Open source and governments: A global look

About Gunnar Hellekson: Gunnar Hellekson is the chief technology strategist for Red Hat’s US Public Sector group, where he works with systems integrators and government agencies to encourage the use of open source software in government. He is co-chair of Open Source for America and one of Federal Computer Week’s Fed 100 for 2010. He is also an active member of the Military Open Source working group, on the SIIA Software Division Board, and sits on the board of advisors for CivicCommons. He's especially interested in cross-domain security, edge innovation, and interagency collaboration through the open source model. Prior to joining Red Hat, Gunnar worked as a developer, systems administrator, and IT director for a number of Internet businesses. He has also been a business and IT consultant to not-for-profit organizations in New York City. During that time, he spearheaded the reform of safety regulations for New York State’s electrical utilities through the Jodie Lane Project.

About Mark Bohannon: Mark Bohannon leads Red Hat's worldwide team representing the company's interests before policy makers in government, industry consortia, and other venues on issues such as technology and innovation policy, open source and standards adoption, intellectual property legislation, government technology initiatives, and tax regulation. Mark joined Red Hat from the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), the principal US trade association for the software and digital content industry, where he was general counsel and senior vice president, Public Policy. During his 10 years at SIIA, Bohannon was responsible for the association's public policy agenda and worked with leading software companies on strategic trends affecting company products and services. Among his various leadership roles, Bohannon served as chairman of the Executive Committee of the United States Information Technology Office (USITO), the voice of the United States ICT industry to China in 2007-2008. Earlier in his career, Mark was a senior official at the US Department of Commerce where he served as chief counsel for technology and counsellor to the undersecretary for technology.