Open Source Veteran Bdale Garbee Joins FreedomBox Foundation Board

NEW YORK, March 10, 2011-- The FreedomBox Foundation, based here, today announced that Bdale Garbee has agreed to join the Foundation's board of directors and chair its technical advisory committee. In that role, he will coordinate development of the FreedomBox and its software.

Garbee is a longtime leader and developer in the free software community. He serves as Chief Technologist for Open Source and Linux at Hewlett Packard, is chairman of the Debian Technical Committee, and is President of Software in the Public Interest, the non-profit organization that provides fiscal sponsorship for the Debian GNU/Linux distribution and other projects. In 2002, he served as Debian Project Leader.

"Bdale has excelled as a developer and leader in the free software community. He is exactly the right person to guide the technical architecture of the FreedomBox," said Eben Moglen, director of the FreedomBox Foundation.

"I'm excited to work on this project with such an enthusiastic community," said Garbee. "In the long-term, this may prove to be most important thing I'm doing right now."

The Foundation's formation was announced in Brussels on February 4, and it is actively seeking funds; it recently raised more than $80,000 in less than fifteen days on Kickstarter.

About the FreedomBox Foundation

The FreedomBox project is a free software effort that will distribute computers that allow users to seize control of their privacy, anonymity and security in the face of government censorship, commercial tracking, and intrusive internet service providers.

Eben Moglen is Professor of Law at Columbia University Law School and the Founding Director of the FreedomBox Foundation, a new non-profit incorporated in Delaware. It is in the process of applying for 501(c)(3) status. Its mission is to support the creation and worldwide distribution of FreedomBoxes.

For further information, contact Ian Sullivan at press@freedomboxfoundation.org or see http://freedomboxfoundation.org.