Dirk Poot (born 1968) is a Dutch programmer and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

who is a former

lijsttrekker In politics, a lead candidate (; , ) is the leader of a political party in an election to a legislative body. In parliamentary systems, it is often the party's nominee for the position of head of government. In open list electoral systems, it is ...

and spokesperson for the board of the Pirate Party of the Netherlands. Poot was the lijsttrekker of the Dutch Pirate Party for the Dutch parliamentary elections in 2012 and fourth on the list for the Pirate Party in the 2010 Dutch parliamentary elections.

Personal life

Poot studied business administration in

Breukelen Breukelen () is a town and former municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht. It is situated to the north west of Utrecht, along the river Vecht and close to the lakes of the Loosdrechtse Plassen, an area of natural and tourist ...

and medicine in Sint Eustatius. He currently resides close to Breda in the Netherlands.

Professional work

Poot is a

self-employed Self-employment is the state of working for oneself rather than an employer. Tax authorities will generally view a person as self-employed if the person chooses to be recognised as such or if the person is generating income for which a tax return n ...

computer programmer, focusing on medical and education software. He has previously worked as a physician.

Political activities

When he was younger, Poot was a member of the Jongerenorganisatie Vrijheid en Democratie (JOVD), the youth organization of the main Dutch conservative party, the

People's Party for Freedom and Democracy The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy ( nl, Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie ; VVD) is a conservative-liberal Andeweg, R. and G. Irwin ''Politics and Governance in the Netherlands'', Basingstoke (Palgrave) p.49 political party in ...

(VVD). He has been blogging about democracy, privacy, and medical issues since 2005. He has written about collection and storage of sensitive information in government databases, in particular the

Electronic Patient Record An electronic health record (EHR) is the systematized collection of patient and population electronically stored health information in a digital format. These records can be shared across different health care settings. Records are shared throu ...

(EPR).

Dutch Pirate Party

Poot has been active with the Pirate Party since late 2009. He joined the party after discovering it through

IRC Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a text-based chat system for instant messaging. IRC is designed for group communication in discussion forums, called '' channels'', but also allows one-on-one communication via private messages as well as chat an ...

while blogging about

Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement es, Acuerdo Comercial Anti-Falsificación , image = Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement map (English).svg , image_width = 260 , caption = , type = Plurilateral agreement , date_drafted ...

. He was fourth on the list for the Pirate Party in the 2010 Dutch parliamentary elections. Since 2011, he has been a member of the board of the Dutch Pirate Party, and the board's spokesperson since December 2011. In the 2012 parliamentary elections in the Netherlands, he was the first candidate of the Dutch Pirate Party.

References

External links

Dirk Poot's bio on Dutch Pirate Party website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Poot, Dirk 1968 births Living people Pirate Party (Netherlands) politicians Dutch computer programmers Politicians from Utrecht (city)