MyGOSSCON 2009 » Meet the Speakers

Meet the Speakers

Session 1: Plenary – Global Trends and Opportunities

Frans van der Star
Van der Star Enterprise, Netherlands
Benefits of web-based Open Source Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

Frans van der Star (59 years) joined after his Baccalaureate the Royal Dutch Navy. After his six years’ military service he had worked for several Departments in the Public Sector for two decades. In the meantime he got three College degrees in Business Science. After his career as a Civil Servant he has worked as a IT-related consultant since fifteen years. He has done big implementation-projects within ERP-discipline for huge Dutch companies. Also he has done smaller general business-projects in the SMB-sector.

El-Waleed Bashir Ahmed Ali
Nile Center for Technology Research (NCTR), Sudan
Implementation of OSS in Sudan

I was born in the city of Omdurman in the Sudan in the eighth of October 1969, I got my BSc honors from the University of Khartoum, School of Mathematical Sciences in 1995 and then got a MSc degree from the University of Khartoum in Computer Science. I started my career as a freelance programmer. In 1997, I joined in a software company and worked there until 2000. I worked in a number of governmental institutions such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Trade, National Information Center, Military Industries Corporation.

I worked in many areas and I have experience in a number of areas such as cryptography, network security, operating systems and open source software. I participated in the implementation of a large number of projects such as the establishment of information centers, design and implementation of big WANs / LANs , cryptography research unit at university of Khartoum School of mathematical Sciences, design and implantation for the national network and communications systems. In 2006 I was one of the founders of the Nile Center for Technology Research (NCTR) , and I have been appointed as a director since that time.

Donald Liu
Blackduck Software, Australia
Managing Open Source Components in a Multi-Source Development Process

Donald Liu has been in the software industry for many years. With vast technical hands on experience in Open Source software combined with the knowledge and expertise, Donald has helped many Government Agencies solve compliancy issues.

Session 2: Keynote – Transforming for the New Economic Order

Dr. Nor Aliah bt. Mohd. Zahri
MAMPU
Transforming the Public Service to Meet the New Economic Order

Dr. Nor Aliah bte Mohd Zahri is the Deputy General Director of ICT MAMPU. She has had numerous experience in the government ICT sector. Before this she was the Director of ICT Policy and Planning Division, MAMPU (2001-2006), Head of Training and Innovation Unit in INTAN (1995-2000), Computer Manager in Department of Public Service (1989-1991), Senior Program Coordinator in INTAN (1987-1987), Computer Manager in Ministry of Primary Industries (1984-1987) and System Analyst in Department of Statistic (1978-1982). She did her Ph.D in Database & Natural Language at the University of London, her Masters Degree in Artificial Intelligence at the Brighton Polytechnic, her System Analyst Diploma at INTAN and also did her Business Economy Degree in Business Administration at Universiti Malaya.

Harish Pillay
Red Hat
Strengthening Public Policy Using Open Source Principles

Harish Pillay has been the Open Source Evangelist with Red Hat Asia Pacific since September 2003. He joined Red Hat from Maringo Tree Technologies, an open source consultancy, training and services company he co-founded in 2002. He has held senior management and technical positions at Brokat Asia, Sembawang Media, CSA Automated and CSA Holdings. An avid open source activist and commentator, Harish co-founded the Linux Users’ Group Singapore (LUGS) in 1993. He was elevated to a Fellow of the Singapore Computer Society in 2009 and is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.

Paul Kangro
Novell Corp
Strategy Considerations for Collaboration in the Cloud

Paul Kangro, Applied Technology Strategist for Novell, is responsible for providing technical leadership with regard to Novell’s products and solutions to the market-place and working closely with product development to ensure market needs are meet. Paul also provides direction to major companies on strategic choices of data centre technology, including consolidation, DR and orchestration. During Paul’s eight years with Novell he has been instrumental in the introduction of Novell’s Linux product portfolio into the Asia Pacific Market and is a regular presenter at industry and tradeshows. Prior to joining Novell in 2000, Paul spent 16 years in technical, sales, marketing and management assignments. Paul studied Electrical Engineering at the University and New South Wales and holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing Management and a Masters of Management from the Macquarie Graduate School of Management in Sydney.

Session 3A – Public Sector

Kathirrasan K Kupusamy
MAMPU
Immovable Asset Management System for the Malaysian Public Sector

Kathirrasan graduated with a BSc (Hons) from Universiti Sains Malaysia in 1981 and MSc (Managing Information Technology) in 1998 from University of Salford, United Kingdom. He has served with the Prime Minister’s Office as a Manager (Innovation & Office Automation) in the Chief Executives Information and Management Systems Unit and lead the ICT and R&D Programme at INTAN Management Technology Centre (IMATEC) National Institute of Public Administration (INTAN). He is currently a Pubic Sector ICT Consultant in Systems Development with MAMPU.

Abdullah bin Zainul Abidin
Inigo Consulting
Using Plone Effectively in a Government Agency

I am a UTM, Skudai graduate in computer science in 2003. Immediately after graduation I started my own business in computer software consultancy. While doing my own business I started to experiment with open source software and fell in love with it. In 2007 I was offered a position to work at the Open Source Competency Center (OSCC) and thought that this was a good opportunity to help open source software really take off in the local Malaysian scene. At OSCC I am glad to have been one of the developers of MyMeeting, the premier Malaysian government open source software. Also at OSCC I began experimenting with plone and it’s implementation in organizations. Now I am back in business with Inigo and doing open source software consultancy.

Nuzrin Yapaar
Adamant Systems
Achieving Five Nines – The OSS Way

Mr. Nuzrin Yaapar is currently the Chief Technologist at Adamant System, a boutique consulting firm specializing in IT security, telecommunication, and infrastructure optimization. He specializes in system architecture design, networking, penetration testing, and reverse engineering. He was previously attached to CSC Malaysia and TM Applied Business, serving both companies as Solution Architect. He had architected and implemented projects in various vertical industries including telecommunication, banking & insurance and service.

Session 3B – Business

Tikriti Shabudin
Iverson Associates
You’re Using Open Source Software.. Yay!.. Now What?!

Ever since the tender age of 6, Tiki Shabudin has been involved in one way or another with computers (that’s how he wrecked his first two… trying to figure out how they worked!). He started programming in C by 10 years of age, and made his first commercial project (a very simple database system, which sold for a whopping RM 250) by the age of 17. After completing his SPM (Equivalent to the British O Levels), he left for the US to further his education at the University of San Francisco, California. After 9 Years of living and working in the States, he returned to his native Malaysia to make his mark in the world. Upon his return, Tiki quickly found his footing by providing training and software development services for companies like Bosch, Intel, Dell, Motorola and various government entities.

Arif Abdullah Leong
Webmeridian Technology
Best Practices for Sourcing Enterprise Open Source Solutions

Arif Abdullah Leong has been in the technology and IT industries for over 15 years. He earned his Master’s in Applied Physics at the Boston University, USA. He worked in the USA semi-conductor industry for ASML Lithography serving clients, such as Intel, Motorola, Samsung and IBM. He moved on to work in the IT industry for Keane, USA and in 1998, founded WebMeridian Technologies that provided mainly open-source solutions to GE, Prudential, Blitz, Nintendo, Vivendi, DAZ3D and others. He is presently the Managing Director of WebMeridian in Kuala Lumpur. WebMeridian is in the business of providing enterprise open-source IT solutions, R&D, services and IT business consultation to governments and corporations. The company had recently assisted GITN Sdn Bhd and TM Berhad in developing and managing SchoolZone portal for their adopted national schools.

Dr. Daniel Ali Aman
Intuit Innovations
Asterisk – A Revolutionary Cost Effective Enterprise PABX Platform for All Your Communication Needs

I have wide knowledge of Linux and business with Open Source solutions, wireless solutions, mobile business solutions and information security products. I have managed a startup from writing a business plan to fully functional company and raised investor and governmental funding.

Session 3C – Technology

Victor Yap
Renderfun
Open Source Digital Content Creation

Victor Yap helps companies build cost-efficient production workflow for 3D animation. His current project migrates open source solutions, with programs like Blender to a constantly developing 3D animation environment. Blender is a strong open source contender to mainstream programs such as Maya and Softimage. Armed with an Electronic Arts degree and deeply involved with Open Source Software (OSS) development since 1996, he presently dedicates himself to using open source as a tool for digital content creation. True to the spirit of OSS, he wants to share his experiences, insights and knowledge with everyone.

Abd Rahman Johari
XDM System Sdn Bhd
SOA – Service-oriented Architecture with Open Source Tools

Abd Rahman holds a BSc. Chemical Engineering, Syracuse University, NY and is active in the local OSS scene. Having co-founded and served as the President of My-Linux User Group in 1996

Errazudin Ishak
MIMOS
Make Lovely Code, Not Framework War!

Graduated from University Technology Malaysia in Bachelor’s Degree before
pursuing Master’s Degree in Computer Science (Software Engineering) at University of Technology MARA, Malaysia. He works as Senior Engineer at Software Dev. Lab, MIMOS Bhd, Malaysia. a government research arm in ICT and frontier technology. Currently he involve in a team of ‘eating, drinking and sleeping’ with PHP in developing web based solutions. Main job focused on framework, platform, Unit test and Continuous Integration.

Session 4 – Plenary

Abbas Abdul Wahab
Federal Department of Town and Country Planning
OSS GIS for Town and Country Planning

Abbas graduated with a Degree in Town Planning from Gloucestershire College of Arts and Design, United Kingdom in 1980 and later, with a Masters in Science in Geographical Information System from Universiti Putra Malaysia in 2000. He majored in local planning and has been involved in many planning projects at Head Quarters, Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Johore. He headed the ICT Division in 2004-2006 and is presently attached to the Corporate Division as an Assistant Director.

Harry Sufehmi
Asosiasi Open Source Indonesia
F/OSS & Democracy – SERIS & Indonesia’s 2009 Presidential Election

Harry Sufehmi is an IT consultant currently living in Jakarta with his wife, Helen, their children: Anisah, Sarah, Umar, and Aminah. Harry have a broad IT skillset and his current work nowadays is more leaned toward various corporate open-source solutions : LTSP, Ubuntu; also web-based technologies. Since December 2005 he has been involved more in management roles.

http://harry.sufehmi.com/about/
http://delicious.com/sufehmi/seris

Session 5A – Government

Rizatuddin Ramli
MSC Malaysia
OSS 2.0 Way Forward

Mr. Rizatuddin Ramli is a dynamic, results oriented technology executive with broad experience in general management, technology management and customer care. Demonstrated record of success in implementing new concepts and methods to drive transformational change across the organization. Joined Multimedia Development Corp in 1998 and currently the Director of Global Profiling and Portfolio Management. His current role involves developing MSC Malaysia global icons as a function of innovative companies, products and services to requirements of the aligned business goals of MSC Malaysia.

Krishnakant Mane
Comet Media Foundation
Role of FOSS based ICTs in Education of Visually Impaired

Working as accessibility expert and a free software adviser, consultant to many government and large commercial enterprises. Actively involved on many government projects aimed at designing policies for education and distributed IT training. Conducted a huge training camp for IT Space Mission Kerala in India for creating education and job opportunities for visually handicapped people using FOSS.Traing involved usage of the Orca screen reader for all computer bases tasks such as Word processing, Spreadsheet and using internet. The workshop involved training of master trainers who are themselves blind. Looking at the success of the training course/ camp in the state of Kerala in India, a similar project was undertaken in the state of Tamilnadu which was organised and funded totally by Electronic Corporation of Tamilnadu (ELCOT). Already completed 3 phases of basic computer training where more than 100 visually impaired teachers, students and employed blind computer users participated.

Modi Lakulu
Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris
Mapping Process from Concept to Physical for Community Open Source Knowledge Management (OSKM) Environment

Modi Lakulu is a lecturer at Faculty of Information Technology and Communication, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris. Currently, he is a PhD student at Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). His research interests includes Open Source, Knowledge Management, Software Engineering and Database System.

Mohd Nasir Hj Md Rashid
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Successful Implementation of open Source Integrated Library (Koha) in Advanced Medical and Dental institute (AMDI), Universiti Sains Malaysia

Mohd Nasir Hj Md Rashid is a Senior Librarian at Advanced Medical and Dental Institute (AMDI), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). He obtained a Master Degree (Library Science) from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, Post. Grad Dip. (Library Science) from UiTM and B A (Hons) from UM. He is also a Certified Knowledge Manager (CKM) from KM Institute, USA; certified Professional Trainer (CPT) from ITD and also Certified Transformational Coach from Crane Institute USA.

Datin Dr Siti Zaleha Binti Abdullah Sani
Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia
Learning Management System Roll Out to Schools

Datin Dr. Siti Zaleha holds a BA (Hons) in English from Universiti Malaya MA in Language and Literature (TESOL) and a PhD Teacher Education from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. She has extensive teaching experience and is currently the Director of Education Technology at the Ministry of Education.

Session 5B – Business

Christopher Chan
The Media Shoppe
The Entrepreneur Dilemma – Product Development and Evolution

CHRISTOPHER CHAN HOOI GUAN, a Malaysian, is the Chief Executive Officer of the Group and is a Director of the Company since 9 April 1996. He graduated from the University of Central Arkansas, USA, with a Bachelor of Music degree in 1993. He is the co-founder of TMS. He has more than 15 years experience in the IT industry. In 2001 he won the PIKOM-Computimes ICT Award for ICT Entrepreneur of the Year. He was also the President and founding member of the Technopreneurs’ Association of Malaysia (TeAM) from March 2003 to February 2005. He was one of the 3 finalist in the Ernst and Young ICT Entrepreneur of the Year 2004

Mazen S. H. Elsayed
Universiti Utara Malaysia
OSS in Meeting human Capital Needs: Obstacles & Solutions

Mazen holds a Bachelor Degree in Computer from Faculty of Engineering, Islamic University of Gaza, Palestine and a Master Degree of Science (Information Technology) from Universiti Utara Malaysia. He is also LPIC1 & LPIC2 certified since 2004, with 5 years of IT training experience. Currently he work as a coordinator for Open Source Academy in Universiti Utara Malaysia.

Jamalulkhair Khairedin
Conatus Management
IT Asset Management and Monitoring Using Open Source

Jamalulkhair Khairedin is currently working as a Technical Consultant specializing in Open Source deliveries at Conatus Management Sdn Bhd, a consulting firm offering cutting-edge strategy, business process optimization, enterprise performance management and customer & supplier relationship enhancement solutions. He was also a former RND Engineer at OSCC, MAMPU and a core team member in designing and developing several OSCC products such as MyWorkSpace, MyNetWatch, MySpamGuard and MySurfGuard.

Redhuan D. Oon
Adempiere Project
Free as in Freedom?

Redhuan D. Oon is the founding leader of the global ADempiere community, that ranks as a top sourceforge.net project providing sourcecode, resources and knowledge on Open Source ERP. He is also a course creator on the subject for Asia e-University. He operates mostly from a farm outside Kuala Lumpur linked by a copper phone line into cyberspace.

Harish Pillay
Red Hat
Breaking Down Virtualisation Barriers

Session 5C – Technology

James Tan
Novell Corp
The Future of Linux is Software Appliances

James is one of the core engineers behind SUSE Studio and has been with the project since its conception more than two years ago. Responsible for the design and implementation of many key Studio features, James also plays the role of release manager on top of overseeing the site’s daily operations. He is currently based in Germany and has been fortunate enough to talk about SUSE Studio at trade shows and Open Source Software (OSS) conferences around the world. In his free time, James helps to drive OSS adoption in schools and organizations. He provides mentorship to students in the iDA Infocomm Club and is an alumni of LinuxNUS, a student association that promotes the use of OSS wherever it can. Prior to joining Novell, James was a software engineer at Oracle.

Nasrul Amri Samsudin
Connect Stream Sdn. Bhd
How to Create Social Networking Community Website with Open Source Software

Nasrul holds a Bachelor of Technology (Honours) Business Information System from Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS. Author of Rahsia Pemasaran Facebook book. He also Facebook Developer and involve in various Facebook Application Development & appointed as Ambassador for Facebook Developer Garage Cyberjaya, Malaysia. Has 5 years experience in Broadcasting and 6 years as Entrepreneur.

Mark Stevens
Forte Tech
Moodle: It’s Not Just for Kids

Mark Stevens is currently working in Malaysia as the Moodle Subject Matter Expert for Forta Tech Solutions’ LMS project (sponsored by MAMPU). His responsibilities include recommendations on Moodle configuration, deployment, and best practices in Moodle blended-learning. He is on leave as a Senior Instructor at the American University of Sharjah and has taught English as a Second Language for more than 20 years in Kuwait, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the USA. He has been a Moodle teacher, administrator, and advocate since March 2004, and he volunteers as a co-moderator for Moodle.org’s “Moodle for Language and Teaching” and “Moodle Sites” courses. His Malaysian Moodling activities can be found at sangkancil.net.

Amir Haris Ahmad
MYNIC
BIND: DNSSEC Implementation Guidelines

Amir Haris Ahmad is a visionary in information technology and computer security fields, with particular interest in DNS technology and IPv6. A Bachelor degree holder from Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) in Computer Science and in the midst of completing his Master Science in Computer Networking. He is currently working as Senior Researcher at one of the country code TLD registry, doing research on DNS Security Extension (DNSSEC) and Electronic Number Mapping System (ENUM). Amir’s extensive technical background includes DNS, UNIX operating systems, IPv6, and software development in C/C++, ruby, perl and web technology.

Saifuddin Nair Abdullah
Abyres
Utilising Clustering or virtualisation to Archive Uninterrupted and Central Managed Service Application Using Open Source

15 years experience in related field, having Degree in IT
Expert in;
1.Develop & design software using Php, ColdFusion & Visual Basic
2.Systems, Network Analysis Design and Architecture
3.Systems & Operations Methodology
4.Disaster Recovery best practices and implementation
5.Development and implementation of open system server and applications.

Session 6A – Government

Yap Boh Heong
iScience Sdn Bhd
An Open Source Hematology Lab Management System

The speaker has more than 25 years of experience in the IT industry and first honed his skills developing applications on 8-bit computers. His experience ranges from being a programmer to SW Architect, from a technopreuneur to Project Leader for NASDAQ listed dot-com, working overseas. He has experiences in a wide range of industries from trading, services, manufacturing, semiconductors and telecommunications. His prior expertise was in the mobile telecommincations industry, and succesfully designed and built several mobile-data gateways (for distributing mobile content) for telcos in China, Hong Kong and SE Asia, systems that are highly scalable and available in an industry where 99.9 SLA (Service Level Agreement) is the norm. He has been consultant in the bio-medical field for the last 3 years. He has also been actively using OSS since the mid 90’s, an active member of the Python.my community, gave a Python introductory course to University Pahang, Malaysia (in Gambang) lately.

Muhammad bin Ali
Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia
MOH – CUBE

Uwe Dippel
University Tenaga Nasional
The Potential of Free and Open Source Software in Research and Development (R&D)

Uwe Dippel is a Senior Lecturer with University Tenaga Nasional.
A Graduate in Electrical Engineering / Communications Technologies, Uwe Dippel has extensive experience in Information Systems, Computer Architecture, Operating Systems and related Security Aspects. He has served the German Ministry for Research and Technology; held several senior positions in Broadcasting and served the European Patent Office in The Hague (The Netherlands). Since 2000 he enjoys sharing his experience with Malaysian Students, and joined Uniten in August 2001. His current research interest is on cryptographic systems, education and FOSS.

Prof. R. Badlishah Ahmad
Universiti Malaysia Perlis
Challenges in Implementing Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) in Engineering Education

Dr. R.Badlisham Ahmad is an Assciote Professor and Dean of Universiti
Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP)’s School of Computer & Communication Engineering. Dr. Badlisham holds a M.Sc in Optical Electronic and PhD in Electrical & Electronic Engineering (High Speed Optical Network) both from University of Strathclyde, Scotland. Dr. Badlisham is a well known academic personality involved with Embedded Linux and the usage of Linux in education.

Session 6B – Business

Syamsul Anuar Abd Nasir
Warix Technologies
Open Source Virtualization Trends

Also known as Wariola, he is an Open Source Enterpreneur after working as an IT Head for a public-listed oil & gas engineering company for the past 3 and half years. Now running his own start-up, Warix Technologies which offers Open Source Infrastructure Solutions and Software Development Services

Prakash Advani
Canonical
What Linux Desktop Can Do That Other’s Can’t

Prakash Advani is Partner Manger – Central Asia for Canonical. In his current role Prakash is responsible for evangelising the use and drive adoption of Linux solution. He works with number of large governments, customers and partner organisations and guides them on Linux adoption in their enterprise. Prakash is a frequent speaker at industry forums on Linux and Open Source technologies. Prakash Advani has been working with Information Technology since 1994 and with Linux since 1996. He is the founder of FreeOS.com and the co-founder of IndLinux.org. He has worked with various Operating Systems such as Linux, Netware, Unix, Xenix, OS/2, BeOS, Windows and DOS.His articles have been published in various publications such as Economic Times, Linux Gazette, Network Computing, Express Computer, Linux.com, and Newsforge.com.

Dean Samuels
Oracle Corporation
Open Source in a Next Generation Data Centre

Dean Samuels is the Principal Solutions Consultant for Linux and Open Source at Oracle. He is responsible for leading a team of consultants across the Asia-Pacific region who provide Linux, Virtualization and other Open Source infrastructure pre-sales support and guidance to Oracle and its customers. Dean works closely with other Oracle technical counterparts, by combining the best of both worlds from closed and open source software components to provide Complete, Open and Integrated enterprise class solutions fulfilling customer business requirements. Prior to joining Oracle, Dean was the Principal Linux Consultant and Trainer with Red Hat for 7 years. His primary responsibilities included the planning, design, implementation, training and testing of Open Source solutions for SME and Large Enterprises across a broad spectrum of industries. Dean has a Bachelors degree in Information Technology with a major in Data Communications from Queensland University of Technology.

Dr. Nurhizam Safie b. Mohd Satar
Asia e-University
Championing Open Source Software in Asia e-University

Nurhizam Safie Bin Mohd Satar is the Founding Dean of the School of Information & Communication Technology here in Asia e University. His research and professional consultancy are focussed towards Open Source Computing, e-learning and ICT Project Management. He is an active person in promoting Open Source Capacity Building through working relationship with Center of International Cooperation for Computerization (CICC) Singapore Office. He also has translated the Introduction to Open Source Software book which was written by CICC and Mitsubishi Research Institute (MRI) researchers. He representing Malaysia in the Asia Open Source Software Center (AOSCC), a coliation of 12 Asian countries collaborates in advocating usages of open source software promotion in Asia. Through School of ICT, he has introduces the Executive Master in Open Source Computing and Executive Master in Open Source ERP (Adempiere), a unique programmes of its kind in Asia. Other than that, he is a member of Malaysian National Computer Confederation (MNCC) and a member in the MAMPU-OSCC Open Source Software IPTA/Politeknik Advisory Committee (OIPAC).

Session 6C – Technology

Alvin Tan
McAfee
Best Security Practices in Combating CyberCrimes

With the rise in threats and the need for a more proactive stance against day-zero attack, Alvin drives the strategic security initiatives for major customers by working closely with them in a consultative manner to ensure their complex security needs are met. His primary focus is on establishing McAfee security solutions as a standard for his enterprise clients in Singapore and Malaysia. He has 14 years of experience in Sales and Technology within the IT industry with Fortune 500 companies like IBM and Oracle. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the National University of Singapore.

Yasir Khalid
University Tenaga Nasional
Measuring the Effectiveness of Running a Cryptographic Process on a Virtual Machine Against Side Channel Attacks, with FOSS

Yasir Khalid is a graduate in Computer Science ( System and Networking), 2008, in UNITEN (Universiti Tenaga Nasional). He is currently pursuing his Master of Information Technology, with the same University.

Muhammad Najmi bin Ahmad Zabidi
International Islamic University Malaysia
Techniques in Malware Avoidance with Open Source Tools

Muhammad Najmi Ahmad Zabidi is currently working as a Lecturer in the International Islamic University Malaysia. Previously, he was working with Byte Craft Sdn Bhd, an open source industry pioneer from 2003-2005. His current interest is on virtual honeypot, intrusion detection and prevention, malware analysis and string search algorithm study. His contribution for FOSS includes translation coordination for KDE Localization Project to Malay language since 2003.

Mark John Rees
Century Software
Data Visualisation Using Open Source Software

Mark is the CTO of Century Software (M) Sdn. Bhd. which uses Open Source software to help develop their products for the Government and Private sectors. The content of his talk is based on the experiences gained evaluating and developing solutions for Government clients using OSS. Mark has been a user and developer of Open Source software since 1995 when he installed Linux for the first time. He has spoken at the inaugural MSCOSCON, 4 Open Source Developers Conferences and was part the organising team for OSDC 2008. Over the last 30+ years, Mark has programmed in many languages, but has the most fun programming in Python which he has been using since 1997. He is the creator of the isapi_wsgi adaptor, and a number of Informix Database adaptors for Python Web Frameworks. He is also part of the small development team working on the IronPython Community Edition (http://fepy.sourceforge.net).

Session 7 – Closing Keynote

Michael Tiemann
Open Source Initiative
Building an Open Source Economy With Competence at the Center

Michael Tiemann is Vice President of Open Source Affairs at Red Hat Inc, as well as President of the Open Source Initiative. He previously was the Chief Technical Officer of Red Hat. He serves on a number of boards, including the Embedded Linux Consortium, the XMPP Technical Advisory Board, the GNOME Foundation Advisory Board, the Sahana Board and the Board of Directors of ActiveState Tool Corp. He co-founded Cygnus Solutions in 1989. His programming contributions to free software include authorship of the GNU C++ compiler and work on the GNU C compiler and the GNU Debugger. Tiemann is featured in the 2001 documentary Revolution OS. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the Moore School of Engineering in 1986 at the University of Pennsylvania.