Irish technology innovator has low profile but star qualities

There's an Irish technology figure who very rarely features in national newspapers and magazines here. Chances are most people haven't heard of him.

That's partly because he doesn't go around banging a big publicity drum on his own behalf. Every time I've heard him speak, and that's several times in the US in the past two years or so, he focuses on his organisation and the issues that drove its creation. Or he comments on current technology issues. He gets in a few good quips. Then he spends a lot of time talking to the people who come up afterwards. He comes across as incredibly modest, extremely thoughtful, generous with his time and very bright.

In every speech I've ever heard made by a politician, IDA Ireland or Enterprise Ireland officials about this technology-focused country or our home-grown technologists, I have never heard his name or his organisations mentioned - even though he has been very successful in driving his organisation, which has global reach, into places most companies never even venture; even though he is widely admired for his level-headed convictions and commitment to his organisation and its development; and even though many lives have been affected by his work.

I'm just as guilty. I've never interviewed him, although I've mentioned him once or twice in stories. For a while, when he was somewhat elusive and not widely interviewed, I tried to track him down through a mutual friend to do a profile - I had only just found out he was actually Irish and that made a nice angle for a piece. But the friend is one of those who always means to get back to you but never gets back to you at all. Alas! And then I kept forgetting to pursue the interview.

So I've never spoken to him but again meant to when he was here for a conference last weekend, and then I had to leave before getting the chance.

But as I heard him speak at the conference - not so much during his presentation, which was all of about five minutes, but as he took a stream of questions from the audience - I was yet again deeply impressed. He is very young, still in his 20s, yet responds with confidence, clarity and illumination.

He has that astonishing quality that very few in the tech industry have of not only avoiding jargon but of making complex technical (and in his case, social) ideas accessible and exciting. Given what his software does, he must tackle difficult questions about intent and implication but he has always done this directly and well. Indeed, I've never seen a mainstream chief executive handle tough and complex questions with similar honesty.

Here, I thought yet again, is someone who is just as important on the roster of home-grown technology successes as the usual list of Irish chief executives. And he's a good deal more impressive than a number of those we regularly genuflect towards.

But rather than fronting a Nasdaq company, he oversees the development of a software program that is freely available, worked on for free by teams of developers who believe in the program and what it does. And that's of course why he isn't better known, and why he isn't trotted out in all those tired speeches about Ireland Inc.

The person is Ian Clarke, who hails from Meath, and the program is Freenet, a free software download that lets people communicate or send information or files of all sorts anonymously. Yes, it can be used to exchange MP3 music files, which might rile those who have problems with Napster. But the program also allows people in repressive countries to send and receive information, or post to websites.

Freenet has no central hub where information is stored and no centralised management - indeed, no active management at all - which helps guarantee the anonymity of its users and the information they exchange.

The point of all this is not to go into the arguments on why Freenet and the ability to communicate anonymously is not just important but crucial to the development of a democratic world. It's more that, seeing Clarke speak at the Darklight Film Festival last Saturday in the IFC in Dublin, on a roster that included some other heavyweight, engaging speakers, I thought about how easily he holds his own in such situations.

Ian Clarke deserves a special place on the list of those Irish people, in any discipline, that are most valued. I think his perspective would be of great value as the country debates new legal frameworks to deal with digital - and developing world - issues. If you're interested in finding out more, search Google.com under his name, or visit http://freenet.sourceforge.net.

On an entirely more frivolous note, it's that time of year when Wired.com solicits nominations for its "vaporware of the year" award. Vaporware is software that promises much - most often, in PR superlatives and intense hype - but never actually ships. The industry is rife with it.

The list of previous winners is on the Wired.com site and always provides amusing reading, especially if it's the wee hours and you've been writing code for your company's own contribution to the genre.

Anyway, if you have a candidate in mind for this illustrious honour, send it in to vaporware@wired.com. Just keep in mind that the program cannot have been shipped, ever, although it's OK if it was widely available as a beta release or free, advance download. Oh yeah, we've all seen plenty of those.

klillington@irish-times.ie