Speaker Bios
Patrick R. Michaud
Patrick Michaud is the lead developer for the Perl 6 compiler on Parrot. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science and teaches online courses for Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. He is also a software developer and consultant focused on open source systems and applications, including Perl, PmWiki, and Linux.
Eric Evans
Eric Evans is a 30-something father-of-two who lives in San Antonio where he works in R&D at Rackspace Managed Hosting. A long-time Linux user, hacker, and Free Software aficionado, Eric is a developer for the Debian project. He maintains a blog which can be visited at http://blog.sym-link.com
Jeffrey L. Taylor
Jeffrey L. Taylor has been programming for fun for 40 years and for profit for 35. He currently is doing freelance writing and Ruby on Rails development after decades of C/C++ development with sidetrips through university teaching.
Jeff Rush
Jeff Rush is the past Python Advocacy Coordinator, organizer of the Dallas/Ft. Worth Pythoneers usergroup as well as conference co-chair of PyCon 2006 and 2007 held in Dallas. He has been providing Python and embedded Linux/robotics consulting service since 1984, ported Python to OS/2 and created the initial RPMs for Zope used by Red Hat. Jeff lives in Dallas with his wife and two cats, and for recreation acts as a cyberarcheologist for Project Xanadu, the original hypertext effort and records screencasts about Python and Linux.
Tarus Balog
Tarus Balog has over 20 years of experience managing digital networks, and most of that time was spent with expensive commercial management products. For over the last five years he has been involved with OpenNMS, the first real open source alternative for managing the enterprise.
Ken Task
- Graduated High School in Alaska (1966).
- Attended University of Alaska 1966-1967.
- Attended Midwestern State University (now Texas A&M at Wichita Falls).
- Bachelor of Science, Education - 1971 - Major P E with Secondary of History (typical coach, huh?)
- First teaching position involved NO coaching. Was hired two weeks after the start of school when a Junior High discovered they needed more teachers due to busing of students (first year the Junior High was "integrated"!!!!).
- Former member of a team teaching pilot project in Texas History (Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District).
- Former teacher of Social Studies and coach of football, basketball, baseball, and golf.
- After 20 years of teaching and coaching, returned to college to earn a Masters in Education, Instructional Technology - 1992.
- Former NET 3's (Region 3 Education Service Center) specialist in DNS, EMail, and Web services.
- Proud to run the "cheapest" network center of ESC Service Center networks! Cost Region 3 ESC $0.00 and "uptime" measured around 98% of the time ... uhhhh, all on Open Source Software!
- Former TENET Master Trainer (when internet was dialup and the web was "text based"). The ONLY TENET member (not part of TENET staff) to have "web space" for sharing internet resources.
- Among other "distinctions" ... first K12 Webmaster in the State of Texas!
- Founder and Webmaster for KiWiPro - Kids Web Project (1994).
- Currently semi-retired Instructional Technologist (LAMP-seeder), member of TCEA Tech Crew at State Convention, and a principle founder of Strategic Open Source SIG (TCEA).
Janet Swisher
Janet Swisher is the sole technical writer at Enthought, Inc., which provides scientific computing solutions. Prior to becoming a technical writer, she played other supporting roles in software development. In addition to Enthought's open source projects, she has contributed to documentation for OpenOffice.org.
David Morris
David Morris is a graduate student in the Visualization Sciences program at Texas A&M University. He has a Bachelor's degree in Environmental Design from Texas A&M, and currently works part-time as a teaching assistant for a 3d modeling and animation course in the Visualization Sciences program. He has also taught an undergraduate course in architectural and graphic design, computer aided drafting, and 3d modeling in the Environmental Design program and served on the Information Technology committee for the College of Architecture.
James Smith
James Smith is the inaugural digital humanities lead developer for the College of Liberal Art. As lead developer, he is spearheading programming efforts as well as providing tutorials, workshops, and other resources to faculty interested in digital humanities. James received his B.S. in Physics and Mathematics from TAMU in 2001. He has completed all but thesis for a creative writing M.A. in English. In his current position, James is an active Perl module developer and can be found most days on #moose and other venues.
Belinda A. Lopez
Belinda Lopez is a Senior Learning Architect and independent consultant in the training and development field. For the past decade she has helped create innovative learning solutions for everyone from preschoolers to astronauts. Before moving into the Open Source world, she was an Instructional Designer and Curriculum Developer in the Human Spaceflight Training program at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Prior to that amazing experience, she worked at the Center for Technology in Teaching & Learning at her alma mater, Rice University. Belinda has been active in the Ubuntu Linux project for two years, being drawn into the project by the potential to use Ubuntu in education and learning environments. She has since become active in the Ubuntu Women’s Project and hopes to encourage others to become more active in the various Open Source communities.