Chris Dunphy // chris@twostepsbeyond.comÂ
Harnessing a vast array of experience in the technology field, along with his adventurous spirit – Chris actively works to see a day when technology becomes truly invisible, elegant, intuitive, and empowering.
Chris has a rare combination of experience and skills that allow him to serve as a bridge between engineers, marketeers, hackers, journalists, end users, analysts, enthusiasts, and management. He is an accomplished strategist and marketeer, with particular skill in building and leveraging enthusiast communities.
Chris has a background in Computer Science and Computer Engineering, with dual degrees from Washington University. He is also an accomplished writer and journalist, having migrated to California in 1996 to become the founding Technical Editor of boot Magazine (which is still thriving, and now known and as Maximum PC).
Since then, Chris has held a variety of positions, including:
- Rendition – Chris was the Developer Relations Manager and Chief Evangelist of the pioneering 3D graphics company Rendition, responsible for both the developer relations team and Rendition’s relationship with the online enthusiast community.
- Eazel – Chris was the Director of Online Services and one of the first employees at the hot-till-the-bubble-bursrt Linux-on-the-desktop start-up Eazel. At Eazel, Chris was responsible for everything from crafting launch strategies to keeping the servers alive through repeated Slashdottings.
- Palm / PalmSource – Chris was the Director of Competitive Analysis (aka ‘Chief Spy’) at Palm and then PalmSource. He was a major contributor to both the long-term strategic vision (including the decision to embrace Linux as a kernel), and short-term market positioning. Chris was also an official Palm spokesperson, and was frequently traveling for press tours or to speak at industry conferences.
- PalmSource – In his final role at PalmSource, Chris moved into product management and was responsible for crafting the vision, obtaining funding for, architecting, building and managing a development team, and launching the PalmSource Installer and related technologies. The goal of the PalmSource Installer was to enable trivially easy over-the-air purchase and installation of Palm applications. Before the PalmSource acquisition by Access and resulting change in corporate direction, the PalmSource Installer was getting rave reviews from developers and was on track to become central to every major Palm OS software store.
Since 2006, Chris has made his life is a living laboratory for mobile technology as he lives technomadically exploring the world. He has partnered with Cherie Ve Ard in forming Two Steps Beyond, and together they take on the most interesting consulting projects that they encounter.
Chris is also an avid pilot, having his private pilots license since 1993.