Say hello to Bobby, our new software developer

It’s our pleasure to introduce Bobby, who joined our research and development team at the beginning of September.

As one of our back-end heroes, Bobby will be responsible for the development of the analysis that powers our Social Targeting. Like his teammates Gavin and David, Bobby will be programming the D Language. (You can read some of our articles on D in our Code Talk channel of the blog.)

Though he was born in the Memphis area, Bobby grew up in southwest Germany, in Kaiserslautern. Because his parents were in the military, he moved around a lot, giving him a diverse cultural background is a great fit for our international team. He came to Berlin for similar reasons to most of us who’ve moved here from other places — he came here visiting friends, then simply fell in love with the city.

Bobby  comes to us from a job at the Yoc AG in Berlin, where he worked for two years as a Senior Mobile Application Developer. The past six years he’s been working in the mobile industry, “which six years ago was really cool,” says Bobby. “But over the last two years or so the technology has gotten to a point where there aren’t that many challenges in the sector,” he explains.

“Social networking is what it’s all about now, and that’s one of the two big reasons I’m here [at sociomantic]. The second is that I get to learn a totally new programming language (D). As a programmer you don’t get that chance very often. It’s totally challenging, and totally exciting.”

The Fun Facts

Though we’ve yet to see him show his skills, Bobby’s been skating for over twenty years now. (Those skills should come in handy if we manage to take that company snowboarding trip we’ve been mumbling about.) He’s also spent a lot of time playing guitar in bands over the years, and he’s even gotten to tour Europe a bit. Though he stopped playing shows last year, a couple of weeks ago he made it back into the studio to record some new material, and he looks forward to the possibility of playing again this winter sometime. He recently set up a new Myspace page where you can check out some of his latest tunes.

In Berlin, he likes to hang out at places like 8mm bar on Schoenhauser Allee, where rock DJs spin post-punk and no-wave jams from the likes of the Jesus & Mary Chain and Sonic Youth. In the summer evenings Bobby frequents the Weinbergs Park nearby his home, and he goes to a lot of rock shows around the city. Favorite bands include Nada Surf, The National, and Band of Horses. Keep your eyes peeled for his name on bills in Berlin this fall.

Welcome to the team, Bobby!