Brian Fitzpatrick

Activist, Change agent, Connector, Engineer, Foodie, Idea generator, Policy maker, Technologist, World traveler, Writer/Editor

Brian Fitzpatrick started Google's Chicago engineering office in 2005, and currently leads Google's Transparency Engineering team, which uses data to help protect free expression and free speech on the web. He also founded and leads Google's Data Liberation Front, a team that systematically works to make it easy for users to move their data both to and from Google (e.g. via Google Takeout). He serves as both thought leader and internal advisor for Google's open data efforts and has previously led the Google Code, FeedBurner and The Google Affiliate Network teams. Prior to joining Google, Brian was a senior software engineer on the version control team at CollabNet, working on Subversion, cvs2svn, and CVS. He has also worked at Apple Computer as a senior engineer in their professional services division, developing both client and web applications for Apple's largest corporate customers. Brian first started contributing to open source software in 1998 and was a core Subversion developer from 2000 to 2005 as well as the lead developer of the cvs2svn utility. He was nominated as a member of the Apache Software Foundation in 2002 and spent two years as the ASF's VP of Public Relations. He is also a member of the Open Web Foundation. Brian has written several books, numerous articles, and given many presentations on a wide variety of subjects from open data to version control to software development. He is the co-author of "Team Geek: A Software Developer's Guide to Working Well with Others," "Version Control with Subversion" (now in its second edition), and chapters for "Unix in a Nutshell" and "Linux in a Nutshell." Brian has an A.B. in Classics from Loyola University Chicago with a major in Latin, a minor in Greek, and a concentration in Fine Arts and Ceramics. Despite growing up in New Orleans and working for Silicon Valley companies for most of his career, he decided years ago that Chicago was his home and stubbornly refuses to move to California. Other affiliations: Board member, The John Felice Rome Center Alumni Board Board member, FIRST Illinois Board member, Fast Forward Advisory board at the Museum of Science and Industry Member, Selection Committee, 1871 Co-founder, ORD Camp

Keeping the internet free and open, giving users control over their data, and helping engineers work better with humans.

The internet has heralded an era of individual creativity and expression like the world has never seen before. This is even more incredible when you consider that the previous 50 years were a low point of individual creativity where people were more likely to rot in front of the television than create something or share an idea with a few friends, much less millions of people.

Chicago, Freedom of expression & social responsibility issues, Internet Freedom, Open data, open source business/technology