Dan is a distinguished engineer in AI working on innovative database architectures including document and graph databases. He has a strong background in semantics, ontologies, NLP and search. He is a hands-on architect and like to build his own pilot applications using new technologies. Dan started the NoSQL Now! Conference (now called the Database Now! Conferences). He also co-authored the book Making Sense of NoSQL, one of the highest rated books on Amazon on the topic of NoSQL. Dan worked at Bell Labs as a VLSI circuit designer where he worked with Brian Kernighan (of K&R C). Dan also worked with Steve Jobs at NeXT Computer.