Dirk Poot (born 1968) is a Dutch

programmer A programmer, computer programmer or coder is an author of computer source code someone with skill in computer programming. The professional titles Software development, ''software developer'' and Software engineering, ''software engineer' ...

and

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

who is a former

lijsttrekker In politics, a lead candidate (; , ) is the candidate placed first on a party list. In parliamentary systems, it is often the party's nominee for the position of head of government, and the party chair or party leader. Usage by country Net ...

and spokesperson for the board of the Pirate Party of the Netherlands. Poot was the lijsttrekker of the Dutch Pirate Party for the Dutch parliamentary elections in 2012 and fourth on the list for the Pirate Party in the 2010 Dutch parliamentary elections.

Personal life

Poot studied business administration in

Breukelen Breukelen () is a town and former municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht. It is situated to the northwest of Utrecht, along the river Vecht and close to the lakes of the Loosdrechtse Plassen, an area of natural and tourist i ...

and medicine in

Sint Eustatius Sint Eustatius, known locally as Statia, is an island in the Caribbean. It is a Caribbean Netherlands, special municipality (officially "Public body (Netherlands), public body") of the Netherlands. The island is in the northern Leeward Islands ...

. He currently resides close to

Breda Breda ( , , , ) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant. ...

in the Netherlands.

Professional work

Poot is a

self-employed Self-employment is the state of working for oneself rather than an employer. Tax authorities will generally view a person as self-employed if the person chooses to be recognised as such or if the person is generating income for which a tax return ...

computer programmer, focusing on medical and education software. He has previously worked as a physician.

Political activities

When he was younger, Poot was a member of the Jongerenorganisatie Vrijheid en Democratie (JOVD), the youth organization of the main Dutch conservative party, the

People's Party for Freedom and Democracy The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy ( , VVD) is a Conservative liberalism, conservative-liberal List of political parties in the Netherlands, political party in the Netherlands. The VVD, whose forerunner was the Freedom Party (Netherl ...

(VVD). He has been blogging about democracy, privacy, and medical issues since 2005. He has written about collection and storage of sensitive information in government databases, in particular the

Electronic Patient Record An electronic health record (EHR) is the systematized collection of electronically stored patient and population health information in a digital format. These records can be shared across different health care settings. Records are shared thro ...

(EPR).

Dutch Pirate Party

Poot has been active with the Pirate Party since late 2009. He joined the party after discovering it through

IRC IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is a text-based chat system for instant messaging. IRC is designed for group communication in discussion forums, called '' channels'', but also allows one-on-one communication via private messages as well as chat ...

while blogging about

Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a plurilateral agreement, multilateral treaty for the purpose of establishing international standards for intellectual property rights enforcement that did not enter into force. The agreement ai ...

. He was fourth on the list for the Pirate Party in the 2010 Dutch parliamentary elections. Since 2011, he has been a member of the board of the Dutch Pirate Party, and the board's spokesperson since December 2011. In the 2012 parliamentary elections in the Netherlands, he was the first candidate of the Dutch Pirate Party.

References

External links

Dirk Poot's bio on Dutch Pirate Party website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Poot, Dirk 1968 births Living people Pirate Party (Netherlands) politicians Dutch computer programmers Politicians from Utrecht (city)