■IGOR KATKOV is one of the lucky ones - he was born into a generation of home computing. His first computer, acquired at age ten, was a Partner 01.01 (clone of Radio 86RK). This was followed up with a ES-1841 and Igor’s first real programming project: the Gomoku game. He has willingly been chained to a computer since then.

Having studied math and artificial intelligence at university, he has devoted his time to working and developing technology in various industries, including retail, financial, and media. As a developer, he has written numerous systems, from web projects to enterprise online banking systems.
Since the dotcom era, Igor has concentrated on software design and engineering processes, following closely the introduction of the Java and .NET platform. This focus currently forms the basis of his day-to-day activities. Passionate about the provision of software engineering processes as the glue that binds and industrializes software development, he is a firm believer in software as a commodity.

Currently, Igor is a senior software architect at Viigo Inc. He can also be found participating in the “blogosphere” and in various newsgroups and discussion groups. And in his spare time, he enjoys hiking, photography, and occasional interaction with other humans.