Peter Sayer

Peter Sayer is bureau chief for IDG News Service in Paris. His beat covers IT and telecommunications across Europe. He follows open source software and developments in intellectual property legislation and plans to write more about the environmental impact of computing.

Sayer has been reporting on European IT and networking for almost two decades, but in his first job in journalism, he wrote about architecture and the construction industry. Between 1996 and 1998, he edited two monthly magazines about mobile telecommunications and then went on to edit the telecommunications pages of CMP's Network Week, joining the News Service in 1999.

Aged 14 or so (his memory is hazy), Sayer won a programming contest run by British magazine Your Computer after editing his entry down from 14 lines of BASIC to just three densely-packed lines of code. His fascination with IT - and editing - had begun.

He holds a master’s degree in electronic systems from way back when ATM and GSM were but twinkles in the standards bodies' eyes. He is fluent in French and can get by in German and Italian, although he is most comfortable speaking his native British English.

Outside work, he enjoys cycling in and around Paris.