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Cedric has been in Austin for a few years, and just welcomed his first born son into the family 5 weeks ago!  We talked about Austin, why working here is so much fun, and what we really love about technology.  As it turns out we share a lot of the same interests in bringing together communities through technology.  His experiences are going to be a real help to me with planning and preparation for Headspring’s Central Texas Give Camp in September.

Here’s how the rest of our conversation went:

Are you an expert at anything?

I’m really great at creating tangible systems for internal processes.  This can be really useful to organizations when it comes time to, say, track metrics.  At my last job, I developed an authentication system for web applications, and integrated some ERP systems for order automation.  I think I’m good at this because I tend to approach problem solving visually, with a creative mindset, before getting analytical.

Who is on your list of ideal clients to work for or individuals to work with?

Coming to Headspring to work with Jimmy and Jeffrey is definitely up there on my list.  I would also really like to work on a project with Apple one day.  I really appreciate their design methodology

What led you to software development?

When I was in 5^th grade my teacher had a puzzle closet.  If we solved the puzzles, we would get free days and homework excuses.  I got really good at solving the puzzles and I pretty much never had to do homework.  I think that was the early start of my interest in engineering, and software development stemmed from it as a natural extension of problem solving.  By high school, I found myself using or creating software all the time.

Do you like teaching?

Yes! Teaching is the best way to study.  It requires me to understand all the levels of details that go into something.  In my opinion, you don’t fully cement an idea until you teach it.

Where do begin when learning something new?

I study Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and one of the concepts I’ve realized is that you have to be able to throw yourself into a challenge.  When thrown into a challenge, we immediately begin to imitate the opponent.  After that, we go through a series of experiments until skills become instinctual.  Anything I’m learning I can approach the same way.  Imitate first, experiment and learn.

How do you gauge “time well spent”?

If I learn or gain mastery, it’s definitely time well spent.  Sometimes that’s not always so easy to see, especially if my results don’t match my expectations.  But if I can learn through my mistakes, then it’s worth it to me.

Hiring great developers is something this company has become really good at.  If you need help on the subject, read this whitepaper on what has worked for us.

Outside of one six-month period at my last job, I’ve always shared an office with my boss.  It’s not easy.  In fact, it’s not really that easy to share work space with anyone.  Obviously noise is an issue – noisy talking, breathing, typing, eating etc.  With a boss, noise is even more difficult to cope with because usually your preferences come second to theirs.  Also, sharing work space with a boss grays boundaries of the appropriate use of time and conversation.  You have to be on time (all the time), constantly focused, and prepared to smile politely for every interruption.  Furthermore, the two of you are much more exposed to each other’s shortcomings than anyone would prefer. Your boss is there to micro-manage every conversation or task, and you are there to witness every breakdown or breach of authority.

Here are some important facts:

1. Your boss wants personal space too
2. You’re probably not going to get it

So…

If you can’t communicate well with your boss, these problems will always be problems.

Sometimes, there is a greater, systematic reason why open and honest communication never happens at a company.  But most of the time it’s definitely possible to alleviate the pressure by simply talking to your boss about what you’re dealing with. Bosses aren’t evil; they really do want you to be as comfortable as possible.

One way to breakdown the communication barrier is to ask more questions. Being considerate of your boss’s situation is the first step, and don’t expect have to have all the answers right up front.  Instead of pointing the finger by listing your complaints, try to ask questions like, “How can I make this more comfortable for you?” or “I have some ideas about how to make the room quieter; can we talk?” or “You usually have great advice for me, so is it ok if we talk things through a little more before deciding on a solution?”

Once you are able to talk openly about any problem, it makes it a lot easier to tackle other problems together.

For the record: I really like sharing an office with my boss, Katie. Because we share space, we have a much more casual and relaxed relationship.  If I’m struggling with something, I’m able to talk it through with her before giving up. If we were in a separate space, I don’t think I would be as willing to admit failures or shortcomings without “explaining them away.”  We have discussed this scenario before, and labeled it the “no room for error relationship.”  Because she is here, she understands the context of my day, and can help me accomplish my own goals. Conversely, she doesn’t have to be brilliant all by herself.  I’m here to bounce ideas around, brainstorm, or remind her of details in my work that could positively or negatively affect her strategy and decision making.  She’s smart, not perfect, and it helps that she knows it.

What are some other pros/cons of sharing space with a boss, and how do you cope?

Printers are a terrible bane on my existence, and I have made a purpose to rid myself of needing them at all. I have come to realize that I am not alone in this grievance, and going on without the need for a frustrating printer is no longer a difficult task. Google Docs, EchoSign and a whole host of other cloud-based offerings have significantly reduced our reliance on printers, and they have added years back to my life.

But this post isn’t all about how much I hate printers – it’s old news. I work for a technology company, and technology is about new news.

This morning I heard about an exciting new branch of technology: 3D printing. It works – unlike regular printing – and instead of making a document, it makes an object. Recently a doctor in Belgium has worked with 3D printing to create a new jaw for an elderly patient. The jaw was literally molded together with a laser printer that heats small particles of titanium in layers.

As I mentioned, cloud computing has changed the paper printing business as we know it, but some printing companies are willing to accept this new opportunity as a challenge to reinvent. The exciting technology in this story is not the artificial jaw. The technology is in using a 3D printer to make it.

The printing business is moving away from ink and paper to useable 3D objects, but they have the same message and mission: convenience. They are saving people from painful procedures which harvest bone and tissue from other parts of their body, and they are changing the landscape of artificial implant offerings to the medical community. Also, printing implants could be much cheaper than harvesting or manufacturing them. That is technology!

My point is, when it’s time to improve technology in business, or put technology in the classroom, or bring technology to nursing homes, we may not have to look very far. Overhead projectors and pocket calculators were once considered expensive technology. Be brave enough to look at what you have available. You don’t have to mask your problems with a new device. Why throw an iPad into the equation if it isn’t necessary? Instead, open yourself up to change. Look around and create technology first with people and processes.

So how tech savvy are you? What are some other examples of reinvented technology?

I come from a long list of companies that “talk the talk” about how valuable their employees are.  It comes from a good place, and it’s rarely insincere.  In my opinion, and you may disagree, most people are good people – even your boss and your boss’s boss.

However, “walking the walk” is extremely difficult, and my experience of the corporate world has shown me the implementation of all those good intentions usually turns out a little lack luster.  Treating everyone equally, rewarding good service, or fostering an open environment for communication is all fine and good when sales are up, negativity is down and there are only great things to say.  But there is often a huge disconnect between what a company tells their employees is encouraged, and what they show them when the going gets tough.

Ever worked somewhere with an “Open Door” policy? Unofficially interprets itself as the “Open Door, but not, y’know, That Door” policy.

At previous jobs, I’ve been barked at, I’ve been told “my place”, and I’ve been scolded for trying to do more good the wrong way.  I am not alone in those experiences. Most people at most companies have dealt with these issues at some point.  All the Employee of the Month awards in the world can’t take away the sting of a reactionary reprimand.

And then there was Headspring.

Working at Headspring is a breath of honest to goodness fresh air.  Everything I ever believed about how a company should treat people – employees and customers alike – is right here in this space.

Headspring has a really interesting take on keeping the culture in check.  First of all, and like most companies, we have Core Values:

1. Drive for Excellence
2. People are Valued
3. Honest Communication
4. Passion for Learning and Growth

These four values are the driving force behind every decision we make – top down, bottom up, etc.  If we have a policy, you can bet there has been a long, companywide discussion about how it touches each value.  Same goes for internal processes and procedures.  If anything conflicts with one of the values, we put it to test and revisit the drawing board. The values never change, and never will.  Everything revolves around them.

This is hard.  Is your boss prepared to open up all the financial statements of the company to every employee – including cash on hand – every month? Mine is. Is your boss prepared to lead an open discussion on what we want in a new office space or where it should be? Mine is. Is your boss ready to show you the hiring pipeline of candidates on a display big enough for the whole company to see? You guessed it; mine is. Just like our tagline, No Surprises.

Another way we keep the values in the forefront is through our Headspring Values Awards.  Each month, we email our Office Manager and People Are Valued Award Recipient, Rebecca Heath, with nominations for fellow teammates that have displayed these values in their everyday work.  The nominations are usually long and descriptive, sometimes emotional, and sometimes funny.  Nominations never expire, and there is no limit on the number that can be submitted per person.

When it’s time for our Monthly All Hands Meeting, Rebecca types up and distributes all the nominations.  The leadership team awards two a month, with a plaque, speech, and a handshake.  It’s worth mentioning that we get to read all the nominations, which is nearly as good as getting selected for an award.

“Yeah, only two were picked, but Alonso appreciated my work on our project, and wrote it down. I had feared maybe I was irritating him, but he appreciated that I challenged his ideas! I know this because the awards process is as open as anything else” – Sharon Cichelli, recent nominee

What’s important about this to me is that we nominate each other.  We decide.  We share.  Together, we keep the values from becoming cute or meaningless.  They are real and relevant every day.

Keeping the company in check is hard to do, but it helps to put your money where your mouth is.  We believe there is a better way to do business, to build software, and to run a company.

How does your company show you that you are valued?

Are you an expert at anything?

Sure. I think everyone is an expert in something they just don’t know it. We all have things that we are really good at and things we are really passionate about. It’s those things that we are both really good and really passionate about that we typically experts in. My passions and experiences are with programming and developing back end systems – specifically distributed system integration and data persistence.

What led you to software development?

It’s a long life story that starts from my early childhood. I can sum it up by saying I kind of fell into it as a result of necessity and luck.

What did you learn first?

One of my earliest childhood memories involving computers was figuring out how to hack the dictionary file so I could beat an educational spelling game my father purchased for me in grade school on an IBM PS/2. I still remember the look in his face when I showed him I could beat the game by typing in gibberish on the keyboard. I also remember working the Logo programming language at my elementary school and programming a text based game in BASIC on that old IBM PS/2.

Do you like teaching?

Yes! I actually tutored math and science in high school. I think that may have been the first time I was in a real role with teaching capacity. I really enjoy speaking at user groups and helping my peers learn when I can. I sometimes find myself considering going back to school and working on a PhD so I may work as a professor.

Where do begin when learning something new?

It just depends on the resources available and what is to be learned. I am constantly reading academic journals and blogs about topics I am interested in. When time permits I will go to a conference or convention. If I need to find more depth, I will usually grab a book and/or look for a training course. My favorite way to learn is to pair up with a peer or mentor and get my hands dirty by pair programming or drawing on whiteboard. I find a ton of value in interacting with an expert. Learning about the things they consider and think about while also getting familiar with the subject is indispensible in my opinion.

What does your team rely on you for?

Developers do more than just code. They find creative solutions to both technical and human challenges and then translate those solutions to well crafted code. It really is in many ways more of art than a science. They rely on me to help them when they get stuck. I know I rely on them when I get stuck.

How do you gauge “time well spent”?

I gauge it by how much quality time I can spend away from work, especially with my wife and kids. If I can go home feeling proud about my day’s accomplishments with a clean conscience, then I can go home without worrying about work and focus on what matters most to me. That is “work time” well spent.

What are your plans for the future?

At this point in my life I am pretty focused on raising my kids and getting them ready for life beyond the school years. After that, I am not really sure. Perhaps, I will go back to school and get that PhD. Or maybe just work towards retirement so I can enjoy more time with my family. I think I would like to travel with my wife a bit after the kids leave the nest. But those plans are still very fuzzy.

Look for Alonso on his blog, which he updates regularly, or tweet @alonsorobles

The lines were insane! I waited three hours to pick up my badge.  However, the rest of the time I experienced very little trouble getting into the panels I wanted to see or any of the other events on my schedule.  I would have been lost without the iPhone and iPad app.

During the event, I exercised the full use of all available resources:  time, research, relationships, and drink tickets.  I kept a full schedule each day, beginning at 9:00 AM and lasting into the late evening.  During the day, I made it to as many presentations, panels, and discussions as possible – usually 3 to 4.  The first few days there, I was being carried by adrenaline, and made the mistake of neglecting breaks.  Next year will be different.

My favorite panels and presentations were those that were well thought out and prepared.  I really liked Ray Kurzweil’s discussion about AI and singularity, Jen Pahlka’s presentation on Code for America, and the panel on Agile Apps: Effective Moblie and Native Development.  Here are some more photos:

In between scheduled events, I would browse the trade show floor, designated networking lounges and workshops. I reserved some time each day to check in with fellow industry friends, and exchange information on who’s who and where the free food was.

The panels and discussions exceeded my expectations.  The content was current, interesting, and informative, and the presentations – led by credible industry influencers – were well prepared and polished.  Topics ranged from highly technical, to quirky and imaginative, or challenging and perceptive.  I took lots of notes.

With over 30,000 attendees, there was no shortage of opportunity to network.  I made it a point to get to know the people around me at events, sitting next to me during presentations, or evening those that I stood in line with.  Because SXSW is designed to encourage community and relationship building, I found that most people were very open to participating in conversation when prompted. The parties each evening were great for meeting up, too, although we tried to keep the business chatter light.

However the best part of the conference was supporting the Headspring Hurwitzes as they received 2^nd Place in the Formula One division of Knowbility’s AIR Interactive Competition.  I’m so proud of my team!  Here is a picture of them with their award:

So, now that it’s over I’ll be catching up on my beauty rest and rehydrating.  I’m looking forward to next year!

Obviously, we’re super excited about the main event:  keynote speaker Scott Hanselman.  Hanselman is well known for many things, most notably his evangelism for Microsoft and all things .NET.  His popular weekly podcast series Hanselminutes and blog Scott Hanselman’s Computer Zen will be the source of inspiration for his presentation titled Making Your Blog Suck Less.

The posted agenda doesn’t include any abstracts. Lucky for you, a few Headspringers are presenting and provided me with their details:

Jeffrey Palermo: Developing for Business Intelligence

With Microsoft aligning several of its products to serve BI needs, .Net developers are left with little support for providing analytical answers from data stored in system databases.  Even reports are often just formatted query results on a screen.  Business intelligence is about deriving knowledge from your data, not just view raw data.  From fact tables to star schemas to methods of visualization, Visual Studio doesn’t provide much support for these important and enabling concepts for BI.  This session will introduce developers to the fundamentals of BI development and the basic tools and techniques they can use to start extracting intelligence from their data.

Jimmy Bogard: Keeping Integration Sane with NServiceBus

Building apps used to be simple when we just needed to push data into a database. However, more and more we see our applications needing to communicate with other external applications via REST, SOAP, or for the less fortunate, flat files. We can assume these external services are always 100% up, but inevitably, someone trips over the cord and communication fails. Often, recovering from these kinds of failures are the hardest to recover from, causing developers and the business alike significant heartburn.

In this session we’ll examine the common causes for failures integrating with other systems. We’ll look at the basics of messaging and alternate UI interaction models to accommodate failure. Finally, we’ll dig in to NServiceBus and see how NServiceBus kicks the problems of flaky integration to the curb once and for all.

Tim Thomas: Building Games with .NET and XNA Game Studio

Developing your own game can be a daunting task. In this session, you’ll see how easy it is to get started from scratch with XNA Game Studio 4.0, the latest version of Microsoft’s multi-platform game creation toolkit. You’ll be introduced to the developer-friendly—and free!—community resources available for building games for the PC, Xbox, and Windows Phone and learn more about this industry-changing game development technology.

Ryan Vice:  State Management in Windows 8 Metro Applications

Metro introduces a new application lifecyle in which your application could be terminated at anytime. This example driven session will explore how to write applications that sucessfully manage persisted, session and view state in the Metro environment allowing you to provide a good user experience for your end users. The concepts apply to all Metro development but will be demonstrated using C# and XAML.

After that, Headspringers disperse to “get nerdy with it.”  If you’re in town, plan on stopping by to visit Katie in the sponsor area.  She’ll have swag, stickers, and as always, good conversation.  Pick up one of these beauties for your car bumper, and share the photo on our Facebook wall!

SXSW Interactive is going to be bigger and better than ever – over 19,000 are expected to attend this year.   I’m really looking forward to being a part of it.  Even the Juggalos will be there!  Juggalos and Bruce Springsteen featured in the same event; I never thought I would see the day.

If you have a badge, make sure to find me and say hello. In between panels, I plan to visit the Microsoft and Beacon Lounges or browse the Trade Show and ScreenBurn Arcade.  Here’s my schedule:   http://schedule.sxsw.com/2012/user_events/user_60347

However, if you don’t have badge, there is still plenty of opportunity to get in on the action.  Of course, I’ve made a list:

Thursday, March 8^th: Door64 Pre-SXSW Interactive Party

Techies don’t usually need a party to prove how fun they are, but an open bar sponsored by Dell, Intel, and CyrusOne never hurts.  Along with free booze, there will be two bands, and Dell is giving out free laptops and other devices for door prizes. Tickets are cheap ($20) and half off if you’re an Austin Cloud User Goup member.  A steal of a deal!

Friday, March 9^th: Refresh Austin’s SXSW Kickoff Lunch

For the fourth year in a row, Refresh Austin has organized an opportunity for folks to mingle and catch up with Refreshers from all over the world.  It’s not sponsored, so you’ll have to pick up your own tab.  However, this is a great opportunity to meet up with badge-holding friends from out-of-town, and convince them to get a job at your company in Austin!

Sunday, March 11^th: Dewey Awards Ceremony

This event is also free, and is co-presented by our friends at Knowbility.  The party will honor 10 media do-gooders with tons of food, drink, and music.  Also, Knowbility will announce the winners for SXSW Interactive AIR.  We’re keeping our fingers crossed for the team of Headspringers that participated in the competition!

Monday, March 12^th: Austin All-Girl Dev Brunch

The Austin All-Girl Hack Night and Girl Develop It groups have organized a brunch for techie chicks to get together and celebrate their awesomeness.  This year, Headspring is sponsoring because 1) we love All Girl Hack Night 2) we really love the Bloody Mary’s at Frank.  If you’re a girl and you love to code, I strongly encourage you to check this one out. And it’s totally free!

As always, we’ll continue to keep our community events calendar updated with these events and more.

If you know of any other non-badge required events going on during sxswi, please post in our comments.  Happy hunting!

And his interests don’t stop there.  He’s currently learning Python, and along with coding, he likes disc golf and bowling.  He just moved to Austin from Iowa, and is really looking forward to getting into the social scene.  “The developer community is so lively here that I’ll be looking to get involved with groups that are passionate about making their communities so wonderful,” said Chris.

Here is how the rest of our talk went:

Are you an expert at anything?

I feel like somebody probably won’t write a book about something unless they could be considered an expert on the matter. I’ll answer this question by responding to the things that I think I could write a book about. A few things I could picture myself writing about: Unit testing, object-oriented programming and web page markup. Two things I’d love to add to that list that I’m working on is git and JavaScript.

Who is on your list of ideal clients to work for or individuals to work with?

I think it would be really to fun to work with the team at GitHub. I think I would have a good time working with people building things like cars that drive themselves, space shuttles, undersea experiments, you know, the usual.

What led you to software development?

I became interested in technology in grade school while playing video games. As internet shifted more mainstream, I learned that I could play games online. This led me to take an interest in computers and the internet. While I’m not as much of a gamer as I used to be, I’m still very interested in building things that require human interaction. My primary focus is web sites and web applications.

What did you learn first?

My first programming language was QBASIC. It started with me tinkering around in the Gorillas game, and not too long later I was writing my own game with sprites and even mouse support! My “gaming career” was short lived and I soon started building simple web pages, learning HTML/CSS/JavaScript.

Do you like teaching?

I really do like teaching and training people on all sorts of topics. While I might feel outside my comfort zone when it comes to topics that are new to me, the things that I’m really experienced in are quite fun to teach to people. My favorite part of teaching is when I’m asked a really good question. Not only does that help me realize that they’re getting it, but it allows me to adjust and make sure I cover it next time.

Where do begin when learning something new?

When it comes to libraries and frameworks I usually start with source code, and hopefully on GitHub. Since not everything is open source, I like to use tools like Decompilers to understand what is really going on within the project. Blog posts are also really great to reference. When it comes to methodology and management skills, I prefer hard copy books.

To learn more about Chris visit his blog, stackoverflow, or tweet (@chrismissal)!