Monday, November 28, 2011

Former Swedish Pirate Party leader and MySQL US Speaker on the list of the worlds top 100 thinkers

For those of you who was at the MySQL User Conference in 2008, you might remember that the then leader of the swedish Pirate Party, Rick Falkvinge, was one of the keynote speakers, giving a talk on Copyright Regime vs. Civil Liberties. The MySQL User Conference has a history of inviting really interesting speakers, often slightly off what is expected at such a tech-focus conference. Falkvinge did a great talk there, and at least impressed me and got me thinking even more on the issues pf free and open speach, copyright, software licensing etc.

Now Falkvinge has stepped down as leader of the Pirate Party, but he is still very much out there and promoting openness. He has managed to achive such a reputation that he is now number 98 of the list of Top Global Thinkers published by the Foreign Policy magazine. I'm not sure how much influence the MySQL UC keynote meant in terms of getting on that list, but it is impressive and the MySQL UC organizers deserve a pat on the back!

/Karlsson

No comments: