Nick Doiron
Developing our world
My first real-world coding jobs were with One Laptop per Child in Uganda, Uruguay, and Haiti. Though we'd make changes if it were started today , at the time it was cutting edge, a learning experience, and deeply rewarding. In late 2012 / early 2013 I ran an OLPC teacher training program in the Marshall Islands.
In 2015 I developed eBook-authoring software which won a finalist grant from the USAID Enabling Writers competition.
Recently I'm interested in emerging approaches to microfinance and money transfers, such as Islamic finance, smart contract languages, and bridges between mobile carrier wallets and cryptocurrencies.
The best technology writes the future of your community
When I joined Code for America in 2012, no one was sure what civic hacking meant. I received the Key to the City of Macon, GA and won First Place in the 2012 Civic Data Challenge. I've continued to explore civic tech at the City of Boston (2013), Asia Foundation (2015-2016), and "Gerrymandering Summer School" (MGGG 2017).
Some of my most impactful team projects allowed people to plant sparkly trees on Google StreetView, see a 'Rap Genius' explanation of their district borders, or look up their local candidates and polling place in Myanmar's 2015 election.
Live free, travel continuously
I have been a digital nomad since 2014, staying in homes from Iceland to Myanmar to Mongolia. There's an article about it.
Work-life balance: > 50% of that time has been in New York City and San Francisco while working full-time. Lots of neighborhoods to explore!
Some travel blogs: visiting Greenland and Svalbard, mapping the Maldives, Japan travel tips, and finding the original Chateau d'Oiron (with a crocodile!).
this is where we get into technical details:
Open Source Hacker
Cryptography
- Improved functions of OpenPGP.js to fix a common developer error
- OverEncrypt guide to additional TLS settings for Let's Encrypt
- AnnealMail - an outdated fork of Enigmail plugin for Thunderbird, using CodeCrypt's post-quantum encryption tool
Quantum Computing
- jsQuil - a JavaScript SDK for Rigetti Computing's quantum assembly language
- Project Q Framework - adding Rigetti Computing backend to platform-agnostic Python library for quantum computing
Unicode and internationalization / localization
You couldn't use a computer if it displayed your language as little blocks. Open source developers have an opportunity to set the gold standard in supporting the world's languages and being open to accept new translations.
- Enabling i18n in MetaMask (cryptocurrency wallet browser extension) and Twister (decentralized Twitter app)
- A tool to re-label Nepalese cities on OpenStreetMap with their original Nepali names
- Exploratory work on Esperanto NLP with a TensorFlow LSTM model
- Right-to-left language support (Arabic, Dhivehi) and commissioned translations for OpenStreetMap, StreetMix, and Principles of Chaos Engineering
- An offline Haitian Kreyol Dictionary for OLPC with auto-complete
- Marshallese alphabet support in WikiMedia's jQuery IME
- Circular Arabic
- Burmese Crossword Puzzles plus JavaScript libraries: sorting, fuzzy name matching, and Unicode/Zawgyi/WinResearcher encodings
Mapping
Lots of maps:
- Created homomorphic encryption / geo-fence app
- Fixed empty-table bug in Shapefile JS
MajuroJS - custom neighborhood maps - stored 3.7MM buildings from 21 cities in MongoDB
Boston Greenery - custom Boston basemap using CartoCSS
Van Gogh Map - powered by MapBox's WebGL API - now with DIY version
Conferences & Mentoring
Upcoming: IAEA Nuclear Safeguards Summit, PyCon Zimbabwe, maybe your event or class?
In recent years I have been trying to speak at more conferences and reach out to people in more parts of the world and in more industries beyond the web and tech startups. I have spoken at JSConf Iceland, NodeFest Japan, PyCaribbean, the Next Economy Summit, DEFCON's Crypto & Privacy Village, the Unicode Conference, Ignite events, and meetups.
I have some entry-level experience with mentoring fellows in Coding it Forward and encouraging friendly newbies to apply to get started in their own GitHub pull requests and conference talks.
One way which I can likely help is by answering questions. Remember, I can only answer if you ask! Send tech questions by email or Twitter!
Project Shout-outs
Next City "Transit Future Is a Construction Industry Dream, But Should It Be Chicago’s?" - Apr 2014Vice Creators Project " Explore a Van Gogh-Styled Map " - Aug 2014
Praise from SouthieBikes on a City of Boston project (archived here)
Bask in the glory that is the Boston Bike Network Plan! Best interactive map ever. http://t.co/d5Xstcd36T
— SouthieBikes (@SouthieBikes) October 9, 2013
Shout-out from OpenStreetMap iD maintainer on adding Arabic RTL layout
Excited to merge support for right-to-left display into iD today - thanks @mapmeld for your work on this! 🙇 https://t.co/vpQblB9PwV pic.twitter.com/pC2l8Qorn6
— Bryan Housel (@bhousel) October 8, 2016
Praise from Amazon CTO Werner Vogels on Fortran.IO:
I *must* resist - "Fortran.io finally, a Fortran Web Framework" by @mapmeld https://t.co/tXodGsS0Dx pic.twitter.com/Ft8OwF7eYC
— Werner Vogels (@Werner) December 24, 2016