All posts by elisek

Meet the Team, Office Life

Meet the Team: Alison

Hello and welcome to our Meet the Team series, in which we aim to give you deeper insight into the minds and personalities of those who make up this eclectic, close-knit group. We are developers, marketers, and technical support engineers, and at work we craft everything from Microsoft reporting APIs to mobile email applications. And outside of work? Let’s just say racing against the machine during hackathons, building architecturally sound beer towers during retros, and paddling down the Charles during the warmer months are simply the beginning.

Say hello to Product Manager Alison – belovedly known as author of the Pitan the Pivot Mage series. When she’s not supplying delicious office treats, you can find her scrumming in Trello, pumping out Pitan posts, or answering your questions on the OfficeWriter Answers site.

1. What do you do?
That depends on which hat I’m wearing. On Monday, I write tutorials. On Tuesday, I shift to designing sales demo or web site content. By Wednesday I’m managing a product backlog. Thursday is all about answering technical support questions and writing sample code. I wrap it up on Friday with some PivotTable blog posts.

2. What are you listening to right now?
I’m oscillating between the action theme from Doctor Who and the opening to an anime, Aquarion Evol.

3. If you could build any app, what would it be and why?
I would definitely want to build a mobile app that could analyze a reference picture of a character and generate a list of color swatches from the images. On top of that, it would allow you to switch between ‘picture colors’ and ‘real life colors’. For example, a bright yellow in a cartoon image would correspond to a golden blonde in real life.

4. When you were 5 what did you want to be and why?
I wanted to be a marine biologist because that was the perquisite for training Orcas at Sea World.

5. If you were a beer what would you be and why?
Apple juice – because I don’t drink and no one would be able to tell the difference visually.

6. What is your favorite tech blog and why?
Contextures has all my answers when PivotTables stump me. Continue reading Meet the Team: Alison →

Office Life, Staff Picks

Staff Picks: Friday News You Ought to be Reading

Once a week I snoop around the office, bothering my coworkers with questions on what they’re reading, listening to, consuming, or any other random inquiries I’d like to subject them to. Sometimes they even respond.

The question:
 1. What did you read today?
 
The answers:

David, CEO

Time U.S. – Iraq: How the CIA Says it Blew it on Sadaam’s WMD

Claire, Marketing & Development Manager

New York Times – What Restaurants Know (About You)

Seth, Software Engineer
Stevesouders.com – Keys to a Fast Web App
 
Steve, Director of Sales
Gizmodo – Kindle Fire HD Hands On: Pretty Impressive for the Price
NBC News – CEO Says ‘Stupid’ Consumers Deserve Hefty Fees
 

Dan, VP of Operations

First Things – Good Grammar is Credibility

Harvard Business Review – I Won’t Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar

Continue reading Staff Picks: Friday News You Ought to be Reading →

Women In Tech

Stories from the WIT Trenches: Susann Luperfoy


[This is the tenth in a series of posts exploring the personal stories of real women in technology. Every woman in tech overcame, at the very least, statistical odds to be here; this blog series aims to find out why, and what they found along the way.  As Executive Director of UPOP, Susann Luperfoy (ln) equips MIT students for careers in STEM. With an impressive background in Artificial Intelligence and Akamai technologies, Luperfoy provides insight to how she got to where she is today and challenges she faced along the way. If reading her story inspires you to share yours, please email me.]

I’m Susann Luperfoy, a former research scientist and engineer in artificial intelligence who also worked on several startup companies as well as startup ventures inside established companies.  I now teach MIT undergraduates the skills they need to thrive and lead in STEM careers outside elite academia.

1. Can you take us back to your “eureka!” moment—a particular instance or event that got you interested in technology?

So many eureka moments: the first GUI (I was used to programing on ASCII terminals), the first demo of xMosaic and the worldwide web as an elegant replacement for FTP.  But the relevant answer to your question would be the moment I watched a social science major get promoted over an MIT grad who was not only vastly more qualified technically, but also more creative, more generous with his ideas and his time, harder working, more productive, better able to manage a project team, etc., however not interested in anything that sounded like management.  A string of such surprising experiences prepared me for teaching UPOP.

2. Growing up, did you have any preconceived perceptions of the tech world and the kinds of people who lived in it?

Growing up the plan was always to be a physician. (An engineer was someone who drove a steam train.)  But I loved technology from the start, anything that involved tools; fixing things and building things—cars, bicycles and custom designed clothes as a 5’11” teenager.  Tools and medicine: in some parallel universe I am now a happy surgeon.

3. As Executive Director of UPOP, what led you to this career path? When did you first start working with tech? Was it by choice?  

UPOP was never remotely in the plan, but so many experiences in the world of work prepared me for this position.  When UPOP was first conceived, I was still immersed in work as a research scientist and engineer in Artificial Intelligence.  When UPOP launched in 2002 I was busy in the Cambridge startup world. It was such a great program that I was happy to support it from the outside and eventually took it on full time. Continue reading Stories from the WIT Trenches: Susann Luperfoy →

Meet the Team, Office Life

Meet the Team: Paula

Hello and welcome to our Meet the Team series, in which we aim to give you deeper insight into the minds and personalities of those who make up this eclectic, close-knit group. We are developers, marketers, and technical support engineers, and at work we craft everything from Microsoft reporting APIs to mobile email applications. And outside of work? Let’s just say racing against the machine during hackathons, building architecturally sound beer towers during retros, and paddling down the Charles during the warmer months are simply the beginning.

Meet Paula – Our Talent Acquisition Manager (creator of Networking on PAR) with a knack for Twitter and crafting the tastiest pasta salad (among other delectable BBQ treats) you’ll ever eat.

1. What do you do?
As Senior Talent Acquisition Manager for SoftArtisans and Riparian Data, I am responsible for sourcing talent to match the needs of my team.  You can find me on social media (ln|t), attending events and getting ready for our next board game night!

2. When you were 5 what did you want to be and why?
A vet because I thought you could have as many puppies as you wanted.

3. Fill in the blank. Contrary to popular belief I ____.
Am not Katara.

4. Describe your perfect Saturday afternoon in 10 words or less.
Cooking a big meal to share with family and friends.

5. Describe your personal style in one word.
Tall.

6. What is your worst nightmare?
Getting taller.

Continue reading Meet the Team: Paula →

Big Data, Featured, Women In Tech

Stories from the WIT Trenches: Abby Fichtner

[This is the ninth in a series of posts exploring the personal stories of real women in technology. Every woman in tech overcame, at the very least, statistical odds to be here; this blog series aims to find out why, and what they found along the way. This time around we chatted with Abby Fichtner (t|ln), better known as Hacker Chick for her devoted work with Boston startups. Recently named Founding Executive Director of hack/reduce, a non-profit big data hacker space, Abby is in constant search of shaking up conventional wisdom and finding out what lies beyond. If reading her story inspires you to share yours, please feel free to email me.]

Hi! I’m Abby Fichtner – although more people probably know me as Hacker Chick. I write The Hacker Chick Blog on how we can push the edge on what’s possible, and I’m about to launch a non-profit hacker space for big data called hack/reduce.

Prior to this, I was Microsoft’s Evangelist for Startups where I had the most incredible experience of working with hundreds of startups. I’ve been alternately called the cheerleader and the guardian angel for Boston startups. I love this community and am super excited to launch hack/reduce to help Boston continue solving the really hard problems and keep our title as the most innovative city in the world.

Questions:

1. Can you take us back to your “eureka!” moment—a particular instance or event that got you interested in technology?

I like to joke that programming is in my blood.  My Dad has been programming since the 1960’s and my brother followed him into Computer Science. So when we were kids, my parents told us that whoever made the honor roll first would get an Atari. This was 1980 and so Atari game machines were The Thing to have.

Sufficiently motivated, I made the honor roll and my Dad came through – with an Atari 800, the PC!  Pretty much nobody had PCs in 1980, so this was pretty elite. For games, we got these Atari magazines that had pages and pages of source code in them and our father-daughter bonding experiences were typing in the machine language to build our own games. Talk about hard core, right?!

2. Growing up, did you have any preconceived perceptions of the tech world and the kinds of people who lived in it?

Growing up I did not want to be a programmer! I thought that was something my Dad and my brother did. I was an independent woman and going to follow my own path. I heard that if you’re really good, they make you a manager. So my goal was to be on the business side of things. Continue reading Stories from the WIT Trenches: Abby Fichtner →

Featured

FileUp Website Design: Before and After Photos

The SoftArtisans homepage wasn’t the only site to receive a recent makeover. FileUp, our file transfer product which assists both corporations and individual developers in transferring their files securely, was treated to a face lift as well. Consistent with the deeper tones of the SoftArtisans homepage, the FileUp homepage is now live and sitting pristinely on Drupal.

Don’t let first glance fool you. Aside from simply the more aesthetically appealing aspects of the redesign, there are several bonus features as well. Among them is the added email functionality, where you can enter your email address and receive information back about the products you own. This is especially handy if you’re having difficulty remembering items you’ve already purchased. In addition to the email option, we drop-kicked the panel menus and replaced them with a sleeker drop-down navigation system, making the user-experience a much more pleasurable one.

And if that wasn’t enough, Continue reading FileUp Website Design: Before and After Photos →

Office Life, The Intern Diaries

Thank You and Bidding Adieu!!

A big thank you to our talented crew of summer interns for forming an integral part of the team and providing valuable outside perspective about the company. We can’t thank you enough for the contributions you’ve made and the hours of hard work you’ve put in. Thank you for bringing your vibrant personalities, sparkling wit, intellect, and fresh insights to SoftArtisans and Riparian Data. We are going to miss you! Good luck in your studies during the Fall!

2012 Summer Interns: Thank you to Shane, Julian, Grace, Ingrid, and Josh!

Events, Meet the Team, Office Life

Game Night at SoftArtisans

1 Comment

Board Games and Beer

Once a month we get together for board games, beer, and pizza. On Wednesday, Aug 8th, we’re opening our doors to the community (yes, you!) to partake in the festivities!

Come meet the team, strategize on building the next laser-bagel-toaster-cutter, and enjoy FREE food and drinks. That’s right — free food, beer and great company. (We can arrange transportation if needed.)

The Details:
When:
Wednesday, Aug. 8th, 6 p.m.

Where:
SoftArtisans
3 Brook Street
Watertown, MA 02472

RSVP: http://boardgamesandbeer.eventbrite.com/

What’s in it for us? Continue reading Game Night at SoftArtisans →

Events, OfficeWriter, SharePoint

SPTechCon Boston 2012 Wrap Up

Going through SPTechCon withdrawals? So are we. That’s why we’re bringing you a (relatively) quick recap from the Twittosphere. We can’t thank everyone who came out to booth #505 enough. We enjoyed meeting/tweeting all of you and learning from the SharePoint community! If you weren’t able to join in the exciting conversation or view OfficeWriter demos on how it can enhance reporting with SharePoint, fear not we have more demos online and the chance to download a free evaluation of OfficeWriter so you can take it for a test drive yourself. In the interim, take a look inside the four days of sessions, networking, and SharePoint learning.

[To view the wrap up on Storify]

Continue reading SPTechCon Boston 2012 Wrap Up →

Events, SharePoint

5 Things to Do in Boston Other Than SharePoint

SP Tech Con is fast approaching. If you’re new to Boston here are a few things you don’t want to miss – some touristy, some local.

  1. Duck Tour – Definitely touristy, but you should go until you get every driver. They are unbelievably fun and you get a nice overview of the history of the city – Or y’know you could do those segway tours but you better have confidence of steel because between you and me, people judge.
  2. Brewery Tours – Take your pick. Tickets tend to sell out fast so I recommend getting there early.
  1. Harpoon – Tour ($5) or a tasting (free). Tours are on the weekends and tastings are weekdays at 2pm and 4pm. Either way learn about the brewing process while drinking. Leave with a souvenir glass.
  2. Sam Adams – Free. Take the Orange line and follow the signs to the brewery. Learn about the brewing process while enjoying free tastings. Afterward, hop aboard the complimentary party trolley, which will take you to Doyle’s, one of my favorite bars. Continue reading 5 Things to Do in Boston Other Than SharePoint →