In 1989, Michael Tiemann created a new paradigm for commercializing software. “Open Source” software revolutionized the software industry and paved the way for the popularization and commercialization of the Internet. Startups such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter owe their early success to the availability, functionality, flexibility, and quality of open source.
As a founder of the world’s first open source software company, and later as an executive at Red Hat (NYSE:RHT), the world’s leading open source provider, Michael has been invited to speak all over the world about open source strategies, technologies, and policies. The more he talked about how open source principles can be applied to problems beyond software—agriculture, conservation, healthcare, even water resource management—the more he thought about how these principles might be applied to one of his great passions: music.
As a boy, Michael sang professionally in Manhattan for four years and recorded four albums by the time he was 14. After his voice changed, he became an intense listener, spending hours on end listening to the great vinyl libraries of jazz, rock, and classical music. After moving to North Carolina and becoming involved with its arts and culture communities, Michael saw that North Carolina was over-achieving in terms of local talent, but under-achieving in terms of local media production. He founded Manifold Recording to combine old-school acoustics with modern technologies and a recording process that honors both artistic performance and authentic audience experience. Michael operates and assists with all video recording and editing aspects of the facility.