I am a free (as in freedom) software hacker and user freedom activist with a focus on user privacy and security; a professional software engineer; and an advisor to the GNU Project.
I deal primarily with compiler construction and the creation of declarative domain-specific languages and abstractions to simplify development and improve the correctness of complex systems. I historically did a lot of web development, and have been programming for over twenty years. Some of my personal interests include programming language history and theory, formal methods and proofs, logic and type theory, cryptography, philosophy and ethics, and writing. I don't claim to be good at any of those things.
The focus of my research in recent years has been pursuant to addressing problems of practical user freedom—to make various aspects of freedom in computing accessible to more users in concrete and tangible ways that are meaningful to them beyond abstract principle and philosophy.
I am a hacker, not a cracker—the latter breaks the security of systems, while the former expresses playful creativity in their work.
Outside of my field, I enjoy time with my family—including my wife and three sons—who keep me very busy and help to keep me sane. I also have a fascination with a wide range of sciences that I wish I had the time to devote to researching.
Much of this site is devoted to my thoughts and ramblings on various matters and so will contain material that is subject to strong bias; you are encouraged to construct your own opinions. Formal papers contain no such influence without rationale and references.
I may be contacted at mtg at gnu dot org. I do not make use of “social media” websites, though I may (or may not) respond to queries on websites that I am a member of, and I do host my own Pleroma instance, which is compatible with Mastodon; you can follow me on the fediverse via mikegerwitz@pleroma.mikegerwitz.com.
(Note: This website itself is free/libre—the source code is available via the commit hash links in the footer of various pages and the content is licensed for free distribution and, in most cases, modification.)
I changed GPG keys in October 2016; see my key transition statement, signed with both my new and old keys.
LibrePlanet 2016 Photo Copyright © 2016 Kori Feener, CC BY 4.0; used with permission.