Charles McColm is the leader of a community-based computer refurbishing project. He got his start in computing, like many of his generation, on the Commodore 64. In 1983, Charles joined The Barrie User's Group, a Commodore computer club. Club members were open with their projects and code, something that would later inspire him to be a part of the free and open source movement.

Charles first started using Linux when his brother brought home a Slackware 96 CD. Initially, it was the large collection of communication software on the CD that attracted Charles' attention. Later, the free software philosophy and community were what influenced him the most.

Charles met Marcel Gagne, author of several Linux books, at the Kitchener Waterloo Linux User Group and later went on to review a couple of chapters of Marcel's Moving to Free Software before it went to press. Instant XBMC is Charles' first book.

Charles became interested in XBMC when he needed to find a better solution to the mass of CDs and DVDs spread throughout several rooms. His wife and son are much happier for it. They stream music and video to the TV connected server and use XBMC to entertain from time to time.