Position statement for Gregers Petersen

My name is Gregers Petersen and I am running for a seat on the SPI board of directors. I have for a number of years acted as relationship manager for the OpenWrt.org project. OpenWrt develops a Linux based distribution for embedded systems, and the main-body of the distributed source-code is licensed under GPLv2. I have been the OpenWrt liaison since OpenWrt became an SPI-Inc. associated project, as well as being active in the initial process of joining.

My professional background is social anthropology, and I currently work as systems-administrator at Copenhagen University. My anthropological research has until date focused 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 and information-security. From an early onset it has been important for me to help others with learning the "ins and outs" of free software.

SPI is constantly increasing its number of associated projects and the focus/interests of the various projects is diversifying. As member of the SPI board of directors I would focus on securing ease of communication and direct ways of responding to requests and needs from associated projects. There might be need for changes in the services offered by SPI and the organizational form itself. SPI is simply due to the increase in associated projects being scaled up and this does offer challenges likewise as potentials. My personal background both as an anthropologist and with my past experiences gives me a stable baseline for meeting such challenges.

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. I live in Copenhagen, Denmark, together with my children, a cat and a young shiba inu dog. My nick on both OFTC and Freenode is glp.