Websites from Minnesota, United States

Clint McMahon is a software engineer and architect based in Minneapolis. He specializes in .NET, Azure, and solving complex technical problems, currently designing and building systems for the legal industry. With over 20 years of experience writing code, primarily in .NET, Azure, and Umbraco, he helps organizations untangle technical messes. Beyond his professional work, Clint writes about software development, brews espresso, and runs a t-shirt company called Big Little Cities.

Alissa Condra is a UX designer and AI builder. She helps organizations make meaningful progress with AI by creating strategic user experiences and implementing artificial intelligence tools. Alissa simplifies complex tasks and features to create engaging digital experiences and deliver strategic business value. Her approach involves understanding the user, the organization, the team, and existing systems to propose the best solution. She has 15+ years of experience across various organization types, industries, and platforms. Alissa is currently working part time on her startup, BoxHawk, and part time on freelance projects for UX design, research, strategy, or website development. She sometimes teaches UX at Academy Xi.

Mark Simonson has been thinking about and drawing letters for as long as he can remember, drawn to their particular forms. He spent decades as a magazine art director and designing packaging and brochures. He didn’t make fonts full-time until well into his forties, considering himself a late bloomer. He feels lucky to be doing something that was once only a pipe dream. Mark works out of a repurposed back bedroom in a modest 1920s-era bungalow in the quiet residential Saint Paul neighborhood of Saint Anthony Park.

Dr. Paul Sufka received his M.D. from the University of Iowa Medical School in 2005 and completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Minnesota in 2008. He completed his fellowship training in rheumatology in June of 2011 with the University of Minnesota Department of Rheumatology. Since June of 2023 he has worked as a rheumatologist with Twin Cities Orthopedics. He has been involved in teaching rheumatology fellows with the University of Minnesota and was the social media editor for the official journals of the American College of Rheumatology. He was also a Founding Steering Committee Member for The COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance. He writes about AI and clinical medicine on his Superintelligent Medicine Substack.

Bob Martens is the Director of Information Technology for Martin Luther College. He also teaches online at Martin Luther College and The College of Saint Scholastica, focusing on technology and its application in professional and educational contexts. Bob completed his PhD in Leadership from University of the Cumberlands in 2023. He is now writing and offering consulting through Living Water Leadership, a Substack site he started in 2024, to further his research into servant leadership and ministry. Bob lives in New Ulm, Minnesota with his wife and four children.

Kyle Marek-Spartz is a Senior Resilience Engineering Manager at Shipt (a Target subsidiary). He has experience managing engineers and building resilient systems. He previously worked at Amazon as a Systems Development Manager and Systems Development Engineer. Earlier in his career, Kyle co-founded Celador and worked as a Site Reliability Engineer and Software Engineer at Granicus. He holds an MBA with a concentration in Leadership and Change Management from Hamline University and a BA in Linguistics with a minor in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota. Kyle serves on the board of Saint Paul Neighbor Network and facilitates Resilience Coffee.

Soren Bjornstad is a software developer, information systems designer, computer geek, writer, and musician living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He currently works at RemNote, developing a new learning tool. Soren writes about technology and our relationship to it on Control-Alt-Backspace. He also maintains educational resources on TiddlyWiki, including his online textbook Grok TiddlyWiki and a YouTube channel. He maintains Mosaic Muse, a repository of notes. In his free time, he enjoys collecting and exploring ideas in his various notes systems, cooking, baking, and canning, playing music, writing, reading, and hiking or boating.

This person, who uses he/him/his pronouns, works in technology and enjoys understanding how things work. He sees this as a special interest and is grateful that it overlaps with his career. He appreciates the latitude for experimentation his career has allowed. In his spare time, he enjoys learning and seeing new knowledge applied across disciplines. He carries a coin that says “Know Yourself” and uses his website as an effort to keep his writing skills strong and to learn as he writes. He lives in St. Paul, MN with his wife and kid.

Tony Mottaz is a web developer based in Minnesota. He works on front-end development at Indigo Ag and also does freelance work. Outside of his tech work, Tony is a father and husband, and is involved in music. He teaches high school marching band, co-directs the Minnesota Timberwolves PACKcussion drumline, and arranges percussion music for the UW-La Crosse Screaming Eagles marching band. He also enjoys amateur photography and writes on his tech-focused blog.

Justin Andersun builds tech products and writes fiction. He focuses on machine learning and data-heavy systems, with an interest in tools that encourage care and accountability. He is conscientious, neurotic, agreeable, and open to new experiences. Justin is from Michigan, a practicing Catholic, and a regular blood donor. He enjoys mountaineering and once could ride a unicycle.

Barry Hess enjoys writing and the internet. He has spent years exploring the web and is currently focused on doing work that is 'good enough'. He also enjoys woodworking. Barry maintains a personal newsletter, a blog, and a commonplace book, among other writing projects. He encourages others to blog as well.

Alison Bergblom Johnson is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores disability and joy. She creates multidisciplinary work in service to survival, amplification, and community. Alison collaborates with numerous community care and art organizations, including Fresh Eye Gallery, Strike Theater, the Loft Literary Center, Springboard for the Arts, and the Walker Art Center. Her collage, storytelling, and essays often approach taboo topics such as disability and sexuality in inclusive ways. Topics she's addressed in her work include the Craigslist personals, traumatic experiences including sexual violence, gender, and mental health treatment.

Ian Wold is a software engineer, architect, and team leader based in Minneapolis with 14 years of professional experience. He specializes in .NET but enjoys working with a diverse set of technologies. He studied Philosophy and Computer Science at the University of Iowa. Ian focuses on finding simple, elegant solutions to complicated problems through thoughtful relationships with people. Outside of work, he enjoys local pubs, breweries, church gatherings, walking, biking, canoeing, billiards, philosophy, and classical architecture.

Dan Bailey is a software engineer, dad, and partner living in the Minneapolis suburbs. He has a BA in Creative Writing. Dan is an autodidact and polymath who enjoys learning and digging deep into disparate areas of knowledge. He reads deeply in areas including biology, neurosciences, and linguistics. He has learned to build bicycle frames from scratch and is working on learning how to play guitar and how to draw. He writes about productivity, cool DIY projects, and bicycling.

Jade Michael Thornton is an engineering manager and software engineer based in the Twin Cities, Minnesota. Currently, Jade manages the Enterprise Growth engineering team at DroneDeploy. Prior to DroneDeploy, Jade worked at FlightAware, Thomson Reuters, Maverick Software, and the Humphrey School of Public Affairs. Jade has studied computer science at the University of Minnesota and Saint Paul College, and is continuing studies in computer science and philosophy at the University of Minnesota. Jade is also a weather enthusiast and knows a lot about taking care of house rabbits. Jade's favorite language is Clojure.

J. Nemitz is interested in development environments, music, and tools like Git, Zsh, Tmux, and Vim. They have created a color scheme for terminals and written about topics such as Git aliases, Spotify integration in Tmux, and local linking in Vim. They also publish a series called 'Sound Bytes'.

Erik is an author who began writing his first novel at age 16. He later published "Rise to the Rahz" and its sequel, "Sound of Stone," after leaving corporate America at age 27. He also wrote two short books on the board game Diplomacy: "Diplomacy Conversations" and "Conversations with Barbosa." More recently, Erik has published books focused on Minnesota elections and a travelogue set in Minneapolis. He also writes a blog and a site exploring how we vote, and helps others write and publish books.