Andy Oram

I write and edit documents about many aspects of computing, with a scope ranging from blog postings to full-length books. For many years I worked as an editor at O'Reilly & Associates, a highly respected book publisher and technology information provider. My topics there covered a wide range of computer technologies: data science and machine learning, programming languages, Web performance, Internet of Things, databases, free and open source software, and more.

My editorial output includes the first books ever published commercially in the United States on Linux, the 2001 title Peer-to-Peer (frequently cited in connection with those technologies), and the 2007 title Beautiful Code. My modest programming and system administration skills are mostly self-taught.

In health care, I have produced a comprehensive report on the various manifestations of health IT and their relation to health reform, along with a stream of article for popular health IT sites. I am a regular correspondent on health IT and health policy for HealthcareScene.com and Open Health News.

I also contribute to other publications about policy issues related to the Internet and about trends affecting technical innovation and its effects on society. Print publications where my work has appeared include The Economist, Communications of the ACM, Copyright World, the Journal of Information Technology & Politics, Vanguardia Dossier, and Internet Law and Business.

I have presented talks at O'Reilly's Open Source Convention, FISL (Brazil), FOSDEM, DebConf, and LibrePlanet.

My Web site is https://www.praxagora.com/. The most interesting pages there are probably my list of articles (https://praxagora.com/andyo/professional/article.html) and some fiction (https://praxagora.com/andyo/fiction/).

Also check out my memoir of life in the computer field as writer and activist: "Backtraces: Three Decades of Computing, Communities, and Critiques" https://praxagora.com/backtraces/

My Articles