Introduction

As requested in the welcome message, I am introducing myself.

I am Jeremy C. Reed. I work as a consultant, remote administrator, and
trainer (specializing in open source Unix) for Puget Sound Technology
<http://www.pugetsoundtechnology.com/>.

I frequently teach classes covering open source software, such as FreeBSD,
Exim, Apache HTTPD, Samba, and BIND, and give presentations introducing
Linux, open source licensing, *BSD, building Linux from scratch, open
source security, and more.

I also am the editor for BSD Newsletter.com
<http://www.bsdnewsletter.com/> and I also write open source-related
articles for some print magazines in the Seattle, Washington (USA) area.
(I used to be an editor for Linux Today, BSD Today, Apache Today and other
internet.com open source channel websites.)

I also provide code and documentation patches for various projects, and
maintain vm-pop3d and some other small open source projects like
sendmail_stats, analyze_interface_bytes, mailout and more. I am currently
working on porting Tendra (BSD-licensed C compiler suite) to NetBSD;
finishing up queueing for a BSD-licensed SMTP (out only) sendmail
replacement; and building a complete Linux distro using NetBSD's pkgsrc.

I have been teaching classes for a Pacific Northwest (United States)
organization that provides technical support assistance for numerous
public school districts. It is exciting to learn that so many public
schools are already using Linux and open source or are actively switching
to use open source.

I am also interested in helping schools use open documents (open source
books) for curriculum. And I hope to get some interest in an open source
book covering state history and civics
<http://www.reedmedia.net/misc/education/wa-history/>.

I am especially interested in making open source software usage more
prominent in government. I'd be interested in helping support some
legislation where government IT purchases be forced to evaluate and
consider open source software and open standards as first options.

I'd like to learn more about citizen-initiated laws to help encourage open
source use by governments (especially in Washington state). Does anyone
know of any good URLs about ballot initiatives and similar for the state
of Washington?

   Jeremy C. Reed

This Linux in Government list is sponsored by Linux Journal.