About Us
Our company started 2004, when six geeks parted ways with an established Internet company firm that was switching from software development to focus exclusively on sales of the products we had already built. That former company was our first customer for continued product support.
We were happy to leave proprietary platforms behind and move toward Open Source software development. That's where we've been working and where believe the future of technology is headed.
The Geek Gene, LLC is designed operate as a "company without walls," providing flexible opportunities for geeks to participate in developing cutting-edge software solutions. All of our employees and contracted geeks are rewarded using a performance-based metrics system (an example of an alternative currency systems that we implement for our customers as well). You can find out more about how to participate with us.
We actively support our local community and many other grass-roots, community-oriented projects.
And yes, it's true -- we're geeks and proud of it. We've got the geek gene so you don't have to.
Arthur Brock
Location
After designing an interdisciplinary degree in Artificial Intelligence at Michigan State University, Brock began his corporate career with General Motors in their Advanced Engineering Systems area working in Artificial Intelligence. He tutored colleagues in linguistics, established the research library, and designed their criteria for Natural Language Processing software evaluation and processes. He went on to work with Chrysler in Expert Systems and later brought his technical experience to Hughes Aircraft in Colorado.
Seeking to escape the confines of corporate culture, Brock started his first business, Artful Solutions. This computer consulting and software design firm developed custom financial software for investment companies and process management tools for small businesses. However, his passion for design did not stop at software or business processes; during this time Brock also invented a highly-efficient, multi-fuel turbine engine, fluid dynamic drag brake and an ergonomic multi-position chair. He also put his hand to graphic design and layout in publishing the Journal for Integral Living serving the holistic health community in Michigan.
Brock’s involvement with youth, through the local youth group he ran, began to draw his interests toward education and community. For Landmark Education he served on a local advisory board, as well as their national technology committee and their operations redesign committee. He co-founded the Foundation for Inventive Learning which sponsored educational programs for youth as immersive learning communities where the students designed their own studies as well as participated in managing the practical affairs of the community. The Foundation also sponsored school which operates on this model – the Alpine Valley School, which inspired Brock’s move to Colorado to get it off the ground.
Brock became intrigued by the possibility of applying this model of a “learning community” to the realm of business and gathered together key people with whom he wanted to create and work – his “dream team.” They founded Dream Team Technologies to demonstrate the viability of this participatory business model. Brock designed and managed the development of Dream Team’s interactive internet platform for collaboration, community building and content management.
His experience in business along with exposure to emerging ideas in economic development led him to seek new ways of overcoming the persistent financial limitations and constraints which seem to plague entrepreneurs, non-profits and community builders. Brock began to design innovative “currency” solutions to stimulate the flow of resources in businesses and communities. He founded Targeted Currencies Network and developed the FlowSpace™ process to identify key success factors in implementing currency solutions. Soon TCN will be launching a configurable technology infrastructure to support businesses and community leaders in the efficient launch and management of these systems for unlocking the latent wealth in our organizations and communities.
He is a founder of the Mile High Business Alliance and ColoradoLocalFirst.com and runs The Geek Gene, a collaborative, open source software development company. The Geek Gene builds online community tools and has developed a platform for highly customizable currencies, incentives, ratings and feedback.
Mike Buland
Mike was always fascinated with computers, and started trying to program way back in elementary school on his parents' Commodore 64. He later graduated to programming in GW Basic on the family 386 around 4th grade. He moved on to C in 6th grade and junior high, and expanded into C++. Programming was always more of a passion than a hobby, and he spent most of his time either reading his dad's old sci-fi collection or programming something or other.
He and a friend in elementary school started their own software company, and although they never made any money with it, it was a fun experience. That gave way to several contract programming jobs in high school and work for a local geophysical and GIS software firm out of Golden. There he worked on mapping software and Census TIGER/Line interface systems.
After high school Mike attended Regis University in Denver studying Computer Science and Mathematics. There he refined his self-taught skills and explored many new and interesting topics including Artificial Life, Genetic Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, Cellular Automata, Database Theory, Data Structures, and more. He did a large amount of work in the area of neural networks and artificial life simulations, including pattern recognition, music generation, art generation, problem solving, and simulated ecosystems.
It was also in college that Mike started developing libbu++, incidentally for a game project that he was working on. Libbu++ became a general library of very handy C++ code and has continued to grow and be refined today, and is the foundation of a number of Geek Gene projects.
In his personal life, Mike has now been married for two years, and he and his wife have recently purchased a house. He enjoys reading, and writing fantasy and science fiction, as well as playing table top role playing games with his friends. He enjoys gardening and working around the house, and also has a great time working on cars. He is currently restoring a 1987 Porsche 944, and his wife is shopping for a 1980's era Corvette that she can work on.
David Braden
David started programming around the age of ten. While at this point he works mainly with c++, he has a wide range of experience including vb6, c#, python, and in-depth javascript.
Hobbies include video games, hiking, snowboarding, sci-fi, and even programming. When in the right mood, he can speak conversationally in Japanese.
... more coming soon ...
James Ballard
I've never really liked or been good at talking about myself.
It seems inherently egotistical, and generally contrary to my default operating status.
I'm just this guy, you know? I was born; I've done some stuff; I've lived in houses and apartments, alone and with friends/family. I haven't died yet, so I continue to do stuff because not doing anything is boring.
Trust me, I've tried it. Sure, it's great for the first few days, maybe a week if you were really busy before you did nothing. But then the boredom settles in, the novelty wears off. There's nothing to do if your goal is to do nothing. (Plus you get really hungry, since cooking and eating food count as doing things.)
It's grating, to me at least, to waste days like that.
I am by no means one of the group of people who Get Things Done with capital letters and everything. I do stuff. Most of it doesn't seem particularly exciting.
I do weird things sometimes, mostly because I haven't learned that it can't be done. Like that time I set up a distributed RAID over four networked computers in a render farm. When I tell people about it, they either stare blankly because they have no idea what I just said, or they make a face like this O.o because the idea is generally orthogonal to conventional thinking. My reasoning was thus: the render farm is not using hardly any disk space, but all the computers in it are repurposed desktop PCs that have at least 80GB free on average. Their CPUs are being used, but that disk space is just going to waste, and the file server is filling up.
I talked with Mike, who knows more about linux-based systems and tools than I do, and he said "That's weird, but might be possible ..." So with his help I got a proof of concept working. It's a quirky and roundabout way of doing things, but it worked. It would have worked better if I had used a more fault tolerant RAID level. RAID-1 meant if any of the four computers involved went offline, the whole array crashed.
I also claim to be some sort of fiction writer, though this has yet to be proven and my fiction sales remain at 0, almost certainly because I haven't submitted anything I've written to any fiction markets. This goes back to me not being egotistical; I think my writing, by and large, is utter crap and no one should see it ever. Well, not quite that bad. Some of it is enjoyable. And some friends say they enjoy what I write, but as I said they're friends. They could be lying to spare my feelings.
So here I am, 27, living in Lakewood, Colorado with a couple of friends and working with a couple more friends. The two sets of friends are not mutually exclusive.
I grew up in Colorado but moved to Portland, Oregon for a few years. It was nice, but I missed the cold and the snow too much. Now I'm back in Colorado and find I miss the rain and humidity, but I know if I go back I'll realize Portland doesn't have as much rain as I remember, and the humidity is murder in the summer.
I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me Colorado or give me someplace else! I'm not terribly picky. Seattle seemed nice...
Mickki Langston
I am an entrepreneur, world traveler, and day dreamer. I am passionate for learning about and experimenting with new ways of living and working in community. My current focus in this domain revolves around organizing locally-owned businesses to nourish community strength, and ecovillages as a sustainable model for community-based living.
I am blessed to partner with true visionaries and spend my days with geeks, who I love dearly. I keep saying that one day I'll write a book about the geek phenomenon. Just wait for it...
Where I come from
I've had an interesting, varied, and long job history since age 14. I've washed dishes, waited tables, cleaned about everything you can think of, driven a school bus, been a lunch lady, telemarketed, taught kindergarden, and danced on a beer tub. I've managed residential apartment buildings, been a bookkeeper and managed programs for a non-profit foundation. Most of my days are now filled working with Arthur Brock and other amazing people to build the Mile High Business Alliance for Denver's locally-owned businesses. The important thing to remember about my job history (for those who can't imagine it), is that I've been working since I was 14 years old, and I've usually had 3 jobs at a time.
I am Potawatomi, enrolled in the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, the ninth largest federally-recognized native tribe in the US. I am Thunder Clan, and ever learning what being Native American means for me and how I can contribute to this community.