tl;dr: I don't write much code anymore. But I work full time to make sure you can! And the only payment I receive for this work is donations.

I'm an older, hands-on activist who volunteers, writes, speaks, comments and tweets on open source and digital freedom in the meshed society. I would value support so I can freely write opinion pieces, co-host FLOSS Weekly, write for open source publications, and keep an eye on public policy shenanigans.

History
I've been around the computer industry all my working life. You may remember me from my days at large computer companies like IBM and Sun, but these days I'm independent and this work is funded entirely by patronage here and occasionally by direct consulting (please get in touch!)

Most of what I spend my time on is voluntary work, such as working at the Open Source Initiative and The Document Foundation. Volunteering doesn't pay the bills, so I have supported this by writing, speaking and consulting. It's increasingly hard to get publications to pay for freelance writing and I would like to be able to post more often than any publications will support. I also try to accept speaking engagements, but these days few events on the free culture calendar even cover travel costs, let alone pay speakers.

Your support will:

• free me to devote more time to volunteering at open source and digital rights organisations;
• help me intervene personally in current digital rights issues - at meetings, with papers, online;
• allow me to write for sites like Opensource.Com, Opensource.org and others that never pay contributors;
• enable me to travel to attend events like FOSDEM to provide an independent eye and voice that's not controlled by the big corporate contributors;
• comment freely on political and corporate moves that affect open source, digital rights and free culture.

You can follow my updates on my private blog.