Georg C. F. Greve

This article is about a software developer. For the Norwegian architect, see Georg Greve (architect).

Georg C. F. Greve (born 10 March 1973 in Helgoland, Germany) is a software developer, physicist, author and currently co-founder and president at Vereign.^[1] He has been working on technology politics since he founded the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) in 2001.

Georg C. F. Greve
2009
Born	(1973-03-10) 10 March 1973 (age 50) Helgoland, Germany
Nationality	German
Alma mater	University of Hamburg
Occupation(s)	Co-Founder and President at Vereign,^[1] Founding President (until 2009) and Director at FSFE

Greve has been working full-time as president for FSFE since early 2001. In June 2009, he handed over the presidency of the FSFE to Karsten Gerloff.^[2] His responsibilities for FSFE included coordination of the general assembly, supporting local representatives in their work, working on political and legal issues as well as projects and giving speeches or informing journalists to spread knowledge about free software.

In addition, Georg Greve also worked as a consultant, representing Google in the OOXML standardisation process at ISO^{[citation needed]} and as a project reviewer for the European Commission.^{[citation needed]}

Greve is married and lives in Switzerland.^[3]

In 2010 Greve was awarded the Cross of Merit on ribbon of the Federal Republic of Germany (Verdienstkreuz am Bande). ^[4]

Career

Greve has a degree of Physics in biophysics, with physical oceanography and astronomy as minor fields of study from the computer science department of the University of Hamburg. His interdisciplinary diploma thesis was written in the field of nanotechnology on scanning probe microscopy.

Greve's first software development was when he was 12 years old. His first publication of a program was in a professional journal in 1992. He partly financed his studies when he managed the software development to evaluate SQUID-sensor data in the biomagnetometic laboratory at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Hamburg, Germany.

In 1993 he came across free software, the GNU Project and Linux. In 1998, he was the European speaker for the GNU Project^{[citation needed]} and began writing the "Brave GNU World",^[5] a monthly column on free computer software featuring interesting GNU projects each month. It was published on the Internet in as many as ten languages, and in international printed magazines including the German Linux-Magazin. The name Brave GNU World is a reference to Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World.

In early 2001, he initiated the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE or FSF Europe), the first Free Software Foundation outside the United States of America and, as of 2007^[update], the only transnational Free Software Foundation. Greve was invited as an expert to the “Commission on Intellectual Property Rights” of the UK government,^{[citation needed]} and represented the coordination circle of German civil society during the first phase of the United Nations (UN) World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) as part of the German governmental delegation.^{[citation needed]} He has also networked^[vague] with civil society working groups at the European level as well as for the thematic working group on patents, copyrights, trademarks (PCT) and free software.^{[citation needed]}

Between 2010 and 2017, he was CEO as well as president and, later, member of the board for Kolab Systems AG in Küsnacht, Switzerland, the developers of the Kolab server.^[6] In late 2017, Greve co-founded a company called Vereign to enable authentic communication through blockchain federated networks with Claus H. Bressmer.^[1][7]

References

1. "Vereign". Retrieved 15 March 2018.
2. "Pressrelease: Introducing FSFE's new president, vice president and executive team". FSFE.org. 24 June 2009. Retrieved 25 March 2010.
3. "FSFE - About - Georg C. F. Greve - Curriculum Vitae". FSFE.org. 10 January 2009. Retrieved 10 March 2009.
4. "FSFE founder Georg Greve awarded German Cross of Merit". Retrieved 30 April 2010.
5. "Georg's Brave GNU World - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)". Gnu.org. 8 February 2000. Retrieved 10 March 2009.
6. "FSFE - About - Georg C. F. Greve - Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). FSFE.org. 23 November 2010. Retrieved 13 January 2018. and "Company register of Switzerland, publication n° 03906623". shab.ch. 29 November 2017. Retrieved 13 January 2018.
7. "Swiss Blockchain Association Fostering knowledge around blockchain". swissblockchainassociation.ch. Retrieved 31 October 2018.

External links

•  Free and open-source software portal

• Georg Greve's Blog
• Fellowship interview with Georg Greve about background of FSFE (March 2009)
• Transcript of a video interview during the UN WSIS Contributory Conference on ICT & Creativity
• Video and audio recordings of Greve's introduction to the 3rd international GPLv3 conference, 22 June 2006
• Georg Greve's FSFE Team Page