Shawn Powers (born 19 July 1975) is a journalist,

Open Source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

evangelist, cartoonist, and online personality. He is currently a co-host at

FLOSS Weekly FLOSS Weekly is a free and open-source software ( FLOSS) themed netcast from the TWiT Network. The show premiered on April 7, 2006, and features interviews with prominent guests from the free software/open source community. It was originally hoste ...

.. on the

TWiT.tv TWiT.tv, which is the operating trade name of TWiT LLC, is a podcast network that broadcasts many technology news podcasts, founded by technology broadcaster and author Leo Laporte in 2005, and run by his wife and company CEO Lisa Laporte. ...

network, a frequent guest host on the Reality 2.0 podcast, and an active blogger since 2006. Specializing in

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

, he is best known for his time as Associate Editor and columnist for

Linux Journal ''Linux Journal'' (''LJ'') is an American monthly technology magazine originally published by Specialized System Consultants, Inc. (SSC) in Seattle, Washington since 1994. In December 2006 the publisher changed to Belltown Media, Inc. in Houston ...

from 2007 until its buyout in 2019. His first article, Build Your Own Arcade Game Player and Relive the '80s! was featured on the 2007 cover of Linux Journal. Powers became an editor of the magazine shortly thereafter, writing the monthly Current_Issue.tar.gz and UpFront columns and answering letters to the editor. He was also the main personality on the Linux Journal YouTube channel, and still creates content on his own channel.

Career

Powers' professional careers have focused on education. From 2000-2012, he was the Technology Director at Inland Lakes Schools in Indian River, Michigan. Then from 2012-2013 he was Assistant Director of Database Services at

Cornerstone University Cornerstone University is a private Christian university in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Cornerstone University has undergraduate and graduate programs, two seminaries (Grand Rapids Theological Seminary and Asia Biblical Theological Seminary based in ...

Grand Rapids Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...

, Michigan. In addition, he has been a Linux and Open Source trainer for CBT Nuggets from 2009 until present day. He has spoken at multiple conferences, including

Southern California Linux Expo The Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE) is an annual Linux, open source and free software conference held in Los Angeles, California, since 2002. Despite having Linux in its name, SCALE covers all open source operating systems and software. It i ...

(SCaLE),

Penguicon Penguicon is a convention in southeastern Michigan designed originally to mix the communities of the science fiction fandom and Linux user groups. In addition to educational panels on science fiction in the media, attendees participate in prof ...

, Michigan Association for Educational Data Systems (MAEDS), and was keynote speaker at Ohio Linuxfest 2009. His online comic, MyBigRoundWorld has been active since 2021 https://www.reality2cast.com/65.

Life

Powers spent his early years living in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

, MI. His family moved to northern Michigan in the late 80s, and he graduated from Cheboygan High School in 1993. He received several scholarships to attend

Michigan Technological University Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech, MTU, or simply Tech) is a public research university in Houghton, Michigan, founded in 1885 as the Michigan Mining School, the first post-secondary institution in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. ...

, and worked toward an Electrical Engineering degree until he dropped out in 1995 to pursue computer networking. That year, he married Donna Powers (née Croft). They have 3 adult children, and currently live in Petoskey, MI. Of note, in March of 1999, Shawn had a car accident which caused complete amnesia, which continues to present day. He's given several talks, and been interviewed on multiple occasions about amnesia and closed head injuries. In January 2010 Powers' house caught fire and was a complete loss. Shawn, his wife Donna, and their three girls escaped unharmed, but their pets were lost.

References

External links

*
My Big Round World comic
{{DEFAULTSORT:Powers, Shawn 1975 births Living people Journalists from Michigan American evangelists American cartoonists American Internet celebrities