OpenSourcery

OpenSourcery is happy to announce the addition of Senior Software Engineer Michael Schwern. Michael, known as Schwern in his various communities, is among the top Perl developers in the world. His contributions are numerous and groundbreaking, including Test::More (the foundation upon which hundreds of Perl testing modules are written), y2038 Project, Class::Accessor, ExtUtils::MakeMaker, and Class::DBI.

To date, Michael has contributed over 50 Perl modules. At OpenSourcery he will lend his expertise to a variety of development projects, and play an active role in our Agile development process, application development, and commitment to core code contribution.

Welcome to the team, Schwern.

When Jackie Scherer joined the team two weeks ago, OpenSourcery grew by one very talented, very sharp designer. We knew Jackie would bring a high level of professionalism to our design process, but we didn't know how integral she would be to the first projects she touched. Within two weeks, Jackie has already designed the initial information/landing page for Clove (our open source client contact meter), created OpenSourcery's full-page sponsor advertisement for the Nonprofit Technology Conference guide, acclimated herself to our agile development methods, and emerged as a great person to have around the office. We're very happy to welcome her to the team.

Here's a little more about what Jackie adds to OpenSourcery. Look for her bio page soon, pending our next photo shoot:

"Jackie Scherer brings a mixture of creative and technical skills to her role at OpenSourcery, including web design and development, interactive project management, and web marketing. She is involved in Portland's User Experience community, serving on the Executive Council for Computer-Human Interaction Forum of Oregon (CHIFOO). In addition to her passion for User Experience, she enjoys utilizing her skills to help local nonprofit organizations maximize their potentials.

"As User Experience Designer at Open Sourcery, Jackie will help clients successfully integrate positive user experiences into web applications, acting as a user advocate through the design and development process. She is excited to collaborate with a team of Open Source experts to bring usable, Open Source applications to socially conscious businesses and nonprofits.

"Outside of work, Jackie is a singer/songwriter and enjoys skiing, yoga, and anything in the outdoors. She also loves working with children and has held long-term volunteer positions for children's organizations like Big Brothers Big Sisters and Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA)."

We look forward to developing many exciting projects with you, Jackie.

Thank you for reading.

Zack Hobson has been such a stalwart on OpenSourcery Rails projects that he's been promoted to Lead Rails Developer, effective immediately. We're fortunate to have someone of Zack's talent and temperament on the team, and he's shown true leadership on every project he's touched. The most recent examples include his work with CCHIT and a handful of still-too-sensitive to announce startup projects.

Congratulations, Zack!

It's official. Having outgrown our office on SE Ankeny, OpenSourcery has moved to an incredible building at NW 16th and Lovejoy that's big and beautiful and everything a local development company could want.

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For a while now we've been growing at a pace of nearly one full-time employee per month by bringing on a diverse array of new work. Since 2004, OpenSourcery has outgrown three buildings, starting with a tiny, sustainably built "shed" in Southeast Portland. We quickly burst out of the second building and then spent a good year at 711 Ankeny, where we remained until our developers were working in decidedly too-close quarters. In the Lovejoy Building we've found a home that will accommodate our continued growth. And the space is simply beautiful.

OpenSourcery shares the Lovejoy Building with Opsis Architecture, who renovated the entire structure to gain LEED Gold certification. As Opsis states on their website, "Every portion of the...building was designed to maximize sustainability." To learn more about the incredible systems at play in the Lovejoy Building, peruse our website and learn about OpenSourcery's sustainable practices.

We look forward to hosting even more community events in our new space. 1636 NW Lovejoy is conveniently located on the Streetcar line, it's extremely bike-friendly (over half of our team rides to work most days, so we take full advantage of the indoor bike parking), and it's in a great neighborhood.

We look forward to seeing you in our new space.

We've been looking forward to welcoming Stacy Watts to our team for some time, and over the past few weeks she has transitioned successfully into a number of important roles here at OpenSourcery.

Stacy wears several important hats here, including the crucial role of training our Drupal clients on all aspects of their new CMS. She's also an incredible advocate for elementalClinic. Her enthusiasm is contagious.

A few words from her bio:

"Stacy brings a love of teaching and learning to the team. She translates regularly between what the technical world says and what the rest of the world wants to understand about open source and technology in general. She also brings a solid desire to break software to make it more friendly for the end user.

"Stacy learned about OpenSourcery through her exposure to elementalClinic. She has worked with the application over the years and firmly believes it to be a fantastic product. What really piqued her interest in working here is the community vibe that OpenSourcery only does excellent work."

Welcome to the team, Stacy.

We are happy to announce that yet another amazing individual has joined OpenSourcery. Last week, we welcomed Zack Hobson to our growing development team.

Zack's 10-year career has focused primarily on backend web development in Perl and Ruby. He's very enthusiastic about the opportunities that Ruby on Rails represents for the future of web development, and has a particular interest in finding ways to improve Ruby on Rails going forward.

We're excited for Zack to work on the custom applications OpenSourcery is creating for some of the Northwest's most innovative companies. His creativity and experience add another element to our team, which has become a truly world-class group of individuals. Welcome, Zack.

Sorry Dylan and Chris, you've lost your status as newest members of OpenSourcery. Hans Dieter Pearcey (Dieter to us), who has been working his way toward the Portland office for weeks now, has officially arrived. He may or may not be sleeping on an air mattress at home, surrounded by unpacked boxes, but here at least there's a comfortable chair, a module desk, and plenty of work to be done. We're excited to have him on the premises. You can check his bio HERE.

Marcus Estes joins OpenSourcery as the newest member of our Sales and Business Development team. Marcus comes to Open Sourcery after working with Tables Turned, a start-up that he founded to service non-commercial broadcasters with freely licensed music for podcasts and internet radio. He also served on the board of directors for Portland, Oregon's Cable Access station and has contributed web expertise to a number of non-profit organizations. In 2007 he helped launch WFMU's Free Music Archive project, a social software and licensing website that aims to help save internet radio by lowering royalty payments for non-commercial radio stations.

In related news, our team has grown to the point that we must move. Yes, the friendly confines of Ankeny served us well, with it's beautiful exposed concrete walls and airy feel, but there's simply not enough space. Being a democratic institution, we're currently undergoing an internal vote-fueled process of selecting the next office. Of primary important: bike friendliness, caffeine proximity and food. We need food.

Look for the new spot to feature events, host open source technology demos and, in my dream world, be graced with revolving shows by local artists.

Thanks for reading.