About the Author

Paul Taylor has been working at the cutting edge of IT since the early 1990s after completing a Masters in Political Philosophy in the US, following an Undergraduate degree at Durham University. In those pioneering days he was working for a company that made digital video recorders for a then unknown company called Pixar. At the time, the BBC told him, "this digital video stuff will not catch on old boy".

The early introduction to the Unix OS as part of this manufacturing experience led Paul ultimately into Linux and open source in the latter part of the decade. Paul returned to the UK and trained as an IT teacher and spent ten years evangelizing the use of open source in UK schools. It was during the latter part of this experience that Paul first came across Moodle and began using this software and promoting it in schools.

In 2006 Paul became self-employed and now works exclusively on open source projects, particularly Moodle, as well as supporting a UK awarding body. He is slowly learning Japanese to try to keep up with his two young daughters, though his wife correctly asserts that he should be fluent by now.

The majority of Paul's time is spent working for a UK Moodle partner, Pteppic.net, owned by Sean Keogh, but he also works for a Moodle Partner in Japan, Manabu3. In addition to Moodle work, Paul works for an awarding body, The Learning Machine, which developed INGOTs, an open source friendly IT and Business qualification certificated by the QCA. Paul also supports a number of schools in the UK, and has his own website: www.osict.net.