---
author: christel
date: 2018-07-13 13:49:00+00:00
slug: freenode-live-keynotes
title: freenode #live 2018: Welcoming (some of) this year's keynote speakers
category: general
category: freenode
category: community
category: freenode-live
category: event
category: announcements
---
It is with a great deal of excitement that I can announce some of this year's keynote speakers for freenode #live. The entire freenode team is excited to be welcoming the following FOSS rockstars to Bristol this November; Bradley Kuhn, Chris Lamb, Kyle Rankin, Leslie Hawthorn and VM Brasseur. 

We have a few more exciting announcements to make in the lead-up to the conference! You don't want to miss out, and we encourage you to head over to https://freenode.live to get your tickets for this year's event! And if you want to join this year's speaker line-up then you still have some time, the CFP is open and we're looking forward to hearing from you.

## Bradley M. Kuhn
Bradley M. Kuhn is the Distinguished Technologist at [Software Freedom Conservancy](https://sfconservancy.org), and editor-in-chief of [copyleft.org](https://copyleft.org). Kuhn began his work in the software freedom movement as a volunteer in 1992, as an early adopter of GNU/Linux, and contributor to various Free Software projects. Kuhn's non-profit career began in 2000 at [FSF](https://fsf.org). As FSF's Executive Director from 2001-2005, Kuhn led FSF's GPL enforcement, launched its Associate Member program, and invented the Affero GPL. Kuhn was appointed President of Conservancy in April 2006, was Conservancy's primary volunteer from 2006-2010, and has been a full-time staffer since early 2011. Kuhn holds a summa cum laude B.S. in Computer Science from Loyola University in Maryland, and an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Cincinnati. Kuhn received an O'Reilly Open Source Award, in recognition for his lifelong policy work on copyleft licensing. You can follow him on Twitter [@bkuhn_ebb_org](https://twitter.com/bkuhn_ebb_org)

## Chris Lamb
Currently Project Leader of the [Debian](https://debian.org) GNU/Linux project and a member of Board of Directors for the [Open Source Initiative](https://opensource.org), Chris is a freelance computer programmer, author of dozens of free-software projects and contributor to 100s of others.
He has been official Debian Developer since 2008 and is currently highly active in the Reproducible Builds sub-project for which he has been awarded a grant from the Linux Foundation's Core Infrastructure Initiative. In his spare time he is an avid classical musician and Ironman triathlete.
Chris has spoken at numerous conferences including LinuxCon China, HKOSCon, linux.conf.au, DjangoCon Europe, LibrePlanet, OSCAL, All Things Open, SCALE, Software Freedom Kosovo, #freenode Live, FOSS'ASIA, and many more. You can follow him on Twitter [@lolamby](https://twitter.com/lolamby)

## Kyle Rankin
Kyle Rankin is the Chief Security Officer at [Purism](https://purism.org), SPC and a Tech Editor and columnist at [Linux Journal](https://linuxjournal.org).
He is the author of Linux Hardening in Hostile Networks, DevOps Troubleshooting, The Official Ubuntu Server Book, Knoppix Hacks, Knoppix Pocket Reference, Linux Multimedia Hacks and Ubuntu Hacks, and also a contributor to a number of other O’Reilly books.
Rankin speaks frequently on security and free and open source software including at BsidesLV, O’Reilly Security Conference, OSCON, SCALE, CactusCon, OpenWest, Linux World Expo and Penguicon. You can follow him on Twitter [@kylerankin](https://twitter.com/kylerankin).

## Leslie Hawthorn
An internationally known developer relations strategist and community management expert, Leslie Hawthorn has spent the past decade creating, cultivating, and enabling open source communities. She’s best known for creating the world’s first initiative to involve pre-university students in open source software development, launching Google’s #2 developer blog, and receiving an O’Reilly Open Source Award in 2010. Her career has provided her with the opportunity to develop, hone, and share open source expertise spanning enterprise to NGOs, including senior roles at Red Hat, Google, the Open Source Initiative, and Elastic.

If you cheer during movies when you hear the words “I fight for the users” or “Get your head out of your cockpit,” the two of you will likely get along famously. Follow her on Twitter [@lhawthorn](https://twitter.com/lhawthorn) or read her blog at [https://hawthornlandings.org/](https://hawthornlandings.org)

## VM Brasseur
VM (aka Vicky) spent most of her 20 years in the tech industry leading software development departments and teams, and providing technical management and leadership consulting for small and medium businesses. Now she leverages nearly 30 years of free and open source software experience and a strong business background to [advise companies about free/open source, technology, community, business, and the intersections between them](https://vmbrasseur.com/services).

She is the author of [_Forge Your Future with Open Source_](https://fossforge.com), the first book to detail how to contribute to free and open source software projects. Think of it as the missing manual of open source contributions and community participation. The book is published by [The Pragmatic Programmers](https://pragprog.com/) and is now available in an [early release beta version](https://fossforge.com). It's available at https://fossforge.com.

Vicky is the Vice President of the [Open Source Initiative](https://opensource.org), a moderator and author for [opensource.com](https://opensource.com), an author for [Linux Journal](http://linuxjournal.com), and a frequent and popular [speaker](http://vmbrasseur.com/presentations/) at free/open source conferences and events. She's the proud winner of the Perl White Camel Award (2014) and the O’Reilly Open Source Award (2016).  She blogs about free/open source, business, and technical management at [{anonymous => 'hash'};](https://anonymoushash.vmbrasseur.com). You can follow her on Twitter [@VMBrasseur](https://twitter.com/vmbrasseur)
