Sourcefabric introduces its newest developer Edouard Richard
The Sourcefabric team has been growing steadily over last couple of years. We’d like to introduce to you our newest developer, Edourard Richard, who joined Sourcefabric at the end of 2014 and is a member of our Live Blog team. We wanted to learn something more about him and share it with you so we met over a glass of Club Mate in our Berlin office.
Where are you from and what is your background?
I’m originally from France and I studied at INGESUP in Bordeaux, where I got my Masters degree in computer science, programming, and management. During my studies I worked for a company called FFunction, (it stands for Form&Function). FFunction is a Montréal-based studio specializing in information design. They combine software engineering and graphic design to create beautiful data visualizations, infographics, interactive reports and user interfaces for the web.
What happened after you finished your studies?
When I had to return from Montreal back to France to finish my degree, I was looking for a company that was similar to FFunction and was lucky to find Journalism++ based in Paris. Going to work at Journalism++ was a great decision for a couple of reasons: I happened to start shortly after the company was founded, so I was one of the first employees. It’s always very exciting to be part of something new. We also worked for very prestigious clients and developed some award-winning web projects. That was an amazing way to finish my studies.
What exactly did you work on in this company?
I developed tools for journalist such as a chart maker for the web, web documentaries and games for Arte and France Television, interactive maps for articles. I was a developer in the service of media.
Towards the end of my time at Journaism++, I focused on the development of a tool called detective.io. It’s an open source platform which lets users input large data sets, predominantly of people or organisations, and then maps the connections between them into an easily searchable database. It uses network analysis techniques to investigate relationships between different entities.
How did you happen to move to Berlin?
After graduation, my whole team went to Berlin to work together in the Berlin office during the summer, and subsequently they returned back to France at the end. But I decided to stay here. I joined Sourcefabric in December 2014 as a Live Blog developer. I’m focusing on the the front- end site, but I’m also surely discovering the backend of the project. I realize that journalism is very important for sustaining democracy and our freedoms, so I’m very happy to be here to contribute towards this by building open source tools for journalists.
In your short bio on our website you mention Facebook with Moves©. Can you explain this?
Facebook with Moves© is an application which constantly collects data about where I am. Sometimes it’s useful to see where I was at particular time, or for example when I forget where my bike is, I can track it by checking my moves. Only I can access the data, it is not shared with anyone. The best part is that the moves can be visualized in the form of a map!
If you would like to become a member of Sourcefabric team, check out the current job offerings on our jobs page, we would love to hear from you!