Other Interests 
John Gilmore: Other Interests
- The USENIX Association
- USENIX is "the Advanced Computing Systems Association". It started off with meetings and technical conferences for the original creators of Unix, but as those folks expanded their interests into other fields, it too has widened. I attended lots of USENIX conferences in the '80s, met many great and talented people, and learned a lot about Unix from them. I got busy in the late '80s and through the '90s, reconnected in 2000, ran for the Board of Directors on a platform of addressing the social impacts of technology, and was elected to two 2-year terms. I left the board in 2004.
- The Libertarian Party
- The Libertarians are a political party dedicated to small and simple government. I'm a life member. I consider the two major parties in the US to both be morally bankrupt, and largely indistinguishable from each other. Under both of them, US and state governments continue to grow in size, cost, and influence over their citizens. Both support completely indefensible policies such as the drug policies of the last forty years, unprovoked attacks on countries like Iraq that never did anything to the US, and "money laundering" laws that criminalize financial privacy.
- C2net Software
- C2net was started by Sameer Parekh and other cypherpunks in the early 1990's. It now sells and supports Stronghold, a version of the popular Apache web server that contains strong encryption. Stronghold is a market leader among secure web servers. C2, like my own FreeS/WAN IPSEC project, develops and archives its encryption programs outside the United States, so they can be freely shipped and used worldwide. I joined the board of C2net in 1998 and served there until it was acquired by Red Hat, Inc, in 2000.
- CodeWeavers, Inc.
- CodeWeavers is a commercial company that's developing and supporting the free Wine software, and helping companies who have MS-Windows products port them to Unix. I started talking with them in 1998, invested in the company in 2000, and now serve on its board.
- ReQuest, Inc
- ReQuest makes great home stereo components that play MP3 music. I've been talking with them since 1999, and invested in the company in 2000. I'm now on the board of directors.
- The Internet Society
- I was a member of the Internet Society for many years. I was elected to its Board of Trustees in July 1997, for a three-year term.
