett-Packard, internally evangelizing for the use of Linux and other open-source software.
(Progeny Linux Systems would end operations in 2007.) ===Hewlett-Packard=== From December 2000 to September 2002, Perens served as "Senior Global Strategist for Linux and Open Source" at Hewlett-Packard, internally evangelizing for the use of Linux and other open-source software.
(SourceLabs was acquired by EMC in 2009.) ===University faculty=== Between 1981 and 1986, Perens was on the staff of the New York Institute of Technology Computer Graphics Lab as a Unix kernel programmer. In 2002, Perens was a remote Senior Scientist for Open Source with the Cyber Security Policy Laboratory of George Washington University under the direction of Tony Stanco.
Perens postulated in 2004 an economic theory for business use of Open Source in his paper The Emerging Economic Paradigm of Open Source and his speech Innovation Goes Public.
Today, he is a partner at OSS Capital. In 2005, Perens represented Open Source at the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society, at the invitation of the United Nations Development Programme.
Stanco was director of the laboratory for a year, while its regular director was on sabbatical. Between 2006 and 2007, Perens was a visiting lecturer and researcher for the University of Agder under a three-year grant from the Competence Fund of Southern Norway.
He stopped working on it in 1996, after which it was taken over by other developers. Starting in 2007, several lawsuits were filed for infringement of BusyBox copyright and licensing.
(Progeny Linux Systems would end operations in 2007.) ===Hewlett-Packard=== From December 2000 to September 2002, Perens served as "Senior Global Strategist for Linux and Open Source" at Hewlett-Packard, internally evangelizing for the use of Linux and other open-source software.
He produced a video commercial, Impending Security Breach, for SourceLabs in 2007.
Stanco was director of the laboratory for a year, while its regular director was on sabbatical. Between 2006 and 2007, Perens was a visiting lecturer and researcher for the University of Agder under a three-year grant from the Competence Fund of Southern Norway.
This differs from Raymond's theory in The Cathedral and the Bazaar, which having been written before there was much business involvement in open source, explains open source as a consequence of programmer motivation and leisure. In February 2008, for the 10th anniversary of the phrase "open source", Perens published a message to the community called "State of Open Source Message: A New Decade For Open Source".
These lawsuits were filed by the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), and some of the later managing developers of BusyBox. In 2009, Bruce Perens released a statement about the lawsuits and those filing them.
(SourceLabs was acquired by EMC in 2009.) ===University faculty=== Between 1981 and 1986, Perens was on the staff of the New York Institute of Technology Computer Graphics Lab as a Unix kernel programmer. In 2002, Perens was a remote Senior Scientist for Open Source with the Cyber Security Policy Laboratory of George Washington University under the direction of Tony Stanco.
His report, which was made publicly available by Jacobsen, presented the culture and impact of open-source software development to the federal courts. Perens delivered one of the keynote addresses at the 2012 linux.conf.au conference in Ballarat, Australia.
He also discussed some of the latest developments in open-source hardware, such as Papilio and Bus Pirate. In 2013, Perens spoke in South America, as the closing keynote at Latinoware 2013.
He keynoted the Festival de Software Libre 2013, in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. In 2014–2015, Perens took a break from Open Source conferences, having spoken at them often since 1996.
He keynoted the Festival de Software Libre 2013, in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. In 2014–2015, Perens took a break from Open Source conferences, having spoken at them often since 1996.
He promotes open radio communications standards and open-source hardware. In 2016 Perens, along with Boalt Hall (Berkeley Law) professor Lothar Determann, co-authored "Open Cars" which appeared in the Berkeley Technology Law Journal. In 2018 Perens founded the Open Research Institute (ORI), a non-profit research and development organization to address technologies involving Open Source, Open Hardware, Open Standards, Open Content, and Open Access to Research.
In 2016, he returned to the conference circuit, keynoting the Open Source Insight conference in Seoul, sponsored by the Copyright Commission of South Korea.
He promotes open radio communications standards and open-source hardware. In 2016 Perens, along with Boalt Hall (Berkeley Law) professor Lothar Determann, co-authored "Open Cars" which appeared in the Berkeley Technology Law Journal. In 2018 Perens founded the Open Research Institute (ORI), a non-profit research and development organization to address technologies involving Open Source, Open Hardware, Open Standards, Open Content, and Open Access to Research.
Perens web site presently advertises his availability to keynote conferences as long as travel and lodging expenses are compensated. In 2020, Perens delivered the talk, "What Comes After Open Source?" for DebConf 2020.
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