Who are these people? Why should I care?
I have heard the names of these people in passing but who are they? How can I vote if I have no idea who is best. Can’t the nominees say “My name is Smith and I will do x,y and z. I have a,b and c experience?” How about endorsements people saying, “Elect Smith because I like his shirt color!”
To start, I will post my “profile” I keep just for occasions as this. This I will can post a “platform” that is desired.
One thing I would like to add to this profile is that I served (for better or worse;) =) as a member of the Java Game experts group tasked with developing the Java game techologies which eventually lead to the current Java game tech CHOICES, although I had nothing to do with the current implementations.
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Shawn Kendall
FullSail Real World Education
Course Director for Real-Time 3D for Gaming
www.fullsail.com
Immediate Mode Interactive
CEO and Technical Director
www.imilabs.com
Shawn developed cutting edge Java and Java3D based game technology demos for Full Sail and Sun Microsystems displayed at various conferences such as GDC and SIGGRAPH three years running. Shawn has 5 years of technology teaching experience with Full Sail. In 2002, Shawn founded Immediate Mode Interactive, LLC, a game technology company dedicated to the research, development and application of Java technology in computer games(www.imilabs.com).
Shawn has been developing 3D graphics with Java since 1995, starting with JDK 1.0 on SGIs machines and then Java3D since 1998. Before Java, Shawn was developing in C/C++ and demonstrated virtual reality game projects with a student group called the Toy Scouts associated with University of Central Florida’s Institute for Simulation and Training at the 1994 and 1995 SIGGRAPH.
Shawn graduated from UCF in 1995 with a BS in Liberal Science and followed with a BS in Computer Science in 2003. Shawn maintains several Java3D content loaders, as well as a host of Java3D game demos projects.
Recent work includes content loaders, character animation technology, and advanced graphics demos for Java3D, as well as research and development with JOGL and JDBC technologies as applied to game development. Shawn is currently co-authoring a Java game programming book (untitled) for Charles River Media due out March 2004. At GDC 2003, Shawn presented the Java Gaming Tutorial along with Dustin Clingman and Syrus Mesdaghi, which demonstrated several Java/Java3D game demos.
At GDC 2002, as part of the Full Sail team, I demonstrated several Java/Java3D game demos, including a full-function arcade style fighter.
At SIGGRAPH 2001, as part of the Full Sail team, I demonstrated the Java3D Grand Prix running on standard PC hardware.
At SIGGRAPH 2000, as part of the the Full Sail team, I demonstrated Java3D in a full VR set-up (HMD, trackers, controller) running on an laptop PC at Sun’s booth.
[quote]Who are these people? Why should I care?
I have heard the names of these people in passing but who are they? How can I vote if I have no idea who is best. Can’t the nominees say “My name is Smith and I will do x,y and z. I have a,b and c experience?” How about endorsements people saying, “Elect Smith because I like his shirt color!”
[/quote]
I’ve asked each of the nominees to post a brief description of who they are and what role they see themselves playing as a member of the board. If you are unsure who to vote for, I suggest you wait until you hear what the nominees have to say before casting your ballot. The elections will run until February 13th, which should give the nominees plenty of time to state their views, and the community ample opportunity to respond with additional questions. You also have the option of changing your vote at any time up until the close of the election.
If you have questions for any of the individual candidates I would suggest you post them here, or send a message to them directly.
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Gregory Pierce
AOL/Time Warner
Software Architect, Strategic Applications and Systems Development
Greg has done a lot of work in gaming for years inside and outside of the game industry. He has written articles and tutorials for Direct3D, Java, and J2ME and co-authored an educational text on Direct3D. He was worked as a professional developer in the gaming industry for Bethesda Softworks and Dynamic Animation Systems. He was worked on a variety of console platforms including the SNES, Playstation, Dreamcast, Playstation 2, and XBox. A vocal advocate of Java and 3D technology for professional projects, he has introduced this technology into government simulation projects with CSC, SAIC and Booz-Allen Hamilton. His current duties involve utilizing commercially viable and leading technologies for the Time Warner family of companies.
Greg graduated from Xavier University in 1995 with a BS in Computer Science and is currently working on his MBA/JD. Greg has worked on a wide variety of open source projects from JBoss to JInput. Currently he leads the charge to maintain the ports of the JGI APIs on OSX. he is currently working with a company specifically on commercial tools and technology written in java that could be utilized by both independent developers and commercial shops to produce games for the PC, mobile, and set top arenas.
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What do I want to do for you?
Establish the JGI APIs as industry standards, gain exposure to the actual java and game development press with Sun’s help, and work to incubate a small number of projects that will be ‘reference examples’ of what can be done. I would work with Sun and other interested industry partners to develop a process by which actual Java games can be evaluated by publishers, promoted in the press, and become commercially viable. I would work to ensure that there would be adequate co-marketing with publishers, companies, and the press so that java gaming can move from the dark recesses of the internet and into the limelight.
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Yuri Gushchin
JProof Group
CEO and Chief Software Architect
In 1992, Yuri started software development company located in Minsk, Belarus. Since 1998, he focused exclusively on Java developments and was promoting use of Java for different applications, including performance-critical applications (in 1999 he developed MPEGBEANS project, Pure Java realtime video+audio MPEG player with ability of bi-directional realtime playback). In addition, Yuri has a big experience in developing tools and libraries for Java developers, and was involved in FastCode for Java project as Chief Software Architect (http://tools.jproof.com).
Yuri graduated from Belarussian State University of Electronics and Radioengineering in 1995, with specialization in Computes, Computing Systems and Networks.
Yuri works in gaming and amusement industry since 2000. Currently Yuri heads group of companies (JProof Group) that develops and runs several gaming systems and focuses on non-PC-gaming market segment. The major directions of development are 3D Java-based games for entertainment and amusement industries (based on Java3D before and Xith3D now), and wireless gaming, including J2ME and SMS gaming.
Yuri’s current Open Source project is Xith3D - Java scenegraph-based 3D engine built on top of JOGL (http://www.xith.org). In addition to his personal efforts in developing Open Source projects, Yuri supports direct and indirect participation of his employees (Java developers and designers) in different Open Source initiatives.
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Yuri can bring his experience in managing groups of independent developers to Java Games Community by co-ordinating activities of members of Community and doing his best for recognizing feedback from every specific Java Games Community member. Yuri sees his major task as organizing feedback of Java Games Community members in a way that can be most efficiently used by developers of Java and Java Games Technologies.
Yuri will work to promote use of technologies developed by Java Games Community in Open Source and commercial projects. Yuri will do his best to involve more professional Java game developers to participation in Java Games Community and support their initiatives on meetings of Java Games Community Board of Directors.