Mark Spencer (born April 8, 1977) is an American

computer engineer Computer engineering (CE, CoE, or CpE) is a branch of engineering specialized in developing computer hardware and software. It integrates several fields of electrical engineering, electronics engineering and computer science. Computer engine ...

and is the original author of the

GTK+ GTK (formerly GIMP ToolKit and GTK+) is a free software cross-platform widget toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces (GUIs). It is licensed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License, allowing both free and proprietary s ...

-based instant messaging client Gaim (which has since been renamed to

Pidgin A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified form of contact language that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn f ...

), the L2TP

daemon A demon is a malevolent supernatural being, evil spirit or fiend in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology and folklore. Demon, daemon or dæmon may also refer to: Entertainment Fictional entities * Daemon (G.I. Joe), a character ...

l2tpd and the Cheops Network User Interface. Mark Spencer is also the creator of

Asterisk The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

, a

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

-based open-sourced PBX. He is the founder, chairman and CTO of

Digium Digium, Inc. is a communications technology company based in Huntsville, Alabama, and since 2018, a subsidiary of Sangoma Technologies Corporation. The company makes VoIP business phone systems, IP phones, and hardware products. It was founded ...

, an open-source telecommunications supplier most notable for its development and sponsorship of Asterisk. Spencer shifted from

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

to chairman and CTO in early 2007.

Early life

Spencer was born and raised in Auburn,

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

. He attended Auburn University where both his parents were professors. In high school, he was mentored by another Auburn professor, Thaddeus Roppel, and Mark Smith, co-founder of Adtran.

Career

As a computer engineering major at

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 26,800 undergraduate students, over 6,100 post-graduate students, and a tota ...

, Mark was the original author of the GTK+-based instant messaging client Gaim (which has since been renamed to Pidgin), the L2TP daemon l2tpd and the Cheops Network User Interface. He also co-oped at Huntsville-based networking and telecommunications corporation Adtran, and started a Linux technical support business. Unable to afford a PBX for his new company, he created the Asterisk™ Linux-based open-source PBX and founded

Inc, an open-source telecommunications supplier. Mark served as CEO, Chairman, and CTO as Digium and Asterisk spearheaded the global telecom revolution that allowed businesses and developers to build affordable, scalable communication systems without the need for expensive proprietary hardware or software, including Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) solutions. Today Asterisk continues to be the world’s leading open-source framework for integrating real-time, multi-protocol communications applications. When Digium was sold in 2018, Mark focused his software skills on the aviation industry. As an FAA-certified air transport pilot, Mark knew that aerospace avionics suffered some of the same oligopolistic problems that had plagued telecom: reduced competition, high costs, and high barriers to entry. Mark founde
Avilution, LLC
to create Android apps including QuickWeather and AviationMaps. AviationMaps was later spun off to FlightPro, then DroidEFB. Adapting a similar strategy as Asterisk, he developed the eXtensible Flight System (XFS), a modular open-system avionics software architecture. XFS has integrated whole avionics suites in civil light aircraft such as the Zenith CH750, customized flight test instrumentation in developmental eVTOLs such as the Beta Technologies Ava XC technology demonstrator, and contributed to an FAA-approved supplemental type certificate for integrating a replacement air data computer into the popular Eclipse 500 light business jet. Since 2020 the U.S. Dept of Defense has become Avilution’s largest customer, as XFS has proven an ideal framework for implementing modular open-system approaches (MOSA) to achieve higher interoperability, faster upgrades, and lower costs for military avionics and mission systems. In 2023, Avilution received the DoD MOSA Summit Innovation Challenge Award for “innovation with the potential to solve our nation’s most critical MOSA challenges.” In 2024, Mark Spencer and others authored a paper, “Avilution’s eXtensible Flight System (XFS)–Making Modular Open-System Approaches Practical”, selected for both ''Best in Session'' for Modular Open Systems Approach
MOSA
and ''Best in Track'' for Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA). In addition to that, Avilution was also honored to be further selected for Third Place in the overall ''Best of Conference'' awards for the best of the 235 academic papers submitted to the 2024 Digital Avionics Systems Conference.

References

External links

Mark Spencer's previous homepage
(copies at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

)
Interview with Mark Spencer
at OSDir.com * at CNet
Linux Link Tech Show interview (audio), 2005 Global open source enthusiasts interview Mark Spencer December 2009News story regarding changing roles at Digium
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spencer, Mark 1977 births Living people People from Huntsville, Alabama Free software programmers Auburn High School (Alabama) alumni Auburn University alumni Asterisk (PBX)