One of the many perks of this job is that I have an opportunity each month to sit down with some of the most influential people in our space and learn a little more about them, their current technology interests, and what makes them tick. This month I had the pleasure of chatting with a dear friend, Damir Tomicic.
Damir is the co-founder and chief executive of axinom. Based in Germany, he is a Microsoft Regional Director, author, speaker, and global technology advocate, with a passion for food and basketball. Read on to learn more…
SF: Over the years, community has evolved quite a bit. You’ve been active with INETA (the International .NET Association) since its inception. What is the biggest change you’ve seen?
DT: INETA community is really one of the best organized and most expert developer communities in the world today. However today’s INETA user group model is focused very much around communities of expert practitioners within single technologies where the reality forces many to play with different technologies (e.g. in a mobile world) and explore new approaches. With more developers looking to expand their skillsets, I expect that we’ll see INETA communities paying more attention to supporting new to intermediate developers coming into the community and a little less to deep-dives into expert-level topics. We’ll see more Cloud and more mobile topics on the agenda in the future.
This change of focus is already being reflected within the INETA community. We’re seeing an increasing number of people wanting to hold Developer Camps focused on broader topics like Cloud or device development. Such events are a great way to reach out to new community members and introduce them to new topics, as you have more time than a typical user group meeting.
SF: Interesting that the need for developers to support the multi-channel world is being seen at the community level, and yet not surprising. It makes perfect sense.
But to hear you say it means a lot. You are more than a member of this community you are truly an advocate for technology innovation – serving as a board member for Association for Competitive Technology (ACT) involved in different initiatives like Industry Coalition for Data Protection (ICDP)and the European Commission’s Digital Agenda. Tell us a little about your experiences with all of that.
DT: Well, it is a life changing experience. The opportunity to speak and tell your story on stage at the European Parliament in Brussels or in front of the United Nations in Nairobi is nothing that happens every day to an ordinary developer. And I’m just that. I’m not a political spokesperson nor a lawyer but a small business owner trying to create innovative products and sell them to the customers. Our industry is exciting and there are so many changes and opportunities on the horizon.
Having said that, I’m perfectly aware that only having great ideas is not enough to become and remain successful in the future. Our economic reality has become a dinner table conversation both with business partners and my friends and family. Our government actions (in Germany, European Union and everywhere else in the world) must be careful to preserve the opportunities for us to compete with the big companies. To be able to make the right decisions our political representatives need to be informed about our needs and threats we see for our future. Being involved in ACT is also a great responsibility - ACT is the voice of over 3,000 small and mid-size IT firms throughout the world.
SF: Such an amazing experience! Our industry is lucky to have you representing. If someone wanted to become more involved, what advice would you give them?
DT: The best way is simply to get in touch and make your own experiences. It’s the way I did it and this is the reason why I’m still involved. This world is sometimes not logical and hard to understand. Making your own experiences and getting your own impressions behind the scenes is the best motivation for your activities.
I’m more than happy to serve as a starting point for anyone interested in participating.
SF: That’s great advice and a generous offer. Turning our attention to your company, axinom, for a moment – you’ve been involved in some pretty high-profile and leading edge programs of late. Can you tell us about some of those?
DT: This is the most exciting time I experienced in my business life to date. We’re in the front row of digital ecosystem convergence between IT, Telecoms, Media and Entertainment. Every second day a new exciting gadget is popping up somewhere and literally everyone tries to enable media consumption on all possible devices at any time. Netflix is an example but there are millions of similar offerings worldwide. This is a huge market opportunity and axinom is growing steadily.
Just speaking from a technical perspective, delivering premium media content (e.g. Hollywood blockbusters) to different devices while assuring great user experience and highest possible security for the content is anything but an easy task. There’s the serious magic behind the scenes needed to make this happen. That’s why we invested heavily in building a set of products in the Cloud dedicated to this scenario.
We selected Windows Azure Cloud and worked closely with Microsoft to create Media Services on top of it and extend it with our solutions – for DRM, asset management and content delivery. At the CeBIT trade fair in Hannover in March and the NAB show in Las Vegas in April we will showcase it to the public – one solution portfolio for Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Android and iOS devices, Xbox 360 and Smart TV based on Windows Azure Media Services.
Last but not least we also founded a digital agency, axinom interactive, focused on creating new user experiences on mobile devices. We want our customer solutions to be not only technically outstanding, but as attractive and exciting as possible.
SF: Sounds like a very exciting time at axinom. Congratulations! I know you have worked on a lot of great projects, but can you tell us about the one that is the most interesting or memorable to you?
DT: That’s easy. BoardConnect. No matter where they are these days, people want a range of music to suit every taste, video on demand, shopping, games – and the Internet, of course. Until now, on board of an aircraft there was limited access to such services. Almost 5 years ago, we started literally a world changing project for our customer Lufthansa Systems: new in-flight entertainment (IFE) solution BoardConnect aimed to replace complex legacy in-flight entertainment solutions via an onboard WiFi network. This project required everything a developer may imagine – entirely new concepts, highly sophisticated server and communication technologies serving all possible client mobile devices on the market; and is literally in the Cloud.
The result is outstanding – last year BoardConnect was awarded with two of the biggest industry awards and is widely recognized as the most innovative IFE solution on the market. And axinom built a competency over the years, which is really rare and unique in the market.
SF: I remember talking to you about that before. What an innovative project to be a part of. Very exciting! So, what technology trends are you currently most interested in?
DT: I’m all in into the Cloud – both from business and development perspective. This new world opens a door to a tremendous potential for new application approaches and business models we never thought about in the past. And we’re just at the beginning of it. Following my business focus on media scenarios I’m heavily involved in Windows Azure Media Services with Microsoft where we build a multi-tenant media platform which will be entirely service oriented and provide Cloud benefits for the customers regarding scalability and efficiency.
Speaking of the Cloud...Back in 2009 I was speaking at the conference in Frankfurt to 200 C-level executives in German-speaking market about the benefits of the Cloud approach. Almost 75% of the executives declared that the Cloud will not be relevant to them before 2020 just because of all the legacy systems in companies and investments already made in past years. Well, it is 2013 now and the Cloud is literally everywhere.
People may change their minds rather quickly as it seems.
SF: That they do! As quickly as people change their minds, so do the demands of their users. Developers are being tasked with creating unified digital applications that provide outstanding experiences across multiple platforms and devices. Given that, what advice do you have for developers who want to be successful in this new world?
DT: Lately, I’ve noticed an increasing amount of discussion about the role of the “platform agnostic” developer – a developer who is equally comfortable across a range of languages and technologies, switching from one to another as each new project or customers requires.
It makes sense for developers to explore this approach. In today’s environment, with significant fragmentation in the mobile world, lots of change in the browser environment, and new devices coming to market practically every week, sticking to closely to what’s worked in the past can limit your future options. As always the decision of which technology to go with is often dependent on what your app will need to do. Be clear on what your business objectives are, and see which method serves them best.
However here’s the catch – by evaluating a number of new frameworks and approaches developers may lose focus and competency as there is simply not enough time for a deep dive into single technologies. Therefore select the most usable technologies and make sure that you have enough time to become an expert.
SF: Great advice. So, turning to more serious things...Those who know you know you have a great appreciation for food. So, if you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?
DT: That would be such a pain and torture for a foodie like me. I can’t even imagine doing that ... Seriously ... No way!
SF: LOL! Fair enough. Your passion for basketball is only second to your passion for technology and food. Who are your picks to make it to The NBA Finals? Who will take it all?
DT: Ah – this is something I love to talk about! It seems odd to expect a déjà vu but nevertheless I expect the team with the Big Three from Miami once again to meet the Oklahoma City Thunder in The Finals. I hope this year that Thunder will make it because of the best bench in the league. San Antonio Spurs are great but they are just dominating the season, most likely not the playoffs. However personally I’d love to see LA Clippers deep in the playoffs and perhaps even in the conference finals - CP3 is my favorite and a type of a player I always wanted to be.
SF: Well, there you have it! If Miami meets Oklahoma City in The Finals, you can say you heard it hear first! Damir, always a pleasure. Thank you!