William John Sullivan

William John Sullivan (more commonly known as John Sullivan[2]) (born December 6, 1976) is a software freedom activist, hacker, and writer. John is currently executive director[3] of the Free Software Foundation, where he has worked since early 2003. He is also a speaker and webmaster for the GNU Project. He also maintains the Plannermode and delicious-el packages for the GNU Emacs text editor.

John Sullivan
Sullivan at Free Software Foundation event, June 2006.
Born (1976-12-06) December 6, 1976
EmployerFree Software Foundation[1]

Active in both the free software and free culture communities, Sullivan has a BA in philosophy from Michigan State University and an MFA in Writing and Poetics. In college, Sullivan was a successful policy debater, reaching finals of CEDA Nationals and the semifinals of the National Debate Tournament.[4]

Until 2007, John was the main contact behind the Defective by Design, BadVista and Play Ogg campaigns. He also served as the chief-webmaster for the GNU Project, until July 2006.[5]

He has served as Executive Director of the Free Software Foundation since 2011.

As a speaker for the GNU Project
Matthew Garrett and John Sullivan at LibrePlanet 2016

John currently delivers speeches on the following topics,[6] in English:

  • Digital Rights Management[7] issues and the FSF's Defective by Design campaign
  • Media format patents, proprietary licensing, and the FSF's PlayOgg.org campaign
  • Choosing free software over Microsoft Windows
  • How you can help: Strategies for communicating and organizing around free software ideals
  • Why software should be free
  • Introduction to the GPLv3 and free software licensing
  • FSF/GNU high-priority free software projects[8]

References
  1. Contacting the Free Software Foundation
  2. John Sullivan's home page
  3. FSF announces new executive director
  4. "NDT Results 1997-2005" (PDF). American Forensic Association. Retrieved 9 March 2011.
  5. GNU's Webmasters - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)
  6. GNU and Free Software Speakers - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)
  7. Confusing Words and Phrases that are Worth Avoiding - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)
  8. High Priority Free Software Projects - Free Software Foundation Archived 2007-08-10 at the Wayback Machine
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