User:RobLa/COI

This is my attempt to summarize my various conflicts of interest, with the sections organized in reverse chronological order.

Volunteer Stuff



 * Miraheze Ltd. &mdash; I served on the board of this UK-based non-profit for two years (from January 2020 until December 2021). This despite the fact that I haven't been to the United Kingdom since 2014, IIRC.  I still pay attention to their Discord server from time-to-time.
 * Indivisible &mdash; I still hold a soft spot in my heart for that group and many of the people in it. Many of us here in San Francisco were pretty worried about the political direction this country was headed in circa 2017 and 2018.
 * Swing Left &mdash; Another soft spot in my heart.  Technically, I'm still in it, and I still text chat with many of the people in the group.  I'm still keep in touch (digitally) with several of the folks in the local chapters of Indivisible and Swing Left.  But it's been a while since I've been to a meeting for either.
 * The Center for Election Science &mdash; I'm still pretty heavily involved with this group.
 *  California Approves  &mdash; this is taking some of my time these days. See californiaapproves.wordpress.com.

Internet Archive

 * see also: Internet Archive

That was a place where I was briefly the "Director of Core Infrastructure". In short, I managed both the operations team (that racked and stacked machines and drives) and engineers that wrote and maintained the core storage software. I didn't get a chance to write much about it, but I did write a blog post titled "Two Thin Strands of Glass".

Wikimedia Foundation

 * see also: Wikimedia Foundation

I did quite a few things during my tenure there (from 2010 to 2016). I established the Wikimedia Technical Committee (TechCom), which we called "ArchCom" back in the day. Most of my time was spent managing the Wikimedia Platform Engineering team by hiring, budgeting, and coaching that team, which had up to 35 people working in it in 8 time zones at its peak.

Linden Lab

 * see also: Linden Lab and Second Life

Back in the late 2000s, I was the "Director of Open Source Software" for Linden Lab (the makers of Second Life). I helped start their Seattle-based office. We had dozens(?) of people working in that office when I left Linden. Physically, we had two offices in Seattle; the first one right above the the Grand Central Bakery in Pioneer Square (which I believe was Grand Central's original location) and then we moved to an office closer to the King Street Station and VERY close to the Alaskan Way Viaduct, the latter of which obstructed our view of the sunset. The sunsets probably would have been gorgeous if an enormous concrete structure wasn't blocking the view, since we would have frequently seen it setting behind tree-covered slope on the east side of Admiral Hill.

RealNetworks

 * see also RealNetworks and Helix (multimedia project)

I was an employee of RealNetworks from 1996 until 2005. RealNetworks created and published RealAudio (in 1995), RealVideo (in 1997), and the Helix multimedia project (in 2002), as well as many other projects I was involved with. I was frequently a public spokesperson for Helix in particular. I also represented RealNetworks during conversations about Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) and Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL), and co-authored/co-edited many important documents associated with those formats. Senator Maria Cantwell was a work colleague when I joined the 90-person startup in Seattle's Pioneer Square district (though she obviously significantly outranked me from the minute I signed my offer letter until her departure to compete against former Senator Slade Gorton for his seat in the United States Senate).

Microsoft

 * see also: Microsoft and Bellevue, Washington

I had several short stints with cardkey access to most of Microsoft's Redmond campus (though I never had the coveted "blue badge" in Microsoft's badge-based caste system), and made many lifelong friends while I was there. I started my first internship at Microsoft shortly after reading the GNU Manifesto for the first time. I frequently asked my work colleagues "have you read this GNU Manifesto thing?", which helped them correctly identify me as a weirdo. One of my later stints involved accessing a server room in a heavily-secured building on the main Microsoft Redmond campus that seems to have been torn down to make room for newer, shinier buildings. I was horrified when the Halloween documents were published, but remained part of the Puget Sound area tech scene until 2011 (helping open an office there). I agitated for RealNetworks to do something about Microsoft (since there were many old-time Microsoft alumni at RealNetworks, including Rob Glaser), and I was happy that RealNetworks played such a large role in United States v. Microsoft Corp., and received such a large settlement.

Asymetrix

 * see also: Asymetrix and Paul Allen

This was my first real job after my first two stints at Microsoft. Building ToolBook was Paul Allen's and Marc McDonald's first real job after Microsoft as well.