Title: Professional Life Author: Alex Kirk Published: October 6, 2005 Last modified: April 22, 2024 --- # Professional Life (as of April 2023) ### Experience [Automattic](https://automattic.com/) Vienna/[Distributed](https://automattic.com/map/), October 2014 – todayCode Wrangler * 2022-today Leading a team that works on [WordPress.org Polyglots](https://wordpress.org/polyglots/)( [GlotPress](https://glotpress.blog/)) and [Matrix](https://matrix.org/) ([Chatrix).](https://github.com/Automattic/chatrix) * 2021 Importers/Exporters team ([free-as-in-speech](https://github.com/pento/free-as-in-speech)) * 2015-2020 Lead the internationalization team (with a maximum of 9 people in US, IL, IN, TW, JP, AU). Self-Employed Vienna, August 2008 – today_Projects like [Colorillo](http://colorillo.com/), [Factolex](http://factolex.com/) and [Thinkery](http://thinkery.me/) (web, Android)_ [Notebookinfo](http://www.notebookinfo.de/) Wien, January 2012 – April 2014Relaunch of the web site. [Diagnosia](http://www.diagnosia.com/) Wien, March 2011 – August 2011, June 2014Data ExtractionParsing of converted RTF and PDF files, development of the PHP version of Diagnosia Enterprise [Garmz](http://www.garmz.com/) (later [Lookk](http://www.lookk.com/)) Wien, September 2010 – January 2011Developer Drawing Tool_Development of an HTML5 based drawing tool for fashion._ [Netvibes](http://www.netvibes.com/) (50 Employees) Vienna/Paris, February 2006 – August 2008Lead Developer_Member of the founding team. Took over development after the initial coder left, coded essential parts of the web page. Responsible for feed parsing, scaling, deployment process, stats, and more._ [IFS Institute](http://www.ifs.tuwien.ac.at/), TU Wien Vienna, February 2004 – September 2004Internship_Development of a wiki system in ASP.NET, Development of a voucher system in ASP.NET_ [NIWA](http://www.niwa.at/); [DBAI Institute](http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/), TU Wien Vienna, January 2004 – August 2004Internship_Worked on the lbscult platform, location based services for providing cultural information in vienna. RDF and various aspects of the semantic web._ [Nader Cserny](http://nader.cserny.com/) Berlin (Germany), June 2003 – March 2006Freelance developer_Programming of [Rewika](http://www.rewika.de/) (german music label), [Pernod Ricard Germany](http://www.pernodricard.de/)( subsidiary of the [Pernod Ricard Group](http://www.pernodricard.com/), a company producing alcoholic beverages), [Miles](http://www.miles-music.de/) (german band), [Monta](http://www.monta.org/) (german musician Tobias Kuhn), [Havana Club Rum](http://www.havana-club.at/)( a beverage of Pernod Ricard)._ [DBAI Institute](http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/), TU Wien Vienna, May 2003 – September 2003Internship_Data extraction of EU economical statistics with [LIXTO](http://www.lixto.com/), a tool that extracts data out of (potentially constantly) changing web sites._ IFS Institute, TU Wien Vienna, October 2002 – June 2003Studienassistent (Study Tutor) Wirtschaftskammer Steiermark (Economical Chamber of the Austrian province Styria) Graz, Summer 2000, Summer 2001, Summer 2002Internship_Programming of [Firmen A-Z](http://firmena-z.wko.at/)( the official database of all companies in Austria) in ASP._ [smartsoft](http://www.smartsoft.at/) Vienna, January 1999 – September 2002; 2006; 2007Freelance developer_Various projects, amongst others an advertisement system for [österreichticket](http://www.oeticket.com/) (largest concert ticket company in Austria)._ School Project [Sunbow](http://www.sunbow.magnet.at/) Vienna, September 1998 – August 1999Head of the department for Homepage Programming. Won the Austrian competition among training companies in Austria, represented Austria in the European competition, placed 4th._Development of the corporate homepage and various client homepages._ ### 󠀁[Projects](https://alex.kirk.at/projects/)󠁿 [Thinkery](http://thinkery.me/) Vienna/Berlin, August 2011 – todayA fast and lightweight tool for storing notes, bookmarks, todos, organized through #hashtags_Complete development with fast Javascript interface, full featured API, Android App._ [Podmash](http://podmash.com/) Vienna, August 2012 – todayHear-it-later for podcasts_Complete development_ [Colorillo](http://colorillo.com/) Vienna, August 2009 – todayCollaborative real- time action painting_Complete development with cutting edge technologies such as HTML5 and COMET._ [Factolex](http://factolex.com/) Vienna, June 2007 – todayOnline lexicon that describes terms through ranked facts, in English and German._Complete development, retrieves and processes data from Wikipedia._ [Blummy](http://blummy.com/) Vienna, August 2005 – todayWeb application, tagline: The bookmarklet management bookmarklet_Complete development, including the homepage, bookmarklet and the backend._ [Computerlexikon.Com](http://www.computerlexikon.com/) Vienna, January 1997 – todayOwn homepage project (in German), 4000 visits per day by now_Complete development and creation of 2000 computer term definitions._ Wizlite.com (offline) Vienna, January 2006 – November 2009Web application, tagline: Collaborative page highlighting_Takes the highlighing marker to the web. Complete development, including the homepage, bookmarklet and Firefox extension, backend._ Bandnews.org (offline, transformed into [Musweet](http://www.musweet.com/)) Vienna, June 2004 – November 2005Web application, tagline: Live from the web_Continously extracts news from band homepages that don’t support RSS._ [reflex.at](http://reflex.at/) Vienna, March 2000 – May 2009Volunteering, Technical Department_Development of software for the [FirstClass](http://www.firstclass.com/) system: e.g. Quizbot, Supportbot, Mail Exporting tool._ ### Other [Zivildienst](http://www.zivildienst.gv.at/) (Alternative Civilian Service, instead of Military Service) at the [Red Cross Vienna](http://www.roteskreuz.at/) Vienna, July 2007_Paramedic_ [Zivildienst](http://www.zivildienst.gv.at/) part 2 at [VCÖ](http://www.vcoe.at/) Vienna, April 2009 – November 2009_Office Management_ ### Computer Science Related Abilities #### Programming   **++++** PHP   **+++** AI, Javascript, SQL, Shell Scripting  **++** Android (Java), awk, C/C++, Perl, ASP(.NET)  **+** Ruby, Python #### Operating Systems   **++++** OS X (main operating system), Linux (mostly Debian, server administration) ** ++** Windows #### Other   **+++** HTML, CSS, Photoshop, LaTeX ### Other interests   Woodworking, Squash, Civil Aviation, Travelling (did a RTW in 2013), Dancing ### Languages   **++++** German (mother tongue), English (written and spoken)   **+** French, Spanish, Latin, Ancient Greek ### Education [University TU Wien](http://www.tuwien.ac.at/) (Vienna University of Technology) Vienna, October 2000 – May 2005Study of Computer Sciences. Master of Science (Dipl.- Ing.)Thesis: [Caching Strategies for Load Reduction on High Traffic Web Applications](https://alex.kirk.at/papers/caching-strategies.pdf?output_format=md) [AHS BG 19](http://www.g19.at/), Gymnasiumstraße Vienna, September 1992 – June 2000Matura( A-Levels) Volksschule [VS Scheibenbergstraße](http://scheibenberg.schule.wien.at/) Vienna, September 1988 – June 1992Primary School ### Personal Data Born 1982 in Vienna, Austria Family situation: Married, 2 kids