1. Who is Eric S. Raymond

Eric Steven Raymond (also known as ESR) is a software engineer, consultant and writer.
He became famous after writing the essay "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" which was since then updated and followed up by other essays.
He is considered one of the most prominent leaders of the Open-Source/Free Software movement.
Some of the other interesting things by him are: the How to Become a Hacker FAQ, How to Ask Smart Questions, Software Release Practice HOWTO (how to launch a successful open-source project), and the HTML Hell Page.