Colin Watson

Colin Watson (cjwatson) is a Belfast-born, Cambridge-based free software developer. He represented Ireland at the International Olympiad in Informatics in 1996 (bronze medal) and 1997, then became a Debian Developer in 2001, taking over maintenance of man-db and working on debian-installer. He joined Canonical in 2004, leading the Ubuntu Foundations team until 2014 and later serving as Launchpad architect, before leaving in 2023 to become an independent consultant as Director of Columbiform Ltd., mainly collaborating with Freexian and driving Debusine, its Debian software factory.

Notes5

• Competed for Ireland at the International Olympiad in Informatics in 1996, winning a bronze medal (final results list, rank 101 with 88 points); identification is anchored by his own CV stating he was twice a member of Ireland's IOI team.Aug 2, 1996
• Worked full-time at Canonical (Ubuntu/Launchpad) from 2004, then left to become self-employed, now mainly working with Freexian.2025
• Has been a Debian Developer since 2001-02-05 and maintains man-db, taking it over after Fabrizio Polacco's death — a role held for over two decades, making him one of the project's longer-tenured maintainers.Feb 5, 2001
• Contested IOI for Ireland again in 1997 (per IOI statistics page), confirming the 'twice a member of Ireland's IOI team' claim on his CV.1997