Make Web Not War is a passionate community of tech enthusiasts. This group originally started as an event organized by Microsoft Canada and has grown into a diverse community of developers, technologists, business owners & students across Canada. We welcome anyone who is excited about the latest trends in web, mobile, cloud and open data. Whether you like .Net, PHP, Python, Java, Ruby, use open source or commercial software (or both) Make Web Not War is about building technology solutions that work together.
The Crew
Nik Garkusha is the Open Platforms Lead at Microsoft Canada, responsible for a number of Open Source, Open Data and Open Government innovation programs in Canada. Nik is a co-founder of the Make Web Not War program in Canada, the FTW! & Code Your Art Out developer competitions, creator of the Microsoft Canada Openness Lab, and sponsor of a number of open source & open gov projects. Besides hanging out on Twitter, Linked-in, Facebook & Google+, Nik runs OpenHalton.ca: a citizen-led Open Gov community in the Halton Region, Ontario. He’s an avid Open Source, Open Government and Open Data advocate, hacktivist, technology evangelist, consultant, web architect, and a “professional geek”. His unofficial nick-name is “The Head of Open Sourcery” at Microsoft.
Frederic Harper is a Developer Evangelist at Microsoft Canada. In the IT world for more than 10 years, his expertise is mostly around mobile and Web development with different platforms. If you want to talk about Web technology, Open Source, Open Standard, interoperability and the openness of Microsoft, Fred is your man. Don’t be afraid to get in touch with him as he is a social beast. Social media aficionado, he will be more than happy to connect with you on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or Google+. Don’t forget to read his blog for any day-to-day subjects.
Keith Loo is the Marketing and Community Manager at Microsoft Canada. He is a gadget geek who is passionate about understanding people and how they use technology. Prior to joining Microsoft, Keith studied at the Schulich School of Business where he completed an MBA in marketing. Serving on the executive board of the Graduate Business Council for 3 years, Keith played a key role in the MBA community’s student experience and is still actively involved with the alumni network. Keith’s interest in open technology began in 1999, when he started to build online communities using the likes of PHP-Nuke, phpBB, Joomla, Drupal, YaBB, and other open source CMSs, forums, and tools. You can find Keith on Linkedin, Twitter, or Facebook.
Julia Stowell is off to another career – as a new mother! We are excited for Julia and wish her the very best. She is the Community Queen at Microsoft Canada. Julia loves both people and technology and is thrilled to be able to combine the two in her professional life. She works with open source communities around Canada, focusing on projects that bring the world of open source and Microsoft together. She’s been with Microsoft for eight years, four of those in Latin America. Prior to joining Microsoft, Julia studied at Thunderbird School of Global Management where she earned an MBA with a focus in Marketing. Her interest in Open Source began in graduate school where she wrote a business plan for an open source training provider. You can reach her on Twitter at @InteropQueen or on LinkedIn.
