Phil Shapiro

2419 points
User profile image.
Washington DC-area

Phil Shapiro has been an educator, teaching students from pre-school to graduate school for the past 30 years. He currently works at a public library in the Washington, DC area, helping youth and adults use 27 Linux stations. Between 2007 and 2012, he blogged for PC World magazine on various technology topics and currently writes for Ars Technica, MAKE magazine, FOSS Force, TechSoup for Libraries, and Opensource.com. Visit him at his antique ebook store. For more about what he is up to, follow him on Mastodon @philshapiro@mastodon.social and see his videos on YouTube.

Updated resume (2022)

WashPost - The Man Who Gives Computers to Kids (May, 2000)

PCWorld - Does Free Software Restore Dignity?

PCWorld (original article)

Open Source Champion Conversation Starter Award 2015 Social Sharer Award 2015 Author Correspondent Contributor Club

Authored Content

Penguins on beach

When Linux is the face of kindness

My late father, Lou Shapiro, was an early leader of UNICEF, so relief work was baked into the genetics of my family. His work was centered on emergency relief for the…

Authored Comments

Phil Shapiro
1 Dec 2022
Intangible gift ideas with open source in mind

Max Jarrell, of Los Altos, California, once asked his parents to install Inkscape as his Christmas present. That is all he wanted for Christmas. This anecdote is reported in this PCWorld article https://www.pcworld.com/article/494626/inkscape-3.html For that Christmas, his parents learned the deep value of non-monetary gifts.

Phil Shapiro
22 Nov 2022
4 key differences between Twitter and Mastodon

I've taken a quick liking to Mastodon. I'm there at @philshapiro@mastodon.social