Member of the board of Open Forum Europe and a fellow of the Open Forum Academy

He worked twenty five years (1987-2012) as an IT expert for the European Commission. From 2005 to 2011, he was leading the team responsible for the implementation of the IDABC programme and for the definition and implementation of the ISA programme. He was actively involved in initiatives such as the transeuropean network TESTA, the Open Source Observatory and Repository (OSOR) and the Semantic Interoperability Centre Europe (SEMIC) now both merged into Joinup and in the elaboration of the European Interoperability Strategy and theEuropean Interoperability Framework. During his career, he also acquired a good practical experience in the public procurement of IT goods and services.

Karel De Vriendt is now retired but has kept his interest in improving (computer based) public services via the collaboration between public and private partners and via the sharing and re-use of software based service components. He also remains a big supporter of open standards and open source software as essential elements to support collaboration, sharing and reuse.