Greetings, all. My name is Larry Cafiero and I became enlightened to FOSS during my campaign for Insurance Commissioner in California in 2006 (Green Party candidate) when the sysadmin for the Green Internet Society showed me the alternatives to commercial software. I have since left the political activist realm in order to evangelize and promote FOSS, leaning toward the Free Software side moreso than the Open Source side (more on this in a minute). I am Associate Member Number 5030 of the Free Software Foundation.

I am a journalist by profession, currently working on the wire desk at the Santa Cruz Sentinel in Santa Cruz, California, as a copy editor. I am in the process of publishing a bimonthly magazine scheduled to premiere in January 2008 called "Open Source and Free Software Reporter" which now appears on-line at http://www.opensourcereporter.net (the name change on the Web site is forthcoming). I also blog as "Larry the Open Source Guy," gettin' 'er done for FOSS at http://larrytheopensourceguy.wordpress.com

[Yes, that blog title will change, too -- you can thank/blame Danijel Orsolic for that, as his essay on reclaiming the Free Software recently makes a lot of sense, especially in the face of the term "Open Source" falling apart so that OSI has to keep redefining it.]

In addition to these projects, I'm working with others in organizing The Tux Project, and I serve as the Volunteer Coordinator (want to join? http://www.tuxproject.com) and attending to various administrative duties there. I am also organizing a Software Freedom Day event for 9/15 in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where I live.

When time permits, I welcome the opportunity to contribute stories and my editing talents to FOSS publications (Don?), so feel free to contact me. I am often on freenode as lcafiero -- shoot, I'm "everywhere" as lcafiero -- and I can be reached by e-mail and Google
Talk at larry.cafiero@gmail.com

What else? Yeah, my icon has Tux bearing the Grateful Dead logo because I'm a Deadhead. I'll be 50 in November. I'm married to Japanese peace activist Kyoko Kawashima, and we have a 9-year-old Linux-Chick-in-Training (who, under the watchful eye and occasional instruction of her dear ol' dad, installed Debian on her iMac all by herself). What little free time I have after all this is spent with the family, camping, hiking and going to either an occasional Oakland A's or San Francisco Giants game.