Greg Bryant is a computer scientist and community organizer, best known as the founder of
Workspot
Workspot was the first Linux desktop Web Service, i.e. it provided Open Source personal computing without computer ownership. Founded by Greg Bryant, Gal Cohen, Kathy Giori, Curt Brune, Benny Soetarman, Bruce Robertson, and Asao Kamei, in 1999, ...
in downtown Palo Alto during the dotcom boom, and editor of RAIN Magazine since 1989. He also acted as a liaison between the computer industry and
Christopher Alexander
Christopher Wolfgang John Alexander (4 October 1936 – 17 March 2022) was an Austrian-born British-American architect and design theorist. He was an emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley. His theories about the nature o ...
on many projects.
Career
In computing, he was an early promoter of
virtual machine
In computing, a virtual machine (VM) is the virtualization/emulation of a computer system. Virtual machines are based on computer architectures and provide functionality of a physical computer. Their implementations may involve specialized hardw ...
s, which led to work promoting
UNIX
Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and ot ...
and software tools at
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...
headquarters during the
80386
The Intel 386, originally released as 80386 and later renamed i386, is a 32-bit microprocessor introduced in 1985. The first versions had 275,000 transistors He built languages and authoring tools for the first consumer in-car navigation systems, and the first mobile traffic app, and built the first fullscreen mobile apps for
Google
Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
, and for
eBay
eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...
. He introduced the idea of 'unfolding programming sequences', and the category of 'operational grammars' with the programming language 'grogix'. He writes about foundation problems in computing philosophy, and presents on the application of software to urban issues.
His community organizing closely follows his research and writing for RAIN Magazine. He co-founded two special-purpose community centers, which were also local business incubators: the
Center for Appropriate Transport The Center for Appropriate Transport (CAT) is a non-profit community center dedicated to bicycles and alternative transport located in Eugene, Oregon, United States.
CAT holds publicly funded educational workshops for teaching youth from ages 12 t ...
and the Tango Center in
Eugene, Oregon
Eugene ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast.
As of the 2020 United States Census, Eu ...
. Defending the Tango Center led to a ballot measure that temporarily defunded
Urban Renewal
Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...
in downtown Eugene, Measure 20–134 in November 2007, which may be the central factor in its rejuvenation.