A Sampling of Our Talent

San Francisco, CA Wolfram A

C++, Linux, Ruby, Ajax, JavaScript, Rails, OOP, Design Patterns, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Scrum Project Management, Agile, Selenium, Project Management

Wolfram Arnold, Ph.D. is a seasoned software professional with 17 years of experience and has been working on consumer web applications in Ruby-on-Rails since 2006. He has co-founded RubyFocus, a Ruby-on-Rails consulting and recruiting firm where he engages in his passion of championing viable, and long-term sustainable software development practices for his clients, including TDD/BDD (test-driven development), Rails best practices & conventions, performance profiling and scalability optimization.

Wolf learned the ropes on Rails while working on a project at Pivotal Labs in the winter of 2006/07 and has been an active member of the Rails community ever since. Prior to discovering Rails, Wolf was working in C++ on commercial server applications in Silicon Valley and, before that, on high-performance numerical simulations in solid state physics at Los Alamos National Lab and the University of Oregon. He holds a Ph.D. in physics and used to teach undergraduate physics classes as a graduate student.

Wolf speaks English, German, French and Spanish and currently lives in San Francisco.

San Francisco, CA Gabrielle B

Scrum Project Management, Agile

Cottage Grove, MN Daniel B

Java, XML, Apache, Tomcat, UML, C++, C, JavaEE, Ajax, XSL, JavaScript, Struts, Spring, Hibernate, Web Services, Eclipse IDE, Servlets and JSPs, Ant, CSS, HTML, OOP, Design Patterns, C#, WebSphere, SOA, SQL, AWT, Swing

Newport Beach, CA John B

HTML

John Bergmans is an experienced speaker who has performed technical presentations on topics as varied as LabVIEW programming techniques, solid rocket motor control and laser-based instrumentation. Bergmans Mechatronics LLC, established in 2003, primarily develops data acquisition and control system hardware and software and specialized instrumentation. BML’s client base includes firms in the industrial, medical, scientific, and defense sectors.

John’s interest in networked computing stems from the development of several TCP/IP-based data acquisition and control systems. During the development of a prototype web-based personal scheduling application, Mr. Bergmans encountered and became proficient in the setup and development of WebSocket-based applications.

Robert B

SQL Database

San Francisco, CA Marat B

Java, C++, C, Linux, Eclipse IDE, Ant, HTML, OOP, Design Patterns, Windows, AWT, Swing, SWT, Eclipse RCP, Agile

Mill Valley, CA Adam B

Java, XML, JBoss, Apache, Tomcat, UML, C++, C, JavaEE, Linux, Ruby, Ajax, Adobe Flash, JavaScript, Hibernate, Web Services, Eclipse IDE, JBuilder, Servlets and JSPs, J2ME, NetBeans, Ant, CSS, HTML, Rails, OOP, Design Patterns, C#, Windows, MySQL, PostgreSQL, IIS, .Net, SOA, Adobe Flex, SQL, AWT, Swing, Agile

San Francisco, CA Aaron B

Java, PHP, Perl, XML, Apache, UML, C++, C, Linux, Ajax, XSL, JavaScript, Web Services, CSS, HTML, OOP, Design Patterns, Windows, Mac OS X, MySQL, SQL

Dublin, CA Jason B

Java, Perl, Apache, Tomcat, UML, JavaEE, Linux, Ajax, JavaScript, Struts, Servlets and JSPs, Ant, HTML, OOP, Solaris, MySQL, SQL

Toronto, ON Marc B

Java, PHP, Perl, XML, Tomcat, UML, C++, C, JavaEE, Linux, Ruby, Ajax, XSL, JavaScript, Web Services, Eclipse IDE, JBuilder, Servlets and JSPs, JSF, J2ME, NetBeans, Ant, CSS, HTML, Rails, OOP, Design Patterns, C#, MySQL, SQL

Malmo, Skane Velibor C

C, Linux, Objective-C, Asterisk, Android

Velibor Cakarevic has more than 10 years of professional experience within embedded systems. He is experienced in both implementation of code and more high-level software architecture issues. During his whole career Velibor has mostly been engaged in development of real-time software for embedded systems and other technical programming, where special constraints concerning execution speed, available memory, and other hardware related issues are common. He has been working as a consultant for Ericsson, Toshiba, NEC, Sagem among others. Projects that he has been involved in are porting Google Android to ARM processor architecture, adding device driver modules to Android/Linux kernel, writing device drivers for RFID and 3D-axis modules. Velibor has also performed system design of Application Lifecycle management for application modules running on OSE integrated with LiMo and Android environment. He has ported software running in simulator on PC to ARM target using hardware assisted debug tools. Velibor Cakarevic obtained his Master of Science in Electrical Engineering Degree from Lund University, Faculty of Engineering in Sweden. He lives in Malmö, Sweden.

Portland, OR Michael C

Java, XML, JBoss, Tomcat, C++, JavaEE, Linux, Ajax, XSL, Struts, Spring, Hibernate, Web Services, Eclipse IDE, Servlets and JSPs, JSF, NetBeans, Ant, HTML, OOP, Design Patterns, C#, MySQL, SOA, SQL, AWT, Swing, Scrum Project Management, Agile

Andrew D

Python

Julien D

Glen Gardner, NJ Faber F

Perl, Linux, MySQL, SQL

Atlantic City, FL Obie F

Ruby

Tempe, AZ Martin F

Java, JBoss, Apache, Tomcat, JavaEE

San Francisco, CA Aleksandar G

Java, PHP, XML, JBoss, Apache, Tomcat, JavaEE, Linux, Ajax, XSL, Struts, Spring, Hibernate, Eclipse IDE, Servlets and JSPs, JSF, Ant, CSS, HTML, OOP, Design Patterns, Solaris, Windows, Mac OS X, MySQL

Aleksandar (Saša) Gargenta is the technology brains at Marakana. Always on top of the latest in software, Aleksandar is company's radar for technology that matters.

Aleksandar is the author of Marakana's Java, Advanced Java, Spring/Hibernate, JBoss, Apache, XML/XSL, and JUnit/TestNG training courses. Phew. And if that's not enough, he's also the chief architect of Marakana Spark, the on-demand software platform that powers marakana.com and a number of other training companies. As an instructor he's taught hundreds of classes for everyone from Apple to Disney, from NASA to the Department of Defense.

In his spare time Aleksandar runs the San Francisco Java and the San Francisco Android User Groups with over a thousand members between the two.

San Francisco, CA Marko G

Java, PHP, XML, Apache, JavaEE, Ajax, XSL, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, OOP, Objective-C, MySQL, SQL, AWT, Swing, Scrum Project Management, Agile, Android, Spark

Marko founded Marakana back in 2001 to help underprivileged youth, minorities, and inner-city kids learn web technologies and get ahead in life. So Marakana emerged with goal of helping people get better at what they do professionally, focused on open source software training.

Learning Android by O'Reilly Marko is the developer of Marakana Android Training series. He has taught Android for companies such as Sony-Ericsson, Qualcomm, Ericsson Canada, and many others. Marko is a co-founder of San Francisco Android Users Group and regularly teaches Android Bootcamp at Marakana.

Marko is author of upcoming Learning Android book published by O'Reilly Media. This book is based on Android Bootcamp and incorporates best learning practices for new developers to start creating applications for this exciting open source mobile platform.

In 2006 Marko Gargenta published "PHP and MySQL By Example", a collection on PHP examples. The book was published by Prentice Hall, world's largest technology publisher and has been also translated to Spanish.

Marko Gargenta obtained his Bachelor of Mathematics Degree from University of Waterloo (Canada's MIT) and has been developing in Java since 1996. He lives in San Francisco, California.

Speaking Engagements

Mesa, AZ Anthony G

PHP, CSS, HTML, OOP, Mac OS X, MySQL

San Francisco, CA Ruven H

Java, PHP, Ajax, JavaScript, Eclipse IDE, Servlets and JSPs, CSS, HTML

Toronto, Ontario Srdjan H

SQL, Qt, SQLite

Igor I

Java

Kunal J

Java, Tomcat, JavaEE, Spring, Hibernate, Servlets and JSPs, HTML, GWT

Kunal Jaggi is an rock-star Java consultant, trainer and author. He primarily focuses on enterprise solutions with Java-based Web technologies.

Kunal is the author of SCWCD Exam Guide with Java EE 5, published by McGraw-Hill. His second book on IBM WebSphere MQ is slated to be published by June 2010. Kunal has been into IT journalism for over two years, and contributed over 50 articles on Java SE and EE platforms in leading IT magazines, namely PC Quest and Developer IQ. Kunal has also written for Sun Microsystems Developer Network (SDN) and O’Reilly’s OnJava.com. In the recent past, Kunal has done product endorsements for industry heavyweights like Oracle BEA Systems and Agitar Software.

Passionate about technology, Kunal supports Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) that fosters collaboration and innovation, which he promotes through numerous speaking engagements in the San Francisco bay area. He has evangelized about upcoming Java technologies at local Java user groups, IBM Center of Competency (CoC), Wells Fargo, Sun Life Financial, Sapient, HCL Technologies, BirlaSoft, and other organizations.

Kunal is a Sun Certified Java Programmer (SCJP) and Web Component Developer (SCWCD). He holds a bachelors and masters in Computer Applications degree, and HND in computing from EdExcel International, UK. His current area of focus is evangelizing Google Web Toolkit, AJAX technologies, cloud computing, SOA and implementing SOA applications with IBM WebSphere MQ and Message Broker. When not programming, Kunal can be seen reading fiction and watching action movies.

Holland, MI Brandon K

Ruby, Rails

Brandon joined Collective Idea in 2006 as a refugee from “Enterprise” Java development. Since drinking the Ruby kool-aid1, he has become a widely-read blogger and valuable member of the community while contributing to (and beginning) several open source projects.

In his free time, you'll find Brandon with headphones in his ears grooving to a cool band that Daniel introduced him to, while hacking on some random piece of code that he's excited about2, playing with Linux, or, to relieve the screen burn, playing tennis with his wife.

Stephen K

Stephen Kochan is one of the most acclaimed iPhone and Objective-C instructors in the U.S. today. In addition to writing Programming in Objective-C and Programming in Objective-C 2.0, Stephen Kochan is the author and co-author of 10 bestselling books on the C language—including Programming in C (which has sold over 1 million copies), Programming in ANSI C, Topics in C Programming—and on Unix, including Exploring the Unix System and Unix Shell Programming. He has been programming on Macintosh computers since the introduction of the first Mac in 1984 and wrote Programming C for the Mac as part of the Apple Press Library and Beginning AppleScript as part of the Wrox Programmer to Programmer series for Jon Wiley.

Mr. Kochan spent several years working at AT&T Bell Laboratories. While he was there, he worked on performance measurement tools and developed and taught courses in C programming and the Unix System.

Founded and managed the growth of a software company from its inception throughits acquisition; Directly responsible for a staff of 45 employees, consisting of 35 engineers.
Provided technical management for the development of large graphics programming systems; Ported proprietary operating systems and large graphics software applications to embedded platforms
Author/co-author of ten bestselling books on UNIX, C and Objective-C programming. Programming in Objective-C 2.0 is the #1 bestselling title on the iPhone development language.
Over 20 years training experience in Objective-C, C, shell, and Unix, including through live webcasts.
Experience with many different development environments, from MS-DOS and Windows to Mac OS X and embedded operating systems; developed websites using HTML, SQL, and Cold Fusion MX

San Francisco, CA Felipe L

Java, PHP, Perl, XML, JBoss, Apache, Tomcat, UML, C++, C, JavaEE, Linux, Ajax, JavaScript, Struts, Spring, Hibernate, Web Services, Eclipse IDE, Servlets and JSPs, JSF, NetBeans, Ant, Maven, HTML, OOP, Design Patterns, Solaris, Mac OS X, MySQL, Oracle DB, PostgreSQL, SQL, Agile

Andre L

Ruby, Rails

Stamford, CT Kito M

Java, JavaEE, Hibernate, Servlets and JSPs, JSF, Ant

Berkeley, CA Roger M

Apache, Tomcat, Linux, Solaris, Asterisk

Alex M

Apache, Linux, MySQL, PostgreSQL

Holland, MI Daniel M

Ruby, CSS, HTML, Rails, Mac OS X, Agile

With a background in Computer Science, there's a good chance Daniel will start rambling on about Merge Sorts or Big Oh calculations. If you leave him alone, however, his fascination with code, databases, and APIs will kick in and he'll start programming.

Daniel founded Collective Idea in 2005 to put a name to his growing, and already full-time freelance work. He can usually be found (coffee in hand) staring into a tiny 15" digital world. He writes about code and other uninteresting things on his blog.