Name With The Face: Peter Pawlowski
Job Title: Software Engineer and Lead Linguist
Organization: Vivisimo, Inc.
www.vivisimo.com
Job Function: Vivisimo provides clustering technology used to enhance search results. “Our product, Vivisimo Velocity, organizes results of a search task for our customers,” says Peter Pawlowski, software engineer and lead linguist. In an enterprise, Vivisimo Velocity works within the existing environment. “For example, if you are a researcher who goes to many different data sources or search engines, we can make all of those come together in one place.” Vivisimo also offers a public facing site at www.clusty.com, which started out as a way to demonstrate the Velocity product. “But now we’ve got Clusty as a money-making site with some advertising,” Pawlowski says.
“Velocity operates in any language, but it needs to be optimized for the language first, so I’ve been involved to optimize for the German language and the Arabic language,” Pawlowski says. He holds degrees in both German and Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University. When the company needed to create an Arabic language version Pawlowski saw it as a challenge. “I learned the Arabic writing system, the grammar system, and some words, which is the minimal amount required to work on the product,” he says.
In a Day’s Work: “I’ve built some custom projects because now I have a good understanding of the various corners of the Velocity product,” he says. “We use Webinar software to show what we do with both potential clients and existing clients so they are comfortable with the products.” But he’s still very active with developing product. “I’ll put my headphones on and write code most days,” he says.
Oddest Client Encounter: “At a startup company in the process of developing its site, a developer went ‘renegade’ by rebranding the site as his own and changing all the passwords. We had to figure out how to recover our software as he was driving across the country to confront his boss.”
View from the Desk: “We just moved into a new office. The technical area is a big open space with a big window facing a library across the street.”
Outside Interest: “Caving is my biggest thing now. I’ve been all around the country to explore caves. The caving culture is secretive but I’ve made some good friends. It’s good to get dirty!”
If not Econtent, Then What?: “I’d love to be teaching English as a second language and live outside the U.S.”
