TITLE: Finding Null Space Basis over a Finite Field
QUESTION [5 upvotes]: I have more a systems background, but I have a math-y type question so I figured I'd give it a shot here...This is more of an implementation question, I don't need to prove anything at the moment.
I'm trying to find the basis of the null space over $\mathbb{F}_2^N$ for a given basis quickly and I was hoping someone here would know how. 
For example if I have the following basis in $\mathbb{F}_2^{16}$:
$$ 
\left( 
\begin{array}{cccccccccccccccc}
1 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 \\
0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 \\
0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 \\
0 & 0 & 1 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 1 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 1 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 1 & 1 \\
0 & 1 & 0 & 1 & 0 & 1 & 0 & 1 & 0 & 1 & 0 & 1 & 0 & 1 & 0 & 1 \\
\end{array} 
\right)
$$
How would I find the null space basis for this matrix?
If I put my basis into reduced row echelon form, I could find it easily, but for my particular problem I cannot do that. I know there are exhaustive search methods, but the matrices I'm dealing with can be quite large, which make those impractical.
BEGIN EDIT
@Neil de Beaudrap, It has to do with the fact that I am actually splitting up the vector space and using part of it for another purpose. If I change this matrix with elementary row operations and put it into reduced-row-echelon form it messes things up....
I am unfamiliar with column operations, could you explain in a bit more detail what you are talking about? Thanks!
END EDIT

REPLY [6 votes]: Your particular example has a simple answer. The subspace whose basis
is the rows of your matrix is called a first-order Reed-Muller code
of length 16, and its dual (null space) is the second-order Reed-Muller
code of length 16.  Denoting the rows by $1, x_1, x_2, x_3, x_4$ respectively,
the dual code has basis vectors that are 
$$1, x_1, x_2, x_3, x_4, x_1x_2, x_1x_3,
x_1x_4, x_2x_3, x_2x_4, x_3x_4$$ 
where $x_ix_j$ is the element-by-element product of the row vectors,
e.g. $x_1x_2=0000000000001111$ and $x_2x_3=0000001100000011$.
More generally, the dual of the first-order Reed-Muller code
of length $2^m$ is the $(m-2)^{\text{th}}$-order Reed-Muller
code of length $2^m$, also known as the extended Hamming
code of length $2^m$, and the basis vectors can be taken as all
the monomials of degree $m-2$ or less.
More generally, in $\mathbb F_2^n$, given a $k\times n$ matrix of
row rank $k$, express it in row-echelon form, interchange columns
and rows as needed to express the matrix in the form
$[I_{k\times k}\quad P]$
where $P$ is a ${k\times(n-k)}$ matrix.
The null space is spanned by $[P^T\quad I_{(n-k)\times(n-k)}]$. 
Now undo the column permutations to get the basis vectors
for the original problem. For vector spaces $\mathbb F_q^n$
where $q$ is not a power of $2$, use $-P^T$ instead of $P^T$.