| Rob Levin | |
|---|---|
| Born | Robert Levin December 16, 1955 |
| Died | September 16, 2006 (aged 50)[1] Houston, Texas, United States |
| Other names | lilo[2] |
Robert Levin (December 16, 1955 – September 16, 2006[1]), also known as lilo, was the founder of the freenode IRC network and Executive Director of the PDPC charity that helped fund freenode.[2] A computer programmer since 1968, he worked as an administrator and an applications programmer from 1978 until his death.
Contents |
From 1994 onwards, he worked to encourage the use of IRC for Free Software and Open Source projects. He was one of the founders of the OpenProjects Network (OPN), which quickly grew to become the largest IRC network used by the free software community. The OpenProjects.net domain was later put up for sale, but did not sell. It also came to light that he mismanaged funds intended for the OPN, even going so far as to use them to pay his cell phone bill, his rent, buying food, and paying off student loans.[3]
After courting The Free Software Foundation, Levin renamed The OpenProjects Network to "Freenode" in an effort to make the IRC network more palatable to the GNU project. As the leader of freenode and later the Executive Director of the PDPC, a 501(c)(3) charity founded in Texas,[2] Levin was responsible for fundraising activity for the PDPC.
On September 12, 2006, he was struck by a car while riding a bicycle at night in Houston, Texas in a hit-and-run collision. After the collision, it was reported that he was hospitalized for several days. He died on September 16.