أحمد المكاوى.. شاب مصرى من مدينة الاسكندرية.. تخرجت من كلية الهندسة بجامعة الاسكندرية قسم اتصالات والكترونيات. ثم غيرت اتجاهى لاحقا لأعمل كمدير نظام لأنظمة لينوكس.

بدأ تحولى لأنظمة البرمجيات الحرة بضعة سنوات قبل تحولى من ناحية العمل الى تكنولوجيا المعلومات.. فى هذه الفترة كنت ناشطا فى جنو/لينوكس مصر حتى أصبحت من فريق المديرين هناك.

اهتمامى بالبرمجيات الحرة والتكنولوجيا عموما هو بسبب الأثر الاجتماعى لها..

حاليا بدأت العمل فى شركة خاصة بى تعمل فى مجال الدعم التجارى للبرمجيات الحرة واسمها سبيرولا للأنظمة.

A FOSS enthusiast who happen to love Arabic, I love every aspect of it; the language, the script even the writing direction. As a failed self-studying calligrapher who discovered computers much later, I thought I'd be able to convince computers to help me, and still trying.

Ahmad Gharbeia graduated with a BA in Business Administration, then obtained a MSc. in Business Information Technology in 2003. He has occupied ICT-management roles in few organisations before deciding to return to innocence, concentrating on grass-root initiatives, and has since been helping anyone with a cause to make the best out of information technology and the Internet. He likes to thinks that his work has contributed to the inciting of a revolution.

Ahmad is concerned with issues of Arabic content, archival and preservation of digital artefacts, and the digitisation of cultural products in traditional media; all the time advocating free licensing of content, FOSS, and open formats and standards.

On his blog, which he's kept since 2003, Ahmad often contemplates the subjects of technical writing in Arabic, and the technicalities of using Arabic in the modern age, as well as an assortment of seemingly chaotic interests and occupations; among which are the environment, civil liberties, openness and governance of the Internet, and issues of privacy and security in the digital realm of which he sometimes provides training for activists, journalists and whomever is interested!

A hobbyist-linguist, he originally wanted to be be an anthropologist, and still maintains a childhood dream of becoming an astronaut.

More about what's keeping me busy at the moment can found at http://ahmad.gharbeia.org