I call myself a Free Software Consultant for two reasons. The first is that I'm doing this job on a freelance basis, which means that I serve a large and varying group of customers, each of which benefits from the experience I have gained in other, often vastly different projects. The second reason is that I subscribe to the idea of free software, as it is set forth by the Free Software Foundation (FSF).

In a nutshell, the free software movement believes that computer programs should not have owners. Once a program is written and released to the public, anybody should be free to use it, to examine its source code to understand how it works, to make changes to it and improve it, and to redistribute improved versions. Software that gives its users these freedoms is called "free software".

In my personal experience, I have found that the work on free software projects is the most rewarding thing I have done as a programmer and computer scientist. The reason, I think, is that it puts me into direct contact with the people who are using my software, and it's not a contact that is immediately governed by monetary concerns. Free software allows programmers (and computer users in general) to develop a sense of community, which results in a way of working that is less alienated than others in today's high-tech societies.

This has the following implications for the kind of work that I'm doing:

• Internal software, which is part of the IT infrastructure of a particular company, is usually not released to the public at all (and for very good reasons). Many of my projects are concerned with this kind of software, and I will of course not request that any of it be released under a free software license. I will, however, recommend free software solutions as tools and components of such systems. This results in an immediate financial and technical benefit for my customers.
• Released software, on the other hand, is software that is intended for use by the general public (developers or end users). For this kind of software, I believe that open development and access to the source code for everyone are essential, both from a technical and an economic viewpoint. I will therefore not work on software that is released under a non-free license.