Icelandic developer receives Nordic Free Software Award
Bjarni Rúnar Einarsson, Free Software developer and community builder from Iceland, has received the Nordic Free Software Award.
This annual prize was awarded on Saturday by Föreningen för Fri Kultur och Programvara and Free Software Foundation Europe at the Free Software Conference and Nordic Summit (FSCONS) which took place in Gothenburg, Sweden this weekend.
Einarsson has been a leading figure in Iceland's Free Software movement for more than a decade. He has been driving the country's Free Software and free culture community, founding and participating in various groups such as Vinix, contributing to the KDE project, and starting netverjar.is, an organisation fighting for civil rights on the Internet.
"Without Bjarni, Iceland's Free Software community wouldn't be what it is today," says Karsten Gerloff, President of the Free Software Foundation Europe. "People like Bjarni are the lifeblood of our community. I'm very glad to see his work recognised in this way."
Bjarni has advocated the use of Free Software by maintaining and distributing CDs with a free operating system, both translating and developing Free Software for several years.
"The Nordic Free Software Award is special because it's a recognition from your peers," comments 2009 award recipient, the Swedish Free Software developer Daniel Stehnberg. "It means having your work appreciated by people who understand what you have achieved."