Jonathan Marbutt at the early age of ten, began to learn building simple games to amuse his friends and family. Twenty years later, he still has the passion for technology and development. Jonathan loves to share his passion with other developers by writing for his blog and various books as well as speaking at many user groups and technology conferences. Throughout the past three years, Jonathan's focus has primarily been on working with Silverlight and its most recent version for Windows Phone 7. Through this newest version for Windows Phone 7, Jonathan has been able to work on many high profile applications that are rated as some of the most downloaded applications.
Jonathan is also currently the Vice President and Co-founder of WayCool Software, Inc. based in Birmingham, AL which provides solutions for non-profit organizations. Jonathan has also been providing consulting services through his latest venture JM TechWare, Inc. where he helps provide both User Experience and architectural guidance on Silverlight, Windows Phone 7, and WPF applications. In addition to development, Jonathan has co-authored Visual Basic 2010 and .Net 4, published by Wrox Press.
Robb Schiefer Jr. is a follower of Christ, husband to the perfect wife, and father of two beautiful girls. Coincidentally, he is also a successful .NET software developer which is a better qualification for writing a programming book.
His development career started while working part-time during college where he learned graphic design basics and built simple data-driven PHP websites. After college, he worked for a small startup on a VB6 application for educators and learned .NET by jumping head first into building a complimentary ASP.NET site. Since then, he has worked as a .NET developer for a market leading, privately held corporation with a global presence. This enterprise environment has provided many unique challenges and learning opportunities. He currently leads a development team in the company's latest development efforts, mentors many developers, and plays a leading role in planning the company's .NET architecture.
Prior to the announcement of Windows Phone 7, he had little experience with Silverlight, but always wanted to learn it. WP7 provided the perfect opportunity to learn Silverlight in a defined space and on a smaller scale. He currently has several apps in the marketplace and has plans for many more (if he ever gets this book done).