Himeji, Japan, March 2006.

Peter Wastholm — CV

Also available: PDF version.

Hard or Soft?

Specialization is for insects. — Robert A. Heinlein

"You are like milk," my then-team leader once told me.

"Huh?" I said, eloquently, as I tried to think of a way in which I might remind her of a dairy product.

"Well, you know," she said, "when you're cooking or baking... No matter what you're making, you usually need milk. If you don't have milk, you have a problem."

"And," she continued, "when I hear about some new project, I almost always think that you should be on the team. You can be used for almost anything."

She had been my boss for about two years when this conversation took place. The first person to ever be recruited to her team fresh out of university, I was a "hard tech" guy in a team that otherwise worked with "soft" issues like structuring information, writing documentation, and producing multimedia. From the start, I made it a point to tiptoe the line between "hard" technologist and "soft" information designer, and thus came to write both users' manuals and program code, design both graphics and databases, and manage both development projects and training programs.

I have been a generalist ever since. I have broadened my academic scope by studying artificial intelligence and computational linguistics at the Stockholm and Uppsala universities, my experience from working in different roles by starting three different companies, and my practical skills by working as an art director and a reporter.

So maybe I am like milk.

Contact

Peter Wastholm
Kungsholms strand 141
11248 Stockholm, SWEDEN

cell +46-708-871418
email peter@wastholm.com
web www.wastholm.com

Design Experience

Print: As Forum08's art director, I have been responsible for the layout of local magazine Nya Gamla stan, and for the production and delivery of printable files (2005–). I also created a short user's guide for Handelsbanken (2007).
Digital: During 2007, I designed and implemented touchpanel interfaces for Astra, Skatteverket (the Swedish tax agency), University West, and others.
Web: Since 1996, I have designed and implemented numerous web applications for ASG, Cap Gemini, Ericsson, HSB Bank, and others — sometimes in solo projects, at other times as a member (or project manager) of a development team.

Management and Entrepreneurial Experience

Entrepreneurship: I co-founded Media Session (which delivered solutions for interactive television to Eurosport) in 2001, and Forum08 (which publishes a local magazine in Stockholm) in 2005. I also started Aphorisms Galore! in 1997; it is now one of the Internet's most popular collections of witty quotations, with over 140,000 visitors per month and over 8,000 registered users.
Management: I have served on the board of Forum08 since 2005 and the Bojen 11 condominium association since around 1997, I have managed several IT projects (both as technical and overall project manager, at Cap Gemini and Ericsson), and I was Cap Gemini's competence area manager for "Internet technology and information design," coordinating in-house training and seminars.

Technical Experience

Programming: Perl (I have been a heavy user since around 1996), C/C++ (I wrote an XML parser from scratch in 2003), Director (numerous projects for Cap Gemini, Ericsson, Bilprovningen (the Swedish motor vehicle inspection company), and others)... I am also familiar with Java, Javascript, Python, Netlinx, shellscripts, PHP, ASP... even various flavors of Basic (I wrote an interactive phone answering machine program in 1995 or so, and various games in the 1980s).
Protocols and data formats: HTTP/HTML/CGI (since 1994), XML (see above), CSS, SMIL, WAP/WML, and others.
Development tools: SourceSafe (at Media Session, 2001–02), ClearCase (at Ericsson, 1999–2001), CVS (also at Ericsson, 1996), RCS (at Stockholm University, around 1994).
Operating systems: Linux power user — I have used Unix-like systems on a daily basis since 1989, and I habitually configured, patched and compiled my own Linux kernels for years until prepackaged kernels became "good enough." Windows experience since 1986 (version 1.01?). Mac experience since around 1993.

Language Skills

Swedish: fluent in speech and writing (native language).
English: fluent in speech and writing ("my second native language;" I use English more or less daily, and I have lived in the United States).
French: basic conversation (I had excellent grades, but that was a few years ago...).
Russian and Czech: some knowledge (I have this inexplicable love for Slavic languages and pick up as much as I can).
Japanese: some knowledge (my wife is Japanese, so I am learning...).
Good linguistic knowledge, having studied computational linguistics (and had an assignment published as a research paper at the SAIS 2005 conference).