Georg C. F. Greve

Founder
President (2001-2009)

Contact

greve@fsfe.org (public key)

About Georg Greve

Georg Greve is a self-taught software developer with several years of experience on the job, and traditionally trained Physicist. Experienced writer with over a hundred published articles in English and German. Eight years of experience in the coordination of a multi-national organisation. Over seven years of experience in international policy at the United Nations, European Commission and in various countries, with focus on Information Technology related policy. Several years of experience coordinating interdisciplinary, international activities, often involving multiple organisations. Experienced speaker with speeches and keynotes at conferences and training seminars addressing a wide variety of audiences, including UNCTAD, the WorldBank and various training institutes. Strong background and interest in interdisciplinary policy issues involving technology, law and society.

Besides serving on the board of Free Software Foundation Europe and the Open Database Alliance, Georg Greve is CEO & President of the Board at Kolab Systems AG, home of the Free Software Kolab Groupware Solution.

For more detail, please see the full Curriculum Vitae or the PDF version of his CV.

Honors and Awards

On 18 December 2009 Georg Greve was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon by the Federal Republic of Germany for his achievements in Free Software and Open Standards. The ceremony was held May 2010 in the German embassy in Berne.

Publications

Selection of some publications by Mr Greve during his work at the Free Software Foundation Europe.

Changes in FSFE: Time to pass on the torch (2009-06-24)
Introducing the new executive team of FSFE and giving background for the handover.
Considerations on Innovation and Competition Policy (2009-03-31)
Contribution to the workshop "Technical Regulation of the Internet : From Standardization to Behavioral and Societal Norms" in Paris, France. The article provides an overview over different areas of innovation policy, their interaction, and how to strike a balance between the conflicting methodologies of different innovative instruments. Audio recording of the corresponding talk made available by the organisers as OGG Vorbis and MP3.
Analysis on balance: Standardisation and Patents (2008-12-02)
Following up on the "IPR in ICT Standardisation" Workshop two weeks ago in Brussels, FSFE president Georg Greve analysed the conflicts between patents and standards. The resulting is paper about the most harmful effects of patents on standards, the effectiveness of current remedies, and potential future remedies.
FSFE's written statement to the 2007 General Assembly (2007-09-28)
Statement at the 2007 Assemblies of the Member States of WIPO, 24 September - 3 October 2007
Microsoft, antitrust and innovation (on Groklaw) (2007-09-27)
"If one were to believe Microsoft, antitrust law is for sore losers who are too lazy to innovate, and the decision of the European Court of Justice against Microsoft was to the detriment of consumers around the world. One might even believe that any company with large enough market share would now have to fear the wrath of the European Commission and its anti-innovation bloodhounds."
The converter hoax (2007-07-16)
FSFE Guest Commentary on Heise.de: "Conversion between Microsoft's Office OpenXML (MS-OOXML) and the vendor-independent Open Document Format (ODF) has been proposed by Microsoft and its associates as a solution to the problems caused by Microsoft's efforts to push a format into the market that conflicts with the existing Open Standard. [...] If these converters were actually able to do what they promise to do, they would be unnecessary."
Novell's "Danaergeschenk" (on Groklaw) (2006-12-08)
"With OpenXML, it appears as if there will be interoperability on paper only, but in reality people will experience numerous difficulties unless they use Microsoft Office. Because most users rightly fear and loathe incompatibilities, out of a sense of false security and lack of technological background, they will often choose the dominant product, effectively punishing the competitor for the behaviour of the dominant player."
Sovereign Software - Open Standards, Free Software, and the Internet (2006-10-30)
Software issues are issues of power and fundamentally shape the societies we are living in. Even to those who had not followed digital policy issues before this became increasingly evident throughout the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). Two fundamental questions characterise this battlefield: Who controls your data? Who controls your computer?

Videos

Selection of some third-party recordings of Mr Greve.

(2009) Mini-interview on software patents during the 13th Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP/13) after a long meeting day in the lobby of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in Geneva, Switzerland.
(2007) Speech "Freedom at Stake" at the Free Software Conference Scandinavia (FSCONS) about structural and political challenges of Free Software and its adoption.
(2007) Meeting with the Chilean Minister of Economy Alejandro Ferreiro to discuss Free Software potentials for Chile part 1 and part 2
(2007) Presentation at the Homi Bhabha Centre For Science Education in Mumbai about Free Software and its scientific relevance.
(2007) Keynote "Beyond GPLv3" at FOSDEM 2007 in Brussels, Belgium.
(2006) Google TechTalk about the Free Software Foundation Europe and its work.
(2005) Interview explaining Free Software, commercial Free Software, and FSFE's view on multiple issues, such as copyright, patents, trademarks, WIPO and more. The interview was taken during the UN WSIS Contributory Conference on ICT & Creativity, Vienna, Austria.
(2004) Panel discussion at the Wizards of OS 3, Future of the Digital Commons. About the evaluation of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), touching Free Software and its relationship with other Civil Society groups and how Free Software interacts with other Civil Society issues.
(2004) Presentation in the parliament of Uruguay on Free Software, with Spanish subtitles.