Member Article

The swing dancing programmer comes to Newcastle: Yossef Mendelssohn

Having grown up as the son of a computer programmer, Yossef Mendelssohn played with computers from a very early age.

His fascination with the industry, and proficiency in it, is what will bring him to the North East of England this month, to speak at the Design it: Build it conference.

Yet Yossef Mendelssohn is the antithesis of the ‘all work, no play’ stereotype associated with computer programmers.

Although dedicated to his profession - and rather good at it, if truth be told - Yossef has other ammunition in his arsenal.

He had just moved to Nashville, Tennessee for work in 2006 when his second vocation in life came calling; Swing dancing.

Yossef says: “I didn’t know anyone in Nashville, so I found a dance studio nearby, started taking classes, dances and travelling to events.

“In the years since, I’ve learned, taught, helped, organised, MC’ed and DJ’ed.”

In fact, Yossef plans to attend the European Swing Dance Championships in London at the end of October; a fitting end to his month of contrasts in the UK.

Yossef’s bread and butter is earned at GitHub, a US-based online project hosting and software development platform.

He says GitHub shares his philosophy with regards to programming. “It has always fascinated me the worlds of possibility that open up before you when you have the knowledge and opportunity to build the solutions to your problems.

“I ended up at GitHub because I think the way it allows (and encourages) people to work together increases these opportunities to let so many people solve all manner of problems”.

Yossef will, for once, be stationary, as opposed to swinging his path across a ballroom, as he provides his insight and experiences in Gateshead next Monday and Tuesday.

As far as technical expertise goes, Yossef mostly concentrates on data modelling and design, making sure different components fit together well and fulfill their purpose.

He adds: “My personal interest has largely been focused on collaboration and workflow.”

Just like the industry in which he works, Yossef’s thinking is evolving all the time.

“Lately I’ve been thinking, talking and wondering about learning and communication - how we learn, how we gain knowledge, how we pass it on to others”.

That is the here and now. But what of the future of technology?

“There’s a great future in the further democratization of computing.

“It’s come a long way from the days of mainframes and fighting to get a little bit of time to work on your research project.

“From iPod Touch and iPad to Raspberry Pi and Digispark, we have tiny, remarkably powerful commodity hardware that can drive all manner of devices and power pretty much anything you can dream of.”

Yossef rejected the notion that social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook are becoming too big for their boots, and circumventing issues connected with privacy and ownership of images.

Facebook has been in the news recently, after claims that it violated users’ privacy rights when it overhauled company policies at the end of August. Facebook denied any wrongdoing, and Yossef thinks the technology itself is fine around these issues.

He said: “The future will bring the same thing that’s happened in the past: ideas of privacy and ownership will have to evolve in response to technology.”

Yossef Mendelssohn will speak at the Design it: Build it conference, which is being held at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead on 7-8th October. Click here for more information and tickets.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Graham Vincent .