By day, I am a software engineer and application developer. An early adopter of mobile app development, I found a niche in building for Windows Phone and worked on a number of smaller apps such as Twitter, Gowalla, ShopSavvy, and Archie Comics. After writing a UX critique of the Windows Phone application architecture and submission process, I was hired by Microsoft to the Windows Phone developer advocacy team.
While at Microsoft, I hosted the Inside Windows Phone Channel 9 show and became a key trainer and speaker. I co-wrote and hosted the Windows 8.1 Jumpstart Series and spoke at the Build 2013 on multi-device architecture for Windows and Windows Phone. From there, I shifted toward building multi-device solutions, from IoT to Windows to XBox to chat bot solutions and, finally, augmented reality. I worked with the Windows Design Group creating tutorials and prototype experiences for HoloLens, Microsoft’s AR device.
In 2017 I joined MLB Advanced Media, where I was the lead developer for the NHL XBox streaming app. I also worked on ESPN+ for both PlayStation and XBox until our company was purchased by Disney so that they would have an industry-leading streaming and application team to build Disney+.
In my off time, I am a relentless creator of new things. I love teaching and tinkering with data and visualization techniques, which led to my contribution to the O’Reilly bestseller Beautiful Visualization. I taught myself how to scrape and visualize genetics data and volunteered to lead the data gathering and API management for the Covid Tracking Project. And whenever I think there is something interesting about the latest news in data and AI, I try to write it down.
I also like to bake cakes.
Follow me on X (Twitter) at @matthiasshap, on github at matthiasxc, or contact me at matthias(dot)shapiro at outlook.com