Picture taken at a OSFA booth at OSCON

Background:

I have been benefiting from and contributing to the free software (and later open source software) community since about 1986 when I was in graduate school at Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA.  My earliest experience with free software was when I was working on my Masters thesis that was to build a TCP/IP stack into the OS/2 operating system. If it was not for the collaboration and ability to share code on usenet and ftp sites, I would have taken a much longer time to complete what I did.

I returned to Singapore in 1991 and got into the newly available "Linux" and in 1993, was founded of the Linux Users' Group (Singapore). This group helped increase the awareness of Free Software in Singapore and South East Asia. I was the organizer of the first Singapore Linux Conference in 1999 (which were repeated in 2000, 2001 and in 2003). LUGS has helped spin off many other groups in Singapore and today there are numerous open source technology groups focussing one specific technologies ranging from Linux, PHP, NodeJS, Python, Ruby, DevOps, DevSecOps, OpenStack and so on. It is very heartening to have helped trigger the growth and use of Free and Open Source software and technology across all industries not only in Singapore but around the Asia Pacific region.

I have been since 2003, been employed by Red Hat doing many roles. I am currently the main person in Asia Pacific that engages across open source communities, CxO conversations (from a business and technology risk perspective) and being in throught leadership and consultancy roles with government open source and procurement policies. There still is an insufficient level of understanding of what FOSS means to enterprises, national resilience and business strategies in this part of the world.

Affiliations with other organizations:

a) Member of the Board of Trustees of the Internet Society (three year term)

b) Fellow of the Singapore Computer Society

c) Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Singapore

d) Member of Engineering Accreditation Board, Institution of Engineers, Singapore

e) Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

f) Inducted into Council of Outstanding Early Career Engineers, College of Engineering, Oregon State University

What I Plan To Do:

If I get elected into the board of OSI, I want to bring the message and awareness of OSI to entities in Asia Pacific. This region is where lots of new technology development is happening and it is not always evident that the idea of open source licensing and all the benefits there in is evident. OSI values and messaging needs to be articulated and engaged far more actively in this region.

I am very keen to take questions and suggestions: I am reachable on Twitter @harishpillay, or by email at h.pillay@ieee.org