Neil Kandalgaonkar

Help people to cooperate at internet scale.

The Wikimedia Foundation is the organization behind Wikipedia. I have been working on multimedia usability issues, by adding features to the PHP backend and creating a jQuery-based frontend. All work open source. Most work concentrated in UploadWizard extension and UploadStash module, or see my full commit log.

Flickr is one of the leading photo-sharing websites in the world. I joined the PHP team and made various improvements to Flickr's payment system and FlickrMail. I was let go as part of Yahoo-wide layoffs in April 2009.

Upcoming.org is a collaborative events calendar, acquired by Yahoo in 2005, using PHP and Perl. I integrated event listings into Yahoo Search, redesigned the event data and geographic models, improved user interface and responsiveness, wrote a deploy system to automatically optimize site load time, and mentored new hires. Received Excellence and Hack Day Awards in 2008.

I was part of the team that launched Google Checkout, a Java-based commerce and payments system. My primary role was to refactor Google Checkout for international markets. This included the frontend, the data store, order processing and taxation policy, the Merchant API and more. I also worked closely with the Google Accounts team to create a Checkout-specific account creation flow.

Enfold Systems provides consulting and enterprise tools for Plone, an open source, Python-based content management system. I left the company amicably when I got a job offer from Google.

Lickr was the first complete AJAX interface for Flickr, implemented as a Greasemonkey extension for Firefox. Previously, Flickr had relied on Flash and it was an open question whether an AJAX interface was even possible or desirable. Flickr followed soon after with their own AJAX interface for all browsers.

During this period I consulted for a number of clients, particularly Vision2Hire Solutions (acquired by BrainHunter), a maker of online human resources software.

ActiveState produces tools for scripting language programmers. I re-engineered Programmer's Package Manager Server, part of a system for installing Perl and Python software libraries. I also helped architect and code the ActiveState Programmer Network, a site which aggregated knowledge about such languages.

At Stylus, I designed and programmed web applications for some of Canada's most successful corporations.

Lickr was the first true AJAX interface for Flickr, implemented as a third-party Firefox/Greasemonkey extension.

• Assisted or instigated various projects with Ardent Heavy Industries, a Bay Area art collective, 2007 - present
• Volunteer tutor with Frontier College, at Britannia High School in East Vancouver, 2005
• Font designer, A Handbook of the Cherokee Verb: A Preliminary Study, Cherokee National Historical Society, 2002

Bachelor of Arts, Communication Studies, Spring 2000
Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec

English, French

Java, Javascript, jQuery, AJAX, Perl, PHP, Python, XSLT, JasmineBDD, PHPUnit, JUnit, XML, HTTP, HTML, SMTP, REST, Apache, mod_perl, Java servlets, MySQL, Oracle, MSSQL, Unix (Linux, Solaris, *BSD), GLaDOS, UX, User Experience

Available upon request.