Linux Australia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux Australia is the national, Australian Linux organisation. It was founded in 1997 and formally incorporated in New South Wales as a non-profit organisation in 1999. Linux Australia aims to represent the Australian Linux community and to support and collaborate with the Linux User Groups in Australia.

Linux Australia was co-founded by Terry Dawson and Garry Allpike. From humble beginnings the organisation was formally incorporated to provide legal support for the inaugural Australian Linux conference (now linux.conf.au). Over progressive years the organisation has steadily matured in its operation and today its major activities include the successful annual linux.conf.au open source conference, a grants program that seeds and supports relevant open source projects, and regular participation in public events such as conferences and exhibitions. Public relations activities include lobbying to government and corporate entities on open source issues and comment and opinion to the media.

The executive committee is elected democratically by the organisation membership annually, and therefore changes year to year. Membership is open to anyone with an interest in furthering the goals and objectives of the organisation.

The executive committee for 2006 is:

Jonathan Oxer (president - 2005-2006)
Pia Waugh (vice-president - 2005-2006, former president 2003-2004)
Anthony Towns (secretary)
Terry Dawson (treasurer)
Stewart Smith (former vice-president 2003-2004)
James Purser
Janet Hawtin

Notable former committee members include Andrew "Tridge" Tridgell (Samba), and Paul "Rusty" Russell (Linux Kernel, notably Netfilter and the 2.6 modules rewrite).