Let's get acquainted!

Let me introduce myself. My name is Alexander Lozhechkin, I work as the head of the department of strategic technologies in the Russian representative office of Microsoft. We call the Department of Strategic Technologies in Russian what is in the original, in English, called the Developers & Platform Evangelism department.

I came to Microsoft a little over six years ago, starting to work in the same department, which at that time consisted of only eight people, an evangelist (or an expert in software development technologies, as it was written on a business card). Now there are more than 40 of us (the exact number depends on the calculation method). Before Microsoft, I worked at DocsVision , where I led the development of this product. And I began my professional career in IT at Digital Designsoftware developer. I still consider programming the most interesting activity in my life, although I haven’t been doing it professionally for a long time.

I, like my colleagues, found my calling in another: to make all developers, IT specialists, architects, technical students, in general, all technical specialists in Russia more successful and happy. And this is indeed the goal that great Microsoft sets for our department, without any embellishment. But plans to enslave the world and the task of “be evil” really are not on our agenda.

The mission of our unit is as follows:
To increase the number of people and businesses in Russia who become successful by creating software solutions and by helping others to realize their potential with Microsoft platform, technologies and tools.

Or, translated into Russian: To
increase the number of people and companies in Russia who achieve success by creating software and helping others realize their potential using the Microsoft platform, technology and tools.

Now in Russia, the entire software development industry brings only 0.22% of GDP. In the USA, for example, this share is 3%, and in Israel - as much as 4%. I believe that our country, in which such a large number of talented software developers live, deserves better than simply supplying the rest of the world with oil and gas. Therefore, my colleagues and I are here.

And Microsoft technologies are secondary here: we are here because we know and believe that on these technologies it is possible to create applications and build information systems that can successfully interact with technologies and products of other manufacturers. Microsoft spent $ 9.5 billion on R&D last year. Let us together make this money benefit our country and our technical experts!

If readers of Habr will have interest, I will be ready to tell in more detail about what our department in Microsoft is engaged in. In the meantime, I would like to introduce my colleagues who work for us and who are already writing or are going to write in Habré.

Let's get acquainted:

Roman Zdebsky(full name - Romuald) coordinates the work of technical experts (evangelists) in software development and information infrastructure management. He repeatedly spoke and took a key part in the preparation of a number of technical conferences both Microsoft ( Platform , Developer Days, TechDays, the launch of Visual Studio 2008/2010, ReMIX , etc.) and industrial. Technological focus and interests - Smart Client, data access technologies, Windows Presentation Foundation, Silverlight, cloud computing. Speaker and one of the creators of TechDays.ru .

Twitter: zdebskiy

Gaidar Magdanurov- Expert in web technologies at Microsoft. He is engaged in the dissemination of technological knowledge about the Microsoft web platform and effective approaches to creating web applications. Prior to joining Microsoft, he participated and led the development of projects at various levels, built on the basis of various technologies, including ASP.NET, PHP, Perl, Java. He takes an active part in developing the business of Microsoft partners on the Internet.

Twitter: gaidar
Facebook: gaidar Habr
profile: gaidar

Sergey Orlik- expert in architecture. From the last century and for almost 20 years in IT from the side of corporate IT (ROSNO), vendors (Borland, Sun, HP, Microsoft), consulting and integration (HP Enterprise Services). “Had a hand” to the wide popularity of Delphi, J2EE and ALM in Russia. Full member of the associations ISACA, IIBA, IASA. Translated the SWEBOK Code of Knowledge for Software Engineering (IEEE Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge) into Russian. He is so interested in the subject of mobile applications that he has released a popular editor for WinMobile - AgileNotes , twice included in the list of Smartphone & PocketPC Magazine nominees “Best Software Awards” (in 2007 and 2008). For more than 5 years he has been running the popular bird's-eye IT blog . On MSDN, writes a blog “Architectural Notes . ” Microsoft maintains a monthly Club of Architects (this can be read on the blog ).

Professional profile @ LinkedIn

Alexander Shapoval is an expert in information infrastructure at the Department of Strategic Technologies.
Lives and works in St. Petersburg. He began working at Microsoft in June 2003, becoming the third employee in the St. Petersburg office, which now employs about 50 people. For the past three years he has been working as an evangelist and is responsible for interacting with IT professionals. With workshops, TechDays (formerly TechNet) traveled almost all of Russia. In 2008, he “brought” Mark Russinovich to Russia to the Platform 2009 conference. He was responsible for all the content of last year's Platform 2010 conference. Specializes in Windows Client, Windows Server, IIS.

Mikhail Chernomordikov is an expert on strategic technologies at the Russian representative office of Microsoft.
Engaged in the implementation of projects with Russian customers using the latest Microsoft technologies. He speaks at events, writes a blog about technologies, including Silverlight, Windows Phone, Internet Explorer, Windows 7. Co-author of an unofficial podcast from Microsoft - Podcast9 .

Twitter: mixen
Profile on Habr: mixen

Alexander Gavrilov deals with issues of cooperation with universities in the field of training IT specialists and studying modern information technologies.

He participated in the establishment of the MSDN AA program in Russia, the organization of the first Russian Imagine Cup competitions , student conferences “ Microsoft Technologies in Programming Theory and Practice", The creation of the Microsoft Training Courses Library .

Dmitry Soshnikov has been working as a coordinator of academic programs at Microsoft Russia for 4 years. He sees his main task so that students can fully realize their potential - by studying modern technologies, applying them in studies and other projects, participating in the Imagine Cup competition and becoming recognized participants in the Microsoft student student community.
Prior to Microsoft, he led a small development team, and was also an assistant professor at MAI, and in this role he led the team that won the 2nd place in the world at the Imagine Cup 2005 in the category Office Designer. He wrote a monograph and a textbook on logical programming, took video courses for the INTUIT Internet University, and also joined the Russian Association of Artificial Intelligence. His research interests are related to intelligent systems with an explicit representation of knowledge and a semantic web, and from a technology point of view, he is most interested in F #, XNA Game Studio, and Kodu.
If you want to be friends with him - subscribe to Twitter , add to VKontakte friends or write letters.

Profile on Habr: shwars

Konstantin Kichinsky - the academic evangelist in the Russian representation of Microsoft.
As part of the academic team, he is developing in Russia special programs for students and universities for access to MS software: DreamSpark and MSDNAA, as well as assistance in organizing student events at Russian universities.
He speaks at events, maintains a blog about Microsoft technologies, with a bias in the means of visual presentation of information and tools for design and prototyping. Co-author of the Microsoft student blog.

Twitter: kichinsky
Profile on Habr: kichik

Dmitry Martynov started as a developer. At school, he was already the main administrator of a cool cluster of DCK and BC (does anyone remember what this is?) And taught instead of a computer science teacher.
It’s scary to say - the experience is more than 20 years. This is the development and administration and management. Yes, almost everything related to IT in companies of different sizes and areas of activity. Has been with Microsoft since 2002 in the Department of Strategic Technologies. 3 years out of 10 years at Microsoft he devoted to consulting practice and project implementation, where he was responsible for the application platform and application development.
Now fully focused on all aspects of cloud computing and especially on the Windows Azure Platform.

Dmitry AndreevSince 2004, he has been working at Microsoft, in the consulting group he has been developing and implementing information systems in such companies as TNK BP, VimpelCom, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, Sberbank, Lukoil, Gazpromneft, and others. Since 2007, he has been responsible for interacting with an audience of developers on the Microsoft platform, with the main goal of improving the quality of developed solutions based on Microsoft technologies and developing the IT community.

Twitter: dmandreev
Profile on Habr: dmandreev

Andrey BeshkovHe is responsible for interacting with professional communities of IT specialists, IT managers, clients and partners. Has been with Microsoft since 2007. He spoke at Techdays, Platform conferences, and a number of other industry events. Advises and helps introduce new products to major Microsoft customers. He specializes in security products, virtualization systems, cloud computing, Microsoft client and server operating systems. Prior to joining Microsoft, he was involved in the construction of telecommunication networks and data centers of the largest cellular providers in Russia. While working in telecommunication companies, he was involved in the implementation of Unix systems and OSS / BSS applications.

Twitter: abeshkov
Profile on Habré: abeshkov

Sergey Eremin- Project Manager for the Development of Technological Entrepreneurship at the Russian representative office of Microsoft. The main area of ​​responsibility is the development and promotion of projects accelerating the development of the Russian software industry; interaction with companies - software developers, investment structures, professional communities of specialists in the field of information technology (IT). Over the past 3 years, more than 2,000 Russian entrepreneurs and startups have received support through such programs as BizSpark, Microsoft Business Start, Garage Start, and others. 18 years in the software development industry. Candidate of Technical Sciences. Professional experience: software development for a number of large Russian industrial companies and state. structures; management of large-scale projects in the field of IT and educational sphere; strategic and operational management; business development; creation of branch networks; development and promotion of new goods and services

Anton Belousov has been with Microsoft Russia since 2006, he began his career as a manager for working with the IT community, after which he was responsible for the direction of online marketing for a technical audience. He stood at the origins of such projects as TechDays.ru, Microsoft forums, Microsoft blogs, ITquiz.ru and ITcommunity.ru .
Since April 2010, he is responsible for working with a technical audience (specialists in the development, testing, administration and implementation of ROs. In Russian: developers and system administrators). Always open for suggestions and discussions.

Twitter: antonbel
Profile on Habr: antonms

Aleksey MayorovMicrosoft is responsible for the lives of technical communities: online - these are the TechNet and MSDN forums , offline - MCP-clubs and User Groups. An important community support project is the ITBonus expert program . The most convenient platform where technical specialists can communicate with Microsoft employees are Russian-language blogs, the development of which he is also involved. It is easiest to contact Alexei through his blog .

Andrey Pavlychev is responsible for communication on social networks, as well as for the support and development of TechDays.ru sites, Microsoft free and trial software, ITcommunity.ru, ITquiz.ru. Participates in the organization of conferences "Platform" and "Remix". You can address to him all questions and wishes according to the format of Microsoft corporate blog on Habré.

Twitter: anpavl Habr
Profile: Parnassus