Zak Greant

Zak Greant

CXO/Co-founder at 8.5x14 Media Corp.

Vancouver, Canada Area

Current
Past
  • Head of IT Services at Open Source Initiative
  • Board Observer at Open Source Initiative
  • Board Member at Vancouver PHP Users Association
  • Ombudslizard at Mozilla Foundation
  • Member of Advisory Board at Continuent
  • Volunteer at Free Software Foundation Licensing Compliance Lab
  • Conference Presenter at Various
  • Technical Editor at Various publishers (New Riders, Sams, O'Reilly, Wrox, ...)
  • Director of Legal Affairs / Strategist at eZ systems AS
  • eLiberatica 2007 Conference Co-chair at ROSI
  • Managing Director, North America at eZ systems AS
  • Speaker at PHP Quebec Conferences
  • Director of Free Software and Open Source Affairs at eZ systems
  • Technical Evangelist at Sxip Networks
  • Community Advocate at MySQL AB
  • Lead Author at PHP Functions Essential: New Riders
  • Creative Director at Nucleus Information Services
  • PHP Quality Assurance Team Leader at PHP
  • Dental Technician at Complete Dental Ceramics

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16 more...

Education
  • Southern Alberta Institute of Technology
Recommended
Zak has 37 recommendations 37 people have recommended Zak
Connections
500+ connections
Industry
Internet
Websites

Zak Greant’s Summary

Specialist in Free Software, Open Source and in helping organizations build business strategies for the electronic frontier.

Founder of the Foo Associates strategic consultancy.

Retained by the Mozilla Foundation and by eZ Systems AS to provide community relations and strategic advice.

Worked as MySQL's community advocate during their most rapid period of growth, liaising between MySQL and the major Free/Open projects and communities that were part of the MySQL ecosystem.

Frequent speaker at Free Software and Open Source-centric conferences, such as OSCON, LinuxTAG, FooCamp, many PHP cons, and so on.

Have advised organizations, ranging from teeny-eensy startups to 10,000 employees behomoth, on their business strategy and licensing policies.

Zak Greant’s Specialties:

Free Software & Open Source, online communities, event management, ombuds, Free Software & Open Source licensing, conference organization and chairing, technical editing, programming, public speaking, testing seat quality in economy class flights.

Zak Greant’s Experience

  • CXO/Co-founder

    8.5x14 Media Corp.

    (Internet industry)

    April 2009 — Present (8 months)

    Planning and developing an open source startup in the legal services industry. Details at http://lexpubli.ca and http://blog.lexpubli.ca

  • President

    Mugo

    (Privately Held; Internet industry)

    May 2006 — Present (3 years 7 months)

    I am president of Mugo (formerly the eZ Enterprise Open Source Corporation, the North American subsidiary of eZ System AS from 2006 to 2008.) Duties of this role have ranged from operational to strategic.

  • Chief Strategist & Founder

    Foo Associates Inc.

    (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Internet industry)

    June 2001 — Present (8 years 6 months)

    Foo Associates is my small consulting firm that I have used since 2001 as a vehicle for my consulting services. Prior to 2006, it was a sole proprietorship. From 2006 onwards, it has been an incorporated company.

  • Head of IT Services

    Open Source Initiative

    (Information Technology and Services industry)

    May 2008 — October 2009 (1 year 6 months)

    This was a unpaid part-time position helping the Open Source Initiative (an American non-profit organization) manage their IT infrastructure. Duties primarily consist of managing relationships with vendor and contractors, coordinating other volunteers, administering servers, and planning, managing and deploying services.

  • Board Observer

    Open Source Initiative

    (Internet industry)

    January 2008 — October 2009 (1 year 10 months)

  • Board Member

    Vancouver PHP Users Association

    (Internet industry)

    2006 — 2009 (3 years )

  • Ombudslizard

    Mozilla Foundation

    (Privately Held; Computer Software industry)

    July 2005 — March 2009 (3 years 9 months)

    From July 2005 until mid-March 2009, I was a Mozilla Foundation staff member. My primary duties included advocating the Mozilla values and the Mozilla Manifesto, representing Mozilla at events and developing initiatives and programs to further the Mozilla mission.

  • Member of Advisory Board

    Continuent

    (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Computer Software industry)

    March 2008 — September 2008 (7 months)

    In this role, I advised Continuent on matters of Free Software and Open Source community development, community relations and licensing strategies.

  • Volunteer

    Free Software Foundation Licensing Compliance Lab

    (Non-Profit; 10,001 or more employees; Computer Software industry)

    July 2004 — September 2008 (4 years 3 months)

    I provided support to the Compliance Lab team by answering questions various issues that relate to Free Software and Free Software licensing.

  • Conference Presenter

    Various

    (Internet industry)

    November 2001 — September 2008 (6 years 11 months)

    For most of the 2000's, I frequently spoke at technology conferences on topics related to Free Software and Open Source. I have presented full-length session at over thirty events, including:
    * OSCON (2002-2008)
    * Mozilla 24 (2007)
    * MySQL Users Conference (2003-2006)
    * LinuxTAG (2002 - 2005)
    * International PHP Conference (2001-2005, 2007)
    * FOSDEM 2004, OSDBCon 2005, MySQL ComCon 2004, ApacheCon 2002, ApacheCon Europe 2005, EuroOSCON 2006, etc.

  • Technical Editor

    Various publishers (New Riders, Sams, O'Reilly, Wrox, ...)

    (Publishing industry)

    1999 — January 2008 (9 years )

    I have served as technical editor on 20+ technology books.

    Most of the titles have had a strong focus on PHP or MySQL. Notable titles include:
    * Mastering Regular Expressions (3rd ed.) by Jeffrey E. F. Friedl
    * Advanced PHP Programming by Georg Schlossnagle
    * MySQL (3rd Edition) by Paul DuBois
    * Practical Manager's Guide to Open Source by Maria Winslow
    * MySQL Tutorial by Laura Thomson and Luke Welling

  • Director of Legal Affairs / Strategist

    eZ systems AS

    (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Internet industry)

    January 2007 — October 2007 (10 months)

    My primary responsibilities as Director of Legal Affairs are the management of eZ's licensing policies and programs.

    As a strategist, I help eZ develop sustainable competitive strategies that match their corporate values.

  • eLiberatica 2007 Conference Co-chair

    ROSI

    (Non-Profit; 11-50 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)

    January 2006 — May 2007 (1 year 5 months)

    Performed a variety of tasks for the eLiberatica conference:
    * Developed conference theme and focus
    * Sourced keynote speakers
    * Helped promoted event and design schedule
    * Moderated the panels at the event
    * Presented opening keynote for event
    * Am incredibly grateful for the really hard work that others (Lucian Savluc, Gabi Bartic, the Agora team, the ROSI team, the speakers and sponsors put in)

  • Managing Director, North America

    eZ systems AS

    (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Internet industry)

    December 2005 — December 2006 (1 year 1 month)

    Setting up and leading the North American subsidiary for eZ systems AS.

  • Speaker

    PHP Quebec Conferences

    (Internet industry)

    2003 — 2006 (3 years )

  • Director of Free Software and Open Source Affairs

    eZ systems

    (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Internet industry)

    March 2005 — December 2005 (10 months)

    My primary responsibilities at eZ are:
    * Managing Free Software and Open Source policies, programs and strategic relationships
    * Managing Intellectual Property policies and programs, including software licensing
    * Strategic direction of Free Software and Open Source activities
    * Management of Publisher programs and strategic relationships

    Past activities included:
    * Re-designing the eZ partner program

  • Technical Evangelist

    Sxip Networks

    (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)

    September 2004 — March 2005 (7 months)

    I led Sxip's efforts to work with and within the Free Software and Open Source communities.

  • Community Advocate

    MySQL AB

    (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Internet industry)

    December 2001 — September 2004 (2 years 10 months)

    The primary duties of this role were:
    * building and maintaining relationships with groups and individuals in the Electronic Frontier/Free Software/Open Source and MySQL communities on behalf of MySQL AB
    * working to address community concerns over choices made by MySQL on issues such as Free Software/Open Source licensing
    * representing MySQL AB at various industry conferences (ApacheCon, OSCON, LinuxWorld, FOSDEM, etc.)
    * general public relations and marketing activities such as editing or creation of formal MySQL AB communications (press releases, position statements, ...)
    * coordination of MySQL AB resources for community projects and events

    In addition, I performed the following major duties that were outside the scope of the role:
    * content chair for the MySQL User's Conference 2003 and 2004
    * technical edit of MySQL-related books and articles on behalf of MySQL
    * maintainence and development of relationships with various publishers and authors

  • Lead Author

    PHP Functions Essential: New Riders

    (Publishing industry)

    2001 — 2002 (1 year )

    Acted as lead author for the PHP Functions Essential reference. The book was based on a review of the PHP source code and was well-received, consistently selling even now that it is outdated.

    A complete draft of the book is online at http://phpfer.com and is licensed under a permissive open license.

    The Amazon.com page for the book is http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/073570970X/104-6454935-0764742?v=glance

  • Creative Director

    Nucleus Information Services

    (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)

    June 1999 — December 2001 (2 years 7 months)

    Managed small website development team that developed interactive websites for small and medium business clients. Main duties included team management, proposal development, client management, site design, site development and site coding. Other duties included print design, copy writing and editing and server admin.

    A list of some of the sites developed during this time is frozen in time at http://www.smart-sites.net/. Note that many of the sites linked from smart-sites.net are now defunct, replaced or are in a state of netcrosis.

  • PHP Quality Assurance Team Leader

    PHP

    (Non-Profit; 51-200 employees; Internet industry)

    November 2000 — November 2001 (1 year 1 month)

    The PHP/QA Team is a small group of developers whose primary goal is to support the PHP core developers by providing them with timely quality assurance.

    I helped found the PHP Quality Assurance Team in November 2000 (See http://www.phpbuilder.com/lists/php-db/2000062/0155.php) and led the team for about a year. This included activities like helping coordinate the activities of the QA team members and working on improving the systems to perform QA.

  • Dental Technician

    Complete Dental Ceramics

    (Internet industry)

    1994 — 1996 (2 years )

Additional Information

Zak Greant’s Websites:

Zak Greant’s Interests:

In no particular order: People, Free Software, the Electronic Frontier, Carving/Sculpting, Cooking, Guitar, Music, Programming, RPGs, Reading, Travel, Good Food, Writing.

Zak Greant’s Groups:

GOSAC (Government Open Source Advisory Committee) Member (http://www.egovos.org/GOSAC), Free Software Foundation Associate Member, Free Software Foundation Europe Fellowship Member, Advisory Council Member for CLUE: A Canadian Free Software and Open Source advocacy group, IKT Norge, Government CIO Summit

  •    eLiberatica - The Benefits of Open and Free Technologies
  •    Open Source Universe
  •    Open Source Marketing Professionals Association
  •    FOSS Professionals
  •    OPEN everything
  •    League for Programming Freedom

Zak Greant’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

  • consulting offers
  • new ventures
  • job inquiries
  • expertise requests
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  • reference requests
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