Harris Shiffman

Mountain View, California http://www.disordered.org
hank@disordered.org

Summary:

  Dynamic and energetic product evangelist and technical communicator. Vast experience presenting products and software technologies at conferences, trade shows and seminars worldwide to audiences of 500+, as well as individual meetings with developers, users, decision makers, press and industry analysts. Author of articles, white papers and tutorials on technical topics for a broad range of audiences. Designer/developer of compelling technology demonstrations. Expertise in programming languages (C, C++, Java, Perl), development tools, 3D graphics APIs, multimedia, networking, productivity software and computing platforms: Solaris, IRIX, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP.

Experience:

  Azul Systems, Inc., Sunnyvale, California 2012 - 2013
Maker of high performance Java platform software

Product Marketing Manager / Product Manager
Developed high level and technical marketing materials including data sheets, presentations and white papers. Wrote Product Requirement Documents and worked with Engineering to define new product features. Presented company solutions at Java User Groups and trade shows.



Cisco Systems, San Jose, California 2010 - 2011
Maker of network infrastructure and management solutions

Platform Evangelist
Company-internal evangelist for the Extensible Management Platform (XMP), a software stack for Cisco network management applications. Provided potential adopters with their first look at XMP, its architecture, its components, and its development process. Worked with Product and Engineering management to present their work more effectively and to educate the larger developer community on the platform and the Open Source and commercial packages upon which it is based.



DataSynapse Inc., Mountain View, California 2006 - 2008
Maker of virtualization solutions for enterprise applications

Senior Consulting Engineer
Worked with DataSynapse customers to analyze application requirements and design grid computing solutions. Delivered customer training, integration and development services. Provided technical support to sales organization, including product presentations, demonstrations and proofs of concept.



Cassatt Corporation, San Jose, California 2004 - 2005
Provider of cluster management software and solutions for Linux server environments

Senior Systems Engineer
Represented Cassatt's products and technical direction to ISV partners & end users. Consulted with Marketing on the development of product messaging, presentations and multimedia content. Advised Product Development on product feature and architectural issues as part of the Office of the CTO. Supported executive presentations to analysts and VC firms.



Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, California 2002
Maker of Macintosh laptop and desktop computers and servers

Technical Architect
Technical half of major account sales team. Delivered product briefings and evaluated Apple and third party solutions against customer needs. Taught customer IT staff about UNIX workflow capabilities and developed scripts to migrate their users' data from PC laptops to Apple PowerBooks. Evangelized Mac OS X capabilities at trade shows and seminars. Served on task force defining Apple's relationship to Open Source and technical computing communities.



Dejima, Inc., San Jose, California 2000 - 2001
Maker of Java-based tools for building natural language user interfaces

Chief Architect
Led the design of the company's agent-oriented development product. Determined core language and toolkit features and established priorities for the engineering team in consultation with customers and internal users. Guided efforts of documentation and QA teams. Developed technical presentations, papers and customer-specific application demonstrations. Presented Dejima solutions to finance firms, electronics and wireless providers in the U.S., Europe and Singapore.



Nazomi Communications Inc., Santa Clara, California 1999 - 2000
Designer of Java coprocessors for embedded applications

Java Technologist
Managed every aspect of the company's technology messages. Ran and evaluated performance benchmarks, wrote technical papers and articles, developed presentation materials and product demonstration software. Worked with hardware and software engineering to identify and correct performance and compatibility problems with the company's Java coprocessor core. Presented to customers, press and industry analysts in the U.S. and Japan. Designed and maintained the corporate web site. Managed relationship with outside PR agency through the public announcement of the company and its first product.



Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, California 1995 - 1999
Maker of high performance computers for 3D visualization and other demanding applications

Strategic Technologist
Tracked industry trends in software development technologies and developed an SGI-specific spin on these advances. Wrote developer-oriented technical presentations, white papers and tutorials for both internal and customer audiences. Gave lectures on 3D graphics APIs, real-time programming, Java, VRML and other web and traditional development technologies at conferences and seminars worldwide. Trained field systems engineers and support staff. Articulated SGI's Open Source and Linux strategy in discussions with industry analysts, the technology press and strategic customers and partners. Presented SGI solutions to strategic customers, leading directly to large multi-system workstation and server sales.



Sun Microsystems, Inc., Mountain View, California 1988 - 1994
Maker of UNIX-based engineering workstations and server systems

Marketing Technical Specialist
Provided technical expertise to product marketing and engineering within Sun's programming tools business unit. Produced demonstration software, product literature, presentations, magazine articles and training materials. Consulted on product design and positioning. Developed and presented courses on C++ programming to Sun engineers and customers. Represented Sun in the CASE Communiqué industry consortium. Lectured and exhibited at conferences in the United States, Europe and Japan.

Publications:
   

"Wireless Java: Hardware & Software Solutions" in Wireless Design Online, 4/00

"Windows NT and IRIX Interoperability" in Silicon Graphics Developer News, 7/98

"Silicon Graphics JDK 1.1.5: More Than A Port" in Silicon Graphics Developer News, 1/98

"Java Grows Up: JNI, RMI Beans and More" in Silicon Graphics Developer News, 3/97

"Boosting Java Performance: Native Code and JIT Compilation" in Silicon Graphics Developer News, 9/96

"Separating Java Hype From Reality" in Silicon Graphics Developer News, 3/96; also in People & Computers (Computerworld Israel), 6/96

"Moving To C++: It's Not Just Objects" in Black Belt C++: The Masters Collection, edited by Bruce Eckel; M&T Books, 1994

"Developing with Threads" in Sun Catalyst Flash, 6/94

"Exception Handling in C++" in UNIXopen (Germany), 2/94

"Toward A Less Object-Oriented View Of C++" in Dr. Dobbs' Journal - C++ Supplement, 12/92

"Solaris 2.0: A Developer's Perspective" in Software Design (Japan), 9/92

"Templates in C++ 3.0" in SunWorld, 8/92; also in Solaris Magazin (Germany), 12/93

"ANSI C & C++: Making The Choice" in Software Design (Japan), 1/92; also in SunWorld, 6/92

"C++: A Pragmatic Approach To Object-Oriented Progamming" in SunWorld, 5/91; also in SunWorld (Japan), 9/91; and Expert Systems Applications (UK), Vol. 8 No. 11

 

Education:

   
Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York
Bachelor of Technology in Systems Software Science (Computer Science)