Mike Linksvayer

Mike Linksvayer is an intellectual freedom and commons proponent, known as a technology entrepreneur, developer and activist from co-founding Bitzi and leadership of Creative Commons.

Linksvayer holds a B.A. in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has experience as a Chief Technical Officer, Vice President, manager, software developer and consultant. He joined Creative Commons as CTO in April 2003, and held that position until April 2007 when he became vice president. He also co-founded p2p file sharing company Bitzi, well known for its invention of magnet links.

Former executive director of Creative Commons, Glenn Otis Brown, noted that Mike Linksvayer brought much-needed stability to the organization, comparing his role to that of a drummer in a band.

Linksvayer encouraged NASA to use public APIs to share its data, which is already in public domain as government works. He also suggested that scientists and other planetary societies use Creative Commons licenses to disseminate photos and other works so that the public has better access.

Following his tenure as vice president, in April 2012 Linksvayer became a part-time Senior Fellow at Creative Commons. Linksvayer also serves on the boards of OpenHatch and Software Freedom Conservancy and chairs the Open Definition Advisory Council.

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