Hi, I'm Hendrik!

By day, I'm a PhD-Student in sociology, but at night I'm an Open Source contributor. I have been developing software since 2004, and in the past ~5 years I have made my software more publicly available, in part thanks to GitHub. My most notable contributions include the Zettlr Markdown editor and the well-known “Academics on Mastodon”-list after the Twitter-apocalypse. Besides that, I contribute to various projects depending on my free time.

In addition, I often write down my knowledge in the form of tutorials and guides that you can all read on my website. If you enjoy what I do, it would make me happy to have you as a sponsor!

As a Researcher and Open Source Contributor I participate in two of the last remaining economic areas which are reigned by the principle of Open Access: Science and Software. Both are guided by the normative principle that the results of either research or software development should be made freely available to anyone.

Neither knowledge nor software can be really “fenced in” – either because it is simply ideas, or because it can be copied ad infinitum without additional costs. Trying to sell either will always imply arbitrary borders that would not be necessary. I make all that I create in both knowledge and software accessible to everyone — irrespective of socio-economic status or geographical provenience.

However, software needs infrastructure around it and creating stuff and giving it away for free unfortunately does not pay server rent nor fees. My principle is based upon the belief that those who can afford to pay for Open Source co-sponsor those who cannot afford to pay: Students, working class families, and people during averse life-phases.