Hi,
Carsten and I didn't have to think hard about who we would dedicate the book
to and I would just like to repeat it here:
"Dedicated to the Cocoon community we are proud to be a part"
And I am really moved by the vote. Thanks.
Before I introduce myself properly, let me first say that I am well aware
that I am not "your traditional alpha-geek committer" - but it is my strong
feeling that there is more to a successful open source project than just
code – and Cocoon shines because it has a lot of that "right stuff".
And so in the spirit of true committers :-):
My name is Matthew Langham, I will turn 38 in December (which probably makes
me one of the oldest committers around :-)) and married with 3 children. I
was born in Faringdon, UK but have been living in Germany since 1976, so I
consider myself to be a true European :-). My first computing experience was
with a VIC20 and Apple II back in 1980-something.
During the past 20 odd years I have learnt and written code in PASCAL,
BASIC,
COBOL, C, C++, JAVA (in order of appearance) with some 6502 assembler thrown
in for good measure. (Anyone remember squeezing your own code into the
zero-page on the VIC20 – because there was some memory there you could use?
Ah well….times change).
I wrote my first book in 1993 (on UUCP and this new fad called "Email"), my
second together with Carsten last year (one of the Cocoon books) and have
also written a number of articles on Cocoon and other open source related
subjects. I also speak as often as possible at conferences and other
gettogethers :-).
I first came across Cocoon in 1999 when we were looking for a Java XML
framework to use inside projects and I then proposed forming an open source
group inside S&N, the software company I work for. Luckily I was able to
convince the company to do this (something which was certainly unorthodox
back then) and since then my role has shifted from coding to leading a small
group of enthusiastic colleagues in our crusade to convince commercial
entities to adopt open source (especially Cocoon) for what they are doing.
And (again luckily) with increasing success.
I think this is currently the most exiting time of my "IT-Life". Why?
Because after nearly 20 years of working in a very anonymous world - getting
involved with open source and the communities has opened my eyes in many
ways - especially about putting the "community" back into the software
business, And as we move into times where more and more emphasis is being
put on cost reduction, support for standards and code reuse – what better
place could there be than inside the Cocoon community.
(Sorry this got so long :-))
Matthew
--
Open Source Group Cocoon { Consulting, Training, Projects }
=================================================================
Matthew Langham, S&N AG, Klingenderstrasse 5, D-33100 Paderborn
Tel:+49-5251-1581-30 [EMAIL PROTECTED] - http://www.s-und-n.de
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Cocoon book:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735712352/needacake-20
Weblog:
http://radio.weblogs.com/0103021/
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