Free Software and Open Source Symposium

Jim McQuillan, Founder and Project leader of the Linux Terminal Server Project

Jim has been developing solutions for customers, utilizing Unix and networking since 1984 and has been involved with Linux since 1995. Jim has functioned as a Chief Technologist for more than 20 years and is responsible for the successful deployment of health care systems throughout the North Eastern United States. Jim is currently the President of the Michigan Unix Users Group (www.MUG.org) and is a member of the X.org Foundation board of directors. Additionally, Jim is the founder and project leader of the Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP), an open source project which has received world wide recognition as the standard method of deploying Thin clients in a GNU/Linux environment.

Stephen Downes, Senior Researcher, National Research Council, and Author of OLDaily (Online Learning Daily)

Born in Montreal, Quebec, Stephen Downes lived and worked across Canada before joining the National Research Council as a senior researcher in November, 2001. Currently based in Moncton, New Brunswick, at the Institute for Information Technology's e-Learning Research Group, Stephen has become a leading voice in the areas of learning objects and metadata as well as the emerging fields of weblogs in education and content syndication. Stephen is perhaps best known for his daily research newsletter, OLDaily (short for Online Learning Daily), which reaches thousands of readers across Canada and around the world. His work also includes the development of educational content syndication systems such as Edu_RSS and DLORN along and the design of a digital rights management system for learning resources. Stephen is also frequently to be found the road giving seminars and lectures on the field of online learning, including the notable Buntine Oration delivered in Perth, Australia, in October, 2004.

Marcel Gagné , Author of "Moving to Linux: Kiss the Blue Screen of Death Goodbye!" and Linux Journal Columnist

Marcel Gagné (Canada's Linux Guru), is probably best known as the award-winning author of the Linux Journal 'Cooking with Linux' series, for which he received the Readers' Choice award for favorite column four years in a row. His fourth, and more recent book, the second edition of his immensely successful "Moving to Linux: Kiss the Blue Screen of Death Goodbye!' is available in stores now. One of the best known voices of the Linux and open source world, he has written numerous articles on Linux and open source projects for various publications including Linux Journal, InformIT, Unix Review, SysAdmin magazine, and several others. He also appears regularly on radio, at industry shows, user groups, universities, and as the Linux guy on Tech TV's "Call for Help". He has written about, installed, and taught many open source applications including the Linux desktop environment itself, as well as the popular OpenOffice.org office suite. A long-time systems and network administrator, Marcel is a published science fiction author and editor, a pilot, an avid science and astronomy buff, and a former top 40 disc jockey. He also folds a mean Origami T-Rex.

George Belotsky is a software architect who has done extensive work on high performance Internet servers as well as hard real time and embedded systems. His technology interests include C++, Python and Linux. George Belotsky has written several articles for O'Reilly Network. His series on C++ memory management made the best of 2003 list on O'Reilly ONLamp. He is also the author of the Flightdeck-UI Open Source project, which he presented at PyCon 2003 in Washington, DC.

Jesse Hirsh, President, Openflows Networks Ltd.

Jesse is in charge of Openflows' day-to-day operations. He has a long history of active involvement in the Open Source Community and as a researcher of the social and political implications of new technologies. He is a frequent guest on CBC Radio and TV and has published and lectured extensively on OSS developments.

Marcus Bornfreund, Creative Commons, Canada

Marcus is a part-time Professor at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, the Manager of the University of Ottawa's Law & Technology Program and an Associate of the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC). He sits as a member of the CIPPIC internal advisory board, and is also a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada, Electronic Frontier Canada, and the Free/Open Source Research Community at MIT. Marcus is responsible for the Canadian translation of the popular Creative Commons licence and a prominent figure in the Canadian open source and open access communities.

Jeffrey Liu, Software Developer, IBM Canada

Jeffrey Liu is a software developer at the IBM Toronto Lab. He is a committer for the Eclipse Web Tools Platform project. He joined IBM in 2001 after graduating from the University of British Columbia with a B.A.Sc in Computer Engineering.

Lawrence Mandel, Software Developer, IBM Canada

Lawrence Mandel, a software developer at the IBM Toronto Laboratory, is the lead of ecosystem development and a committer for the Eclipse Web Tools Platform (WTP) project.

Daniela Malea, Engagement Architect - Client Solutions, Sun Microsystems of Canada

Daniela Malea is a senior pre-sales architect at Sun Microsystems of Canada. She focuses on Solaris Operating Environment, System Management tools and Data Center technologies. Prior to joining Sun in 1998 Daniela held various IT management roles and she also taught at the Technical Univesity of Timisoara (Romania) from which she has a M. Sc. in Computer Engineering.

Meron Hrycusko, Senior Web Developer-Designer, York University, Academic Technology Services

Meron Hrycusko is a Senior Web Developer for the Faculty of Arts at York University. Prior to this position, he was an e-learning consultant for various corporations throughout North America.

Joey deVilla, Technical Community Develoment Coordinator, Tucows Inc.

Bio not yet available

Hassan Assiri, Manager, Academic Computing Systems, Seneca College

Bio not yet available

David Humphrey, Professor, School of Computer Studies - Seneca College

David Humphrey is a professor in the School of Computer Studies at Seneca College. He teaches programming and specializes in object-oriented languages, with a focus on C# and the .NET Framework. He is a founding member of the Centre for the Development of Open Technology (CDOT) at Seneca College. David received his M.A. from the University of Toronto in English Literature, and when he isn't reading literary theory he writes Open Source software.

Kevin Pitts, Professor, e Learning Centre - Seneca College

Kevin Pitts is a faculty member and coordinator of a number of S@Y and TELi elearning projects. As faculty advisor in the eLearning Centre at S@Y, Kevin believes in the effective use of technology to enhance the teaching and learning process and has been involved in implementing technology into everyday teaching and learning at Seneca, whether in class, online, or a mixture of both.

Chris Tyler, Professor, School of Computer Studies - Seneca College

Chris Tyler is a Linux programmer and administrator and a professor at Seneca College. He spent last summer researching and writing a book on the X Window System.