Richard Smedley

Current

SysAdmin at Gaia University
Founder at Hackspace NorthWest
3rd sector web at GoodGNUs

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Past

Small Steps to Sustainability at FACT Liverpool
Owner at M6-IT CIC
Free Software Evangelist at BVSC / MOST

Chair, and other committee posts at AFFS - The Association For Free Software
Production Editor at LinuxUser & Developer
Production Editor, Linux Format at Future Publishing
Gardens Advisor at HDRA (Garden Organic), Ryton Organic Gardens
Botanical horticulturist at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Founder at Liverpool Wholefood Co-operative

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6 more...

Education

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Recommended

2 people have recommended Richard

Connections

245 connections

Industry

Information Technology and Services

Websites

Richard Smedley’s Summary

Digital communications: microblogging (Twitter, Laconica); Social networks; Social Media cafés; productivity & GTD workshops; education & training; PRINCE2 project management.

Unix and networking jack-of-all-trades, specialising in Free & Open Source Software.
Mailservers, websites - accessibility and CSS specialist, groupware, terminal services, desktop and network roll-outs.

Previous careers in music, and organic horticulture, give valuable perspective.

Richard Smedley’s Specialties:

Social media
Productivity, GTD
Project Management - a PRINCE2 practitioner
Sustainability - Certified Permaculture Designer, former HDRA advisor, long-time Green IT specialist

Richard Smedley’s Experience

SysAdmin

Gaia University

(E-Learning industry)

August 2009 — Present (7 months)

Handling the various services needed by an international sustainability University, working locally on 5 continents, as well as covering distance learning.
Founder

Hackspace NorthWest

(Arts and Crafts industry)

March 2009 — Present (1 year )

Setting up (and encouraging the setting up of) hackerspaces across NW England & North Wales. Currently working with projects in Manchester, Liverpool & Stockport.
3rd sector web

GoodGNUs

(Information Technology and Services industry)

October 2008 — Present (1 year 5 months)

Web 2.0, Social Media, CMS - drowning in jargon? Let us explain what your charity sector group _really_ needs to communicate effectively with staff, volunteers, community, press, and wider public.
Small Steps to Sustainability

FACT Liverpool

(Arts and Crafts industry)

March 2009 — May 2009 (3 months)

An 11 week Social Café experiment, as an after-work drinks meeting in Gallery ! of FACT, Wood St., Liverpool.
Can Technology Save the World? - probably not, but let's look at how it can help people save the world :-)
A 20:20 presentation links up the 11 themes covered, with an open workshop highlighting a different theme each week. Many with contributions from other local community groups...
Owner

M6-IT CIC

(Information Technology and Services industry)

October 2006 — April 2009 (2 years 7 months)

Sustainable IT for Civil Society. We help large charities, small community groups, and all manner of social enterprises, using Free Software, low-energy and/or recycled hardware, and the latest web technologies.
Free Software Evangelist

BVSC / MOST

(Non-Profit; 51-200 employees; Information Services industry)

September 2005 — September 2006 (1 year 1 month)

Ensuring that the grandiose government ChangeUp spend didn't just reach the usual suspects - larger groups, centrally located, who are always first in line for handouts.
As well as travelling the wilds of Shropshire and Staffs, talking to needy community projects, this involved shepherding developers into writing Free Software applications that the sector needed, and trying to persuade BVSC that the project was a viable social enterprise [unfortunately this went against their plan to close the whole IT department. Never mind :-/ ].
Chair, and other committee posts

AFFS - The Association For Free Software

(Non-Profit; 51-200 employees; Computer Software industry)

2002 — 2005 (3 years )

Campaigning to protect the legal position of Free Software in the UK; and to promote the use of Free Software. I was particularly concerned with education, and was pleased to recruit Ian Lynch to the board for his expertise here :)

Affiliate group to the Free Software Foundation Europe.
Production Editor

LinuxUser & Developer

(Publishing industry)

January 2003 — October 2003 (10 months)

While LinuxUser & Developer was briefly based here in the North West, I was responsible for chasing copy from writers and advertisers, project-managing the "Editor", writing anything unwritten, dealing with the Free Software & Open Source community, generating new ideas, and managing all workflow.
Production Editor, Linux Format

Future Publishing

(Public Company; 501-1000 employees; Publishing industry)

2001 — 2003 (2 years )

Turning geek-speak into English, and bringing software freedom to a wider audience.
Gardens Advisor

HDRA (Garden Organic), Ryton Organic Gardens

(Information Technology and Services industry)

1996 — 1997 (1 year )
Botanical horticulturist

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

(Government Agency; 1001-5000 employees; Biotechnology industry)

1992 — 1995 (3 years )

See the Kew Gardens entry under `education' for more details.
Founder

Liverpool Wholefood Co-operative

(Food & Beverages industry)

July 1987 — August 1991 (4 years 2 months)

Organising a wholefood buying co-operative to bring affordable, fair-traded foods to the local, vegan, bohemian community of Toxteth, Liverpool.
Managing orders for several dozen people and distributing lorry-loads of wholefoods from the kitchen of my Georgian house near Liverpool Cathedral.

Richard Smedley’s Education

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

DipHort (Kew) , Botanical Horticulture, Management, CAD, Surveying , 1992 — 1995

Additional Information

Richard Smedley’s Websites:

Richard Smedley’s Interests:

GNU/Linux, Open Solaris, odd hardware platforms, Low-impact living, Organic horticulture, permaculture, veganism, Choral music, harpsichord, fortepiano, guitar Cycling, taking the kids to castles and Roman ruins, hill walking, classic cars

Richard Smedley’s Groups:

Open Source Consortium, Open Schools Alliance, Free Software Foundation Europe, UKUUG, GeekUp,
IOH (lapsed? - I'd better check ;)
Morris Minors Owners Club :-), PRADSA, North Wales GNU/Linux User Group