Svilen Dobrev ... making software - for people, by people

g'day.

i've been making software for last 20+ years, on 3 continents, as projects of all sizes and levels of impossibility. Seen many different terminals, languages, designs, projects, customers, teams, organisations and cultures, and have met even more different attitudes .

So i found that the more interesting and difficult part is ... the people, while all the technicalities are somehow solvable. Software is just a limited and twisted way of storing and communicating knowledge between people , through space and time - and it's people who cause anything. Making software is a chain game of cooperation , an exercise in correct thinking, where all the participants are actually translators - and Trust is the most important feature (and misinterpretation and mistrust are most common trouble makers).

And i found i can successfully mediate between the extremes, western and eastern thinking, technical & applicational, experts & newbies, gears & art, real & virtual. i put passion in and care for my work, and i do trust people... and thus weigh them.

So.. i make (software) projects from ideas, people and software. Be it possible or not, regardless what's to change - software, organisation, people, or.. me. Because life is change.

i love idea-generating, nice software (in- and outside), mentoring, team making, steep changes, cultural diversity, organisational building. i can help efficiently make effective software, and tune community and culture to allow it.

i dream about a language centered around notions, interpretations and dependencies.. and alternativity. One that allows adding more notions, implementations, interpretations and protocols. Python is a good start.. but needs much more on top. A language bridging all/any paradigms - procedural, functional, event-driven, predicates, types, static, dynamic, .. and that can talk in patterns. So one can go think about real issues at hand. yeah.

Hands-on software advisor, CTO, mentor, architect... consult, coach, lead, invent, design, code... and all else.
An Impossible Dream project? What about?

More about me, software and Life at www.svilendobrev.com . Or dare read the brisk intro...

Personals

1970 Bulgarian,family+kids; sworn non-smoke mountaineer

Fluent Bulgarian, Russian, English

Living in Varna; Bulgarian and Australian citizenship

Specialties and interests

- python, sql/alchemy, rdf, sparql, django, flask, java/android, C/C++; 20+more languages: php perl make sh; linux; xml html javascript css; OOP, functional, event- rule- dependency- driven, markup, behavioral, soap.. asm?

- DevOps? didn't know the word.. it's local culture here.. Get job done, and be part of it, software or hardware, architectural ideas or fixing dripping pipes or linux-drivers or mysql encoding, legal paperwork or teaching how to code, or negotiating team-housing.. it's all one jazz.

- design of languages; using general languages as carriers of higher-level app/domain ones; generating code; self-interpreting objects; grammars, compilers, interpreters, virtual machines; interfaces protocols frameworks aspects

- modelling, info- / system architecture, flows, user interaction, usability, efficiency + effectiveness, optimisation, semantical relations; bi-temporal data + code, persistency, databases;

- graphics, maps+image processing; sync/async threads/ networking, access control; protections; licenses; digital signatures-smartcards; www as runtime env - cloud services replace libraries; apache

- requirements + usability engineering, use-cases; reverse engineering; testing; lifecycles, project management, estimation, negotiation; configuration management

- methodology, agile CrystalClear, CMMi/formal process; team-nurturing, cultural differences, mental gears; organizational patterns+health; outsourcing + distributed global development; search + anonymity; doco workflows

- the team as live, self-tuning instrument for translating human knowledge into software form; proximity and communication patterns, de-hierachization

- artistic design and layout; apply knowledge across fields

- reflecting, exchange ideas, DIY, learning & teaching

- caring about what i do.

motto-s and thoughts

+ Find a friend to be your senses

+ One can't make decent tool/thing if has never been user of it

+ If you make something usable by idiots, only idiots will use it

+ Languages are tools. Make them if none is suitable

+ Association is a great thing - trust your common intuitional sense

+ Software is actually about people, not about machines

+ Trust is the essence of software. Machines trust 100%, at other end people just don't. How much trust or distrust u can handle?

+ www-web makes the global village - so everything and everyone is at near-zero "distance". But NEVER zero. And sometimes one needs just that - a warm touch - or good kick...

+ IMO, with time, places change people. Other way happens noticeably only while coming in or switching on.

+ Development and Business are on both sides of a wall called Users. Drilling across is not easy, but getting the cable through by only pushing or pulling also does not work.. do it together.

Experience

hands-on Development lead/ CTO/ all-thats-needed, Woosha.it; 2010-... - risk-it-all startup, Amsterdam+Varna

* redefine Search+decision as paradigms in human terms.. philosophy, mentoring.. coding. 2-4-6 ppl, 2 sites

- Notionery.com: wild idea- software Garden to grow your personal notions - remember, learn, express yourself, in your own terms - and translate to all else. Far fetched ?

- BrightBird.com - movie search and notification social service. Match different metadata sources, and user patterns. Launch-2012 (python, client API, ruby, 6ppl)

- moodyTV: content-discovery platform, clients on android, web, desktop; profiling (aprico), manual filtering. shown at IBC2010 (2ppl, java+python)

owner, Svilen Dobrev Consulting; 2008-... - freelance advisor, methodologist, architect, programmer

- 2011- smok.sf.net - python clone in my/your language. So kids and people keep their notions.. and not englishize

- hand-coding my site and the records' library on it, and kids-accessible media library at home

- 2009 - mercenary at Wyplay.com, Marseille. UI-engine, python, embedded; 'bit extreme independence- Viva la liberte! yeah but less communication, software ain't edible.

- CSend'2009 for bozosoft.biz: end-user client for customs.bg B2B system: sign and exchange flow-documents; python-soap-XML-smartcards, Windows.

- reporter, dbcook.sf.net - python-based languages for abstract description of reports and DB-schemas; like MVC views - rendering into (pdf,xls,html,..) and (sqlalchemy or non-sql)

linuxteam leader, SIStechnology.com; 2003-2008 - linux+outsourcing team/department leader, architect, methodologist, manager, mentor,... programmer

- HOR - Human Resources +payroll management system, enterprise, 90Kloc python, sql, 8people 2.5+years; replacing long legacies. Represents an ever-changing, very complex/entangled reality+relations, life-expectancy 10 years - max flexibility , hierarchical notions, bitemporal code and data, business languages, dbcook. Leading ... Agile Crystal-Clear methodology; manage requirements; mentor, manage, restructure everything; fight ...

- STC- Singapore Turf Club's betting terminals+kiosks renovation - "big-money" global outsourcing effort; our end-user-app: 130kloc C++, 15kloc python, 6people, 2+years; being core dev, architect, team leader/manager, all relations to other 3 teams - WN-Konstanz, WN-Singapore, STC; difficult cultural mix/communication. Psychologically the most difficult and most rewarding project so far - hey i made a Team, survived crossing 4 cultures, and "end-users said they like your software"! >1000 machines are live now.

* resurrected trust in company for outsourcing from WincorNixdorf and covered all relations thereof. Study of organisational culture and workflows

* built and lead successful united self-organising team/culture - trust, responsibility & self-discipline

* teach fresh grads into top-devs, Product Manager into Business Analyst; train client devs at STC onsite

senior sw engineer, Vintech (again), Bulgaria; 2002-2003

- topologic parametric modelling + control of mechanical technology - in CAM/CAE plant system

- graphical 2D backend API from python into C++

- cassowarypy - Cassowary constraint solver into python

senior software analyst, Petrosys, Adelaide, Australia; 2000-2002 - small, fast company (geophysical maps)

- drawing framework - 2D hierarchy, polygon-processing

- visualize map-data from arcinfo SDE data source/ GIS

* some success in changing company culture - both as technologies and improved people communication

* first steps into organisational patterns

tech lead/ test lead, Motorola, Adelaide, Australia; 1999-2000 - EDA - multi-cultural env in huge global corp...

- make new compiler for analog/mixed-signal Verilog-A/AMS, merging and maintaining legacy compilers, testing all these and automate building

* tasting another language-culture-continent-society

* learning about software made industrially - "pipelines"+ CMM4, and teaching about software made efficiently

software engineer/consultant, Vintech, Varna, Bulgaria; 1997-1998 - small company in a narrow, chaotic market

- made Sceti / Finix - personalizable accounting system, in human terms and documents, own languages for report, templating and operations - fully user-programmable, 2-man show. Client's workflow re-engineering. Still used.

sysadmin/ software+accounting analyst, Biochim Bank; 1995-97 - strategical midsize branch of a big state bank

- software for accounting-scheme changeover (on-the-run-translation - all input and output)

- accounting sw - rule-based correctness, ledger conversions, workflow re-engineering, automate routines

- LAN maintenance - PCs, novell/dos/win/os2, clipper

lead programmer, Inmeco & Navel, Varna; 1992-1994 - small international companies, naval & military stuff

- Danube river map+radar - own GUI+map technology

- mobile large accurate digital maps: input/compress/view + end-user system; +radar/GPS; i386/penpad

- Missile-launcher simulator - 3D real-time simulation of combat for soldier training - real weapon, overhead wall projector, trainer's workplace; i486, 3ppl/3months (!)

* c/c++, asm, physics, graphics

publisher+programmer, 1992-93 - besides desktop publishing and design of books, papers, logos, art etc:

- initiate an informal DTP interest-group

- DTP software and fonts - reverse-fix-customize, create,.. make all that work in cyrillic... rev.engineering at its best

* hyphenation in bulgarian language

partner, Specialized Intelligent Systems, Varna 1990-92

- +2 schoolmates: accounting over modems, clipper, C, asm

Education

Technical university Varna (VMEI), 1986-1990

M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, special advancing course: the 5 years taken in 4, with twice more disciplines - all excellent

Mathematical High college - Varna (2 MG), 1983-1986

"advancing education" class of 4 students, 7 years taken in 4, gold medal, competitions

Some community projects

my open-source software: smok.sf.net, dbcook.sf.net, statictype, timed:bitemporal, SAaggregator, cassowarypy

repository of records and metadata of children's audio-theaters + fairytales on LPs- svilendobrev.com/detski/zvuk

do-it-yourself.. the machinery and site of mine, and home - svilendobrev.com/napravisam

helped starting varnalab.org hacker-space

Contacts

e-mail: az()svilendobrev _ com

site: www.svilendobrev.com

work, software and me: www.svilendobrev.com/rabota

about me (biography - cv - resume): brisk intro   linkedIn   printable/pdf   html