= FSFE founder Georg Greve awarded German Cross of Merit =
[Permanent URL: http://fsfe.org/news/2010/news-20100428-01.en.html ]
28 April 2010, 09:40, Berlin, Germany
Georg Greve, founding president of the Free Software Foundation Europe,
has received the Cross of Merit on ribbon of the Federal Republic of
Germany (Verdienstkreuz am Bande). Georg received this high award from
the German President for his work on Free Software and Open Standards.
"FSFE is very proud to have a 'knight' among its team," says FSFE's
president Karsten Gerloff. "Georg's tremendous dedication to freedom in
technology has been a driving force for Free Software in Europe and
around the world. He has put Free Software on the political agenda, and
has created the structures to harness the community's energy towards our
common goals. His hard work over more than a decade has brought enormous
progress for Free Software."
With FSFE, Georg worked hard to create the understanding of Free
Software as a cultural technique. He gave Free Software a voice at the
United Nations [1], including the "World Intellectual Property
Organization" (WIPO) and the World Summit on the Information Society
(WSIS). With FSFE's Freedom Task Force, he was the architect for a
centre of expertise on legal aspects of Free Software, and drove the
concept of legal maintainability [2] for Free Software projects. He
initiated [3] the community resistance against Microsoft's OOXML format,
and worked on some of the first EU-funded projects for Free Software.
Under Georg's leadership, FSFE was also a key player in averting the
threat of software patents in Europe.
"I'm deeply grateful for the official recognition that Free Software and
Open Standards receive with this award", says Georg Greve. "Around 2000,
I decided to dedicate myself fully to this cause out of a sense of
necessity: I felt that I had glimpsed how software shapes our society.
But I also saw that society had not yet understood how much it is shaped
by software. It is my hope that this award will help to make people
aware of these questions, and bring support for the work of FSFE, which
is more important than ever."
== About Georg Greve ==
Born on 10 March 1973 on the German island of Heligoland, Georg Greve
has a classic scientific background as a physicist. He gained his
interdisciplinary diploma in the field of nanotechnology at the computer
science faculty of the University of Hamburg.
He has been developing software since he was 12 years old. Besides a
first publication of a program in a professional journal in 1991, coding
partly paid for his studies when he managed the software development to
evaluate SQUID-sensor data in the biomagnetometic laboratory in the
University hospital of Eppendorf (UKE) in Hamburg, Germany.
In 1993 he came in contact with Free Software and GNU/Linux. In 1998,
Georg Greve became a European speaker for the GNU Project. At this time,
he also started writing the "Brave GNU World," a monthly column on Free
Software published in the German Linux-Magazin and other magazines
worldwide, as well as online in up to 10 languages.
In early 2001, together with a group of dedicated people he initiated
the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), the first Free Software
Foundation outside the United States of America and the largest
transnational Free Software Foundation so far. Building and coordinating
FSFE as a European non-governmental organisation was the focus of his
work for most of the past decade.
Having led FSFE for eight years, Georg Greve is now CEO of Kolab
Systems, a Free Software business providing services around the Kolab
Groupware Solution. He continues to be active amongst FSFE members and
European core team. Happily married, he lives with his wife Ava in
Küsnacht near Zürich.
(See also Georg Greve's profile [4] on FSFE's website, a detailed
interview with him [5], and his personal statement [6] about having been
decorated with the Cross of Merit.)
[1] http://fsfe.org/projects/un/un.html
[2] http://fsfe.org/projects/ftf/fla.html
[3] http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20061208135621706
[4] http://fsfe.org/about/greve/
[5] http://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=27
[6] http://blogs.fsfe.org/greve/?p=403
== Contacts ==
Free Software Foundation Europe
E-Mail: press at fsfeurope.orghttp://www.fsfe.org/contact/
== About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit non-
governmental organisation active in many European countries and
involved in many global activities. Access to software determines
participation in a digital society. To secure equal participation in
the information age, as well as freedom of competition, the Free
Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) pursues and is dedicated to the
furthering of Free Software, defined by the freedoms to use, study,
modify and copy. Founded in 2001, creating awareness for these issues,
securing Free Software politically and legally, and giving people
Freedom by supporting development of Free Software are central issue
of the FSFE.
http://fsfe.org