Damien Sandras is well known in the free software community

Free software community

The free-software community is an informal term that refers to the users and developers of free software as well as supporters of the free-software movement. The movement is sometimes referred to as the open-source software community or a subset thereof...

 due to his work on GNOME

GNOME

GNOME is a desktop environment and graphical user interface that runs on top of a computer operating system. It is composed entirely of free and open source software...

, more specifically on Ekiga

Ekiga

Ekiga /i k ai g a/ is a VoIP and video conferencing application for GNOME and Windows. It is distributed as free software under the terms of the GNU General Public License. It was the default VoIP client in Ubuntu until October 2009, when it was replaced by Empathy...

, the leading Open Source

Open source

The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...

 softphone

Softphone

A softphone is a software program for making telephone calls over the Internet using a general purpose computer, rather than using dedicated hardware. Often a softphone is designed to behave like a traditional telephone, sometimes appearing as an image of a phone, with a display panel and buttons...

 for the GNU/Linux desktop.
He was also at the origin of FOSDEM

FOSDEM

FOSDEM is a non-commercial volunteer organized European event centered around free and open source software development. It is aimed at developers and anyone interested in the free and open source software movement...

, the most important event dedicated to free software

Free software

Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...

 developers in Europe.

Sandras is a graduate of the Université Catholique de Louvain

Université catholique de Louvain

The Université catholique de Louvain, sometimes known, especially in Belgium, as UCL, is Belgium's largest French-speaking university. It is located in Louvain-la-Neuve and in Brussels...

.

He is now leading Be IP, a startup dealing with enterprise Open Source

Open source

The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...

 VoIP software.

Sources

• http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damien_Sandras
• http://www.journaldunet.com/solutions/itws/050317_it_gnomemeeting.shtml
• http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2005/03/17/gnomemeeting.html
• http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2002-01-11-005-20-IN-GN
• http://ghj.sunsite.dk/index.php?1=articles/1/interview_gnomemeeting.html&article=1