Matt Farina is well-known to many, both for his wide range of experience developing Drupal sites and as the co-host of the Geeks & God podcast, which explores the intersection of religion and technology. Matt has been a long-time friend of Palantir and we're very excited to welcome him aboard. He will be a Senior Developer, very much in the mold of fellow Palantiri, John Wilkins (JohnAlbin). Together with the rest of Colleen (caroltron)'s development team, they will continue to push and prod Drupal interfaces in new and awesome directions.
Building on our expertise in IA and strategy, Palantir is creating a dedicated User Experience Team. The first member of our UX Team is Michael Mesker. Michael is a fantastic illustrator and talented graphic designer. (You might recognize his work from Palantir's Kiki mascot illustration or the Palantir Zen and Forms Reference / Common Hooks and Functions reference cards from Drupalcon DC.) We've collaborated with Michael quite a bit over the last few years and can think of no one better to be the inaugural member of our UX Team.
We also have two awesome interns for the summer: Elliot Vernon, returning for his second tour of duty and Emily Brand, a CS student from Loyola University Chicago. While Elliot's contributions are largely behind the scenes around here, don't be surprised to see Emily knee-deep in the Palantir issue queues.
We continue to see clear waters ahead for both Palantir and Drupal. With economic constraints as they are, companies and organizations are increasingly looking to open source solutions to save costs without sacrificing requirements, performance, or security. With the open source landscape providing robust, feature rich applications, along with vibrant communities, it is not surprising that Drupal, a leading open source content management platform, supports a healthy and growing commercial ecosystem, especially with Acquia providing steady leadership in commercial Drupal support, search, and hosting options.
Feel like testing the Drupal waters yourself? Just let me know.
congratulations!
Very exciting to see Palantir growing like this. Congratulations.