About

Karsten Gerloff is a Free Software activist and analyst. As FSFE’s President since June 2009, he leads FSFE’s strategy development and execution, as well as the organisation’s policy work at the European institutions and the United Nations. He has five years of experience in interdisciplinary policy work on Free Software, Open Standards, copyright, patents and competition policy. An experienced public speaker, he is equally at home with audiences from the Free Software community, the public sector, business and the general public.

As a researcher with the Collaborative Creativity Group at the United Nations University, Karsten has worked extensively on determining the economic impact of Free Software, with a particular focus on the public sector. He has also extensively examined the use of Free Software as a tool for social and economic development, and took a leading role in developing a training curriculum for Free Software entrepreneurs in Africa. He maintains a strong interest in all aspects of the question of how we as a society manage our knowledge.