= Bdale Garbee: Personality of the year at the french Paris Capitale du Libre event =
One of the most respected and (at least by me ;-) admired person working on Open Soure in HP, Bdale Garbee, has been elected personality of the year by the [http://paris-libre.org Paris Capitale du Libre] event. This i well deserved, and I'm so happy that this candidature I submitted to the jury was retained, even if other important people were also considered. It has to be noted that this is the first time an individul is nominated for that price ! 

Bdale is tirelessly advocating FLOSS inside HP every where and every time, but not as a stupid geek like me pushing hard, but in a very subtle and smooth way, with a mixed of business and technology elements which is giving excellent results ! (if only ne proof the recent AdvFs Open Soure releae made by HP thanks to his work).I hope this price will help him get even more recognition inside our company, and make his recommandations even more listen by higher manageement. This is key for HP's future globally, and his contributions will be looked later on as some of the most important done for our company.

And he is one of those person who remains accessible, giving appropriate advises when needed, sound and appropriate judgements, in sort a real Open Source hero among the few existing worldwide. So happy to work for the same company and having from time to time the hapiness to talk with him.

Some references:
[http://www.gag.com/~bdale/ Bdale by himself]
[http://www.pcinpact.com/actu/news/46254-paris-capitale-libre-lutece-or.htm PC Impact article] in french
[http://www.artesi.artesi-idf.com/public/article.tpl?id=153 Artesi IDF report] in french