Abbreviated Personal and Professional Biography of Jim Willis
Jim Willis is a technologist, musician, writer and community organizer. He currently lives in Red Bank, NJ with his wife and children.
He treats technology as a tool to build social capital and lower the barrier to civic and community engagement. He is widely recognized as being instrumental in Federal and State government adoption of open source software. Jim believes democracy flourishes when government adopts the principals of Open Content, Open Services and Open Source.
Current Work:
- Chief Technology Officer, Passionato. Online classical music retailer selling DRM-free FLAC and high-bitrate MP3s.
Previous Work:
- Principal, Banyan Social Technology. Currently leads a team of software developers, new media designers and project managers to provide mission-driven organizations the skills and tools necessary to affect positive social change.
- Chief Information Officer and Director of eGovernment for the Rhode Island Office of the Secretary of State Matthew A. Brown
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Principal/Owner of eponymous consulting company specializing in data collection and analysis for public policy regarding mental health funding
Speaks/Presents:
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Internet As A Public Good Symposium - 2007 Harvard, Boston
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Romanian Open Source and Free Software Initiative - 2007 Brasov, Romania
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Federal Election Commission Best Practices for HAVA - 2006 National Science Foundation Washington, DC
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eGovernment Policy Conference- 2005 JFK School of Government-Harvard, Boston
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Open Source Code in the Public Sector - 2004 MIT and Harvard, Boston
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MySQL User Conference & Expo
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LinuxWorld-Boston
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Architecture and Infrastructure Committee, Emerging Technology Subcommittee - 2004 Washington, DC
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eGovOS Conference (2003 Conference Committee and Presenter)
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GSA’s Emerging Technology Subcommittee of the Architecture and Infrastructure Committee
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Multiple Rhode Island state and local government events
Groups/Boards:
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Founder/Publisher, Red Bank Eastside Park Neighbors Newsletter
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Technical Chair, Government Open Code Collaborative
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Co-founder, RI Web Data Sharing Committee
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Rhode Island Information Resource Management Board
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Summit Neighborhood Association, Board Member
Writes/Blogs:
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I’m occasionally asked to contribute to magazines and other publications. Here’s a sample from Federal Computer Week
Is Written About:
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Numerous mainstream and trade media have covered my eGovernment work over the years. Here are a few of the more popular pieces.
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My eGovernment work is featured as a case study in Maria Winslow’s The Practical Manager’s Guide To Open Source.
