{"id":2445,"date":"2012-01-20T13:26:45","date_gmt":"2012-01-20T21:26:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/?p=2445"},"modified":"2012-01-23T07:38:13","modified_gmt":"2012-01-23T15:38:13","slug":"better-know-a-webdev-will-kahn-greene-aka-willkg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2012\/01\/20\/better-know-a-webdev-will-kahn-greene-aka-willkg\/","title":{"rendered":"Better Know a WebDev: Will Kahn-Greene aka willkg"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome back to the third<\/em> epic installment of Better Know a WebDev<\/a>!<\/p>\n

We started with our illustrious director, Mike Morgan<\/a>, and then someone volunteered that the chronicler, yours truly<\/a>, should be up next. But now we’re just going to randomly hop around through our entire web dev family. And there’s a lot of us!<\/p>\n

Up this week, put your internet hands together for Will Kahn-Greene<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

\"WillKG\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What do you do at Mozilla?<\/h3>\n

I’m a software engineer in the webdev group that works on the software that runs support.mozilla.org. That entails working directly on kitsune\u2014the software that runs support.mozilla.org\u2014and its dependencies. I also spend some time working on making development life easier.<\/p>\n

Any fun side projects you’re working on?<\/h3>\n

I have too many side projects, so I sort of bounce between them month-to-month. I’m the current maintainer of Pyblosxom<\/a>\u2014a file-based weblog system. I’m a cofounder of MediaGoblin<\/a> and help maintain project infrastructure. I run Python Miro Community<\/a>. I also work on Miro<\/a> and Miro Community<\/a>, though in a diminished capacity since I left PCF to work at Mozilla.<\/p>\n

How did you get started in web development?<\/h3>\n

Long story short, I started writing web pages and CGI programs in C, then Perl, in undergrad. I learned enough to become an “authority” and taught a class on web-design and authoring in Microsoft Online Institute. The version of MOLI that I used was a web-based chat system. I thought it was pretty lacking, so I did my senior undergrad thesis studying web-based instruction and building a better system. From there, I did a bunch of consulting on large web-sites using IIS\/ASP then Java EJBs\/JSP\/Servlets. After consulting, I switched sides (producer \u2192 consumer of web apps) and worked for a company writing a scraper for financial data.<\/p>\n

How did you get involved with Mozilla?<\/h3>\n

In undergrad, we had Mosaic installed on the computers in the lab and I used that until I switched to Netscape. I used that for a few versions, then got really excited when Mozilla formed and started doing M releases. I’ve been using a Mozilla browser ever since.<\/p>\n

I worked for Participatory Culture Foundation<\/a> on the Miro media player<\/a>, but while there worked on a variety of side projects including Firefox extensions, scripts that augmented the PCF Bugzilla instance, Universal Subtitles, and also I wrote the code that showed enclosure information in the feed preview page for Firefox 3 (or 3.5\u2014I forget when it landed).<\/p>\n

When a Mozilla recruiter asked if I’d be interested in working for Mozilla as an employee, I jumped at the chance.<\/p>\n

What’s a funny fail story or mistake you can share?<\/h3>\n

Seems like everyone’s done the “rm -rf \/” thing. Me, too. Though it was less funny and more of that “oh, what have I done!” sinking feeling of despair.<\/p>\n

The fail story I often tell people who seem apprehensive about computers and doing things with them happened when I was in undergrad. I had been programming since like 4th grade in a bunch of environments and knew my way around PC computers, Windows… but I hadn’t had much experience with Macs. In college, we had a Mac lab. So I trot into the Mac lab to work on my first homework assignment for CS 1 and I sit down and I look at the Mac and it had no visible on\/off switch. I looked on the sides and the back. Nothing\u2014no switches or anything on\/off-related. I looked for instructions nearby. Nothing. I was so embarrassed that I couldn’t figure out how to turn the computer on that I left and got a 0 on that homework. Turns out that the “on” key was on the keyboard in the upper right hand corner and had a triangle on it. For this particular Mac, there was no “off” switch. I never would have guessed that. The moral of the story being that computers are mysterious and a total pain in the ass even for people who have lots of experience with them.<\/p>\n

What’s coming up that you’re excited about?<\/h3>\n

I started at Mozilla in September 2011, so I’ve only been here a short while and it’s hard not to be excited about everything. Seems like every day I hang out with the Mozilla folks, I learn something new and about the existence of ten things I wasn’t previously aware of.<\/p>\n

A less hand-wavey answer might go along these lines: I’m excited about the momentum towards open web apps and reducing the barriers to web development. Literacy with web development is a powerful thing. Being able to run apps everywhere is also a powerful thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome back to the third epic installment of Better Know a WebDev! We started with our illustrious director, Mike Morgan, and then someone volunteered that the chronicler, yours truly, should be up next. But now we’re just going to randomly … Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1438,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13604],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"yoast_head":"\nBetter Know a WebDev: Will Kahn-Greene aka willkg - Mozilla Web Development<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2012\/01\/20\/better-know-a-webdev-will-kahn-greene-aka-willkg\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"mozilla\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2012\/01\/20\/better-know-a-webdev-will-kahn-greene-aka-willkg\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/webdev\/2012\/01\/20\/better-know-a-webdev-will-kahn-greene-aka-willkg\/\",\"name\":\"Better Know a WebDev: Will Kahn-Greene aka willkg - 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