Co-founder of Sun Microsystems at the age of 27, strongly promoting open computing systems like the Java programming language and assuming the role of defender of the free computing world, he has literally changed the course of technology and open source history.  He’s a Silicon Valley veteran and legend and we couldn’t be happier to host him.

For those that may not know, a brief bio for Mr. McNealy:

Scott McNealy co-founded Sun Microsystems, Inc. in 1982, serving as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Sun’s Board of Directors for 22 years. During his tenure at Sun McNealy drove the company’s innovation in open, network computing, and he helped transform Sun from a Silicon Valley start-up to a leading provider of network computing infrastructure with more than 30,000 employees worldwide. In 1986, he took the company public, creating one of the most notable publicly traded
technology companies, all while positioning Sun as a the model of corporate integrity.

McNealy’s vision and business acumen have made him one of the most influential and widely quoted leaders in the complex and fast-moving IT industry. He helped to evolve the industry through his vision of network computing with the phrase, “The Network is the Computer.” This vision has guided the direction of technology innovation into the 21st century and is today referred to as “cloud computing”.

McNealy continues to be recognized for his longstanding commitment to education and advocacy for open and competitive business practices. In March 2004, he led Sun to create the Global Education & Learning Community (GELC) to leverage open source to provide affordable lifelong learning for all students, no matter where they live.

GELC was spun off in 2006 as an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit now called Curriki. The organization’s name is a play on the combination of “curriculum” and “wiki”. Curriki is built on the XWiki platform, an open source development platform and “Next Generation Wiki” application
developed in Java and released the LGPL open source license.

Curriki’s mission is to eliminate the Education Divide – the gap between those who have access to high quality education and those who do not – in the U.S. and worldwide. Its online community of educators, learners and committed education experts works together to create quality materials that benefit teachers, parents and students globally. Currently, the site offers more than 44,000 free curriculum resources, engages more than 214,000 members, and receives over two million unique visits per year from educators and students from every country in the world.

As a member of Curriki’s Board of Directors and the visionary behind the idea for Curriki, McNealy will help guide the organization’s goal of making high-quality curricula universally accessible. He is always fighting for openness and choice: “Without choice, you have no innovation. Without innovation, you have nothing.”

McNealy earned a Bachelors of Arts from Harvard University in 1976 and received a Masters of Business Administration from Stanford University in 1980. He is a former hockey player and is a singledigit handicap golfer. He is married and is the father of four boys.

With the tremendous success of this year’s Open Hardware Summit and the proliferation of open data and entertainment technologies, platforms and usages, sessions and workshops on these topics will no doubt be extremely popular.

The two day format will feature keynote addresses and session talks as well as demonstrations and training opportunities on all the latest technologies.  In addition, a multitude of networking opportunities will be made available to attendees.

Started in 2008, POSSCON has become one of the largest open source conferences on the east coast and in 2011 hosted more than 500 attendees from 24 states.  It regularly features world class thought leaders and some of the best content available to technologists and IT leaders of all types.