Georg founded the FSFE in 2001 under agreement with FSF president Richard Stallman and successfully built a Pan-European nonprofit. Georg and FSFE's success in embedding free software within European and global political institutions is particularly noteworthy, and this award recognizes his work in promoting Open Standards.

"I'm deeply grateful for the official recognition that Free Software and Open Standards receive with this award", says Georg Greve. "Around 2000, I decided to dedicate myself fully to this cause out of a sense of necessity: I felt that I had glimpsed how software shapes our society. But I also saw that society had not yet understood how much it is shaped by software. It is my hope that this award will help to make people aware of these questions, and bring support for the work of FSFE, which is more important than ever."

Read the full FSFE press release.