about.html

---
title: About Us
team: active
layout: onecolumn
description: Meet the team
---

<h2>How it All Began</h2>

<p>
  Signal K began in a GitHub issue, as a solution for 5 developers to make their projects interoperable. Frustrated at
  the closed protocols, expensive hardware and internet “unfriendliness” of marine data, they decided to develop a new
  “Open Data Standard” that would compliment and expand the existing marine data protocols.
</p>
<p>
  By utilising modern web technologies and protocols, running on low cost but powerful hardware platforms and
  encouraging an open and collaborative community of developers all working to a common goal, they have managed to
  create a really powerful and expandable data format, that will change the marine electronics market forever.
</p>

<h2>Meet the Team</h2>

<p>
  Although the number of contributors and developers has significantly increased over the last few years, the core team
  of 5 developers and 1 installer/writer that made it all happen, are still actively involved and making sure their
  “baby” is growing as it should:
</p>

<ul class="team-grid">
  <li class="profile">
    <div class="picture-wrapper">
      <img alt="Robert Huitema" src="{{site.path}}/images/rob_s.jpg" height="190" width="190">
    </div>
    <h4 class="name">Robert Huitema</h4>
    <p>
      Sailing since early 90s. Spent 2 years sailing the Pacific Islands and Australia with my family. While cruising,
      began using an Arduino for various onboard tasks, and in 2011 started the
      <a href="http://www.42.co.nz/freeboard/">Freeboard project</a>.
    </p>
  </li>
  <li class="profile">
    <div class="picture-wrapper">
      <img alt="Teppo Kurki" src="https://avatars0.githubusercontent.com/u/1049678?v=3&s=190" height="190" width="190">
    </div>
    <h4 class="name">Teppo Kurki</h4>
    <p>
      Cruises the Baltic on a Raspberry Pi equipped sailboat and helps Signal K along whenever daytime job permits.
      <a href="https://github.com/tkurki/navgauge/issues/4">Started</a> with Signal K effort based on experiences
      writing <a href="https://github.com/tkurki/navgauge">Navgauge</a>.
    </p>
  </li>
  <li class="profile">
    <div class="picture-wrapper">
      <img alt="Tim Mathews" src="{{site.path}}/images/tim_s.jpg" height="190" width="190">
    </div>
    <h4 class="name">Tim Mathews</h4>
    <p>
      Sailor, software engineer, tinkerer. Maintains
      <a href="https://github.com/timmathews/argo">Argo</a> &amp;
      <a href="https://github.com/timmathews/pyxis-web">Pyxis</a>
    </p>
  </li>
  <li class="profile">
    <div class="picture-wrapper">
      <img alt="Fabian Tollenaar" src="{{site.path}}/images/fabian_s.jpg" height="190" width="190">
    </div>
    <h4 class="name">Fabian Tollenaar</h4>
    <p>
      Competitive and recreational sailor from an early age.
      Business founder and programmer, wrote Saildata which evolved into the
      <a href="http://github.com/signalk/signalk-server-node" target="_blank">Node.js Signal K server</a>
    </p>
  </li>
  <li class="profile">
    <div class="picture-wrapper">
      <img alt="Kees Verruijt" src="https://avatars3.githubusercontent.com/u/1608058?v=3&s=190" height="190" width="190" />
    </div>
    <h4 class="name">Kees Verruijt</h4>
    <p>
      Started computing life building an Acorn Atom and still writes C code for a living. Maintains the
      <a href="https://github.com/canboat/canboat">CANBoat</a> open source NMEA 2000 analyzer and the
      <a href="https://github.com/canboat/BR24radar_pi">Navico radar plugin</a> for OpenCPN.
    </p>
  </li>
  <li class="profile">
    <div class="picture-wrapper">
      <img alt="Bill Bishop" src="{{site.path}}/images/bill.jpg" height="190px" width="190px" />
    </div>
    <h4 class="name">Bill Bishop</h4>
    <p>
      Sailor, boating writer, marine electronics installer with twenty five years of factory automation and robotics
      sales management experience.
    </p>
  </li>
</ul>

<p>
  We are all sailors, and all geeks! We work as developers and specialists in a highly connected internet world, and we
  want to enjoy the benefits on our boats.
</p>