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 technicals 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 of software is a chain game of cooperati on, an exercise in correct thinking, where all the participants are actually translators - and Trust is the most important feature.

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 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 with a notion of protocols, that allows adding new implementations and new protocols. One that can bridge procedural, functional, event-driven, predicates, types, static, dynamic etc paradigms/aspects. One that can talk in patterns and dependencies. 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, java/android, C/C++; 20+other languages: php asm perl make...; linux; xml html javascript; OOP, functional, event-/rule-/dependency- driven, markup, behavioral, soap/corba, ...

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

- modelling, architecture, flows, UI, usability, efficiency and effectiveness, optimisation, persistency/databases

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

- 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/ 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, exchanging ideas, DIY, learning & teaching

- caring about what i do.

motto-s

+ 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 and 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...

Experience

hands-on CTO, Woosha.it, 2010 - risk-it-all startup, Amsterdam+Varna

- redefining Search (and decisions) as paradigms in human terms... plenty of philosophy/psychology

- moodyTV - rich content-discovery platform, with EPG TVguide on android, with both automatic profiling (phillips' aprico) and full manual filtering, shown at IBC2010 (2ppl,5months,java+python)

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

- 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 document flows; python-SOAP-XML-smartcards, Windows.

- reporter, dbcook.sf.net - 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 language, dbcook. Leading ... Agile Crystal-Clear methodology; requirements; mentor, manage; restructure everything; fight ... cancelled at 90%.

- STC- Singapore Turf Club's betting terminals+kiosks renovation - "big-money" global outsourcing effort; our end-user-app: 130kC++, 15k scripts, 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

* built successful united self-organising team/culture

* taught some fresh grads into top-devs, a product manager into Business Analyst; 3 weeks training to STC onsite

* push a culture of trust, responsibility & self-discipline, and tools for it (wiki-trac-svn) into overall company

* study of organisational culture and workflows

senior sw engineer, Vintech, Bulgaria; 2002-2003 - same small company as below, trying another field

- 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/ software), worldwide

- 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, automate build + testing all these

* first time beyond iron curtain, another language-culture-continent, "noone in nowhere", tasting the new 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.

* most of my db/report/document/ui stuff stem from here

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, GUI, reversing dos extenders+compilers

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

- initiate an informal DTP city-group

- DTP software and tools - reverse-fix-customize, make-new

- fonts - reverse formats, localize, design; build a tool-chain

* made all that work in cyrillic... rev.engineering at its best

* hyphenation in .bg language

partner, Specialized Intelligent Systems, Varna 1990-92

- me + 2 schoolmates... trade, accounting, modems.. clipper, C, asm. Later one guy formed... SISTechnology.

Education

Technical university Varna (VMEI), 1986-1990

M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, special advancing course: Finished in 4 instead of 5 years, 5.71/6.00; twice more disciplines studied

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

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

Some community projects

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

a public repository+ full-relational wiki of children's audio-fairytales, from LPs etc - lookup "detski prikazki"

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