Kaido Kikkas: a (bit extended) CV/resume

Contents

Last updated: August 24, 2011

Born on the 12th of September, 1969 in [L] Tallinn, Estonia. Citizen of Estonia. Married to Alliki, with two stepsons Märten and Tõnis, and Tom the Cat.

Contact: E-mail kaido.kikkas at kakupesa dot net, Skype: kakuonu, MSN: kakuonu at hotmail dot com

Main position

My primary position is an Associate Professor at the [L] Estonian Information Technology College, a leading applied higher education facility in Estonia. Besides teaching, I also act as a coordinator for the Linux Professional Institute training partnership programme and other FOSS-related activities. I started there part-time back in 2001, but it became a full-time job in August 2008. My primary work is related to the Social, Professional and Ethical Issues of IT course (autumn term has the full course for both regular and distance learners, spring term has a bit shortened version for evening students). It focuses on a wide range of social influences of IT developments - including network ethics, IT professionalism, licensing, authoring and creativity issues etc)

My secondary main position (part-time with 0.25 workload) is the associate professor of social and free software (probably a pretty rare academic position!) at the [L] Department of Informatics of [L] Tallinn University (TLU). TLU is one of the largest higher educational facilities in Estonia, formed in 2005 after merging Tallinn Pedagogical University with two other academic institutions.

For some years, I used to be a senior research associate at the [L] Centre for Educational Technology. I still have my workplace with them, take part in some of their work and really enjoy the company of these folks, but since there came a chance to launch the [L] IMKE international Master's programme, I went back to teaching/supervising as my main job - I have always felt that I am better in teaching than in pure research. The switch also allowed me to formalise my current main interests in free/open-source software and community models. My courses at IMKE include

• Security and Privacy Matters
• Open Source Management
• Law and Ethics in New Media

In spring 2005, I introduced the Educational Technology and People with Special Needs at TLU. The target group being students of special education, it offers a fresh perspective to work with people who have different educational background (a techie teaching a bunch of educators :) ). Despite the different backgrounds, the course has been quite successful.

In spring 2007 I piloted the Methods and Practices of Free Software - the course deals with practical issues in running a free/open-source software project (students get a pet project to develop cooperatively with Trac, Subversion and other tools) as well as more general topics in free and open-source software - business models, licensing, community building etc. The course is currently meant for the final year of B.Sc. studies (right before graduation) and the initial impression shows that such knowledge is sorely needed.

Since 2008 the course uses [L] The Battle for Wesnoth as a main source of development tasks - groups of 3-4 people will have to collaboratively develop a new mini-campaign for the game, using open-source development methods and tools (Trac, wiki, Subversion).

In autumn 2007 I started the Open Source Management which is an English-language, Master level cousin to the previous course. In comparison, the OSM students tend to have larger variety of backgrounds (also non-technical). Therefore, the exact balancing of the course depends largely on students every given year. This course was actually the first to use The Battle for Wesnoth as an academic tool.

In autumn 2008 I started the Ethics and Law in New Media which is parallelly offered for the international students of EMIM (European Master's Programme in Interactive Multimedia). Developed from two earlier English courses of Intellectual Property in New Media and Political and Social Issues in New Media, it offers a wide perspective on different ethical issues online as well as a somewhat more balanced-than-usual (compared to many BSA- and RIAA-infested treatments seen elsewhere) view on legal issues, covering both the traditional 'intellectual property' model as well as FLOSS and Free Culture (Creative Commons, GNU GPL etc).

In autumn 2009 I started to use [L] Wikiversity as a course platform, parallelly debuting with adapted versions of [L] Ethics and Law in New Media (English) and [L] Social, Professional and Ethical Aspects of IT (Estonian), plus a new course for TUT, [L] Social Software and Network Communities (Estonian). While Estonian Wikiversity was still in beta, all three were successful (SPEIT even received the Estonian E-Course of the Year Award).

Side jobs

Besides the above, I also lecture at my alma mater and former main employer (8 years) [L] Tallinn University of Technology (formerly known as Tallinn Technical University and Tallinn Polytechnical Institute) and [L] Tartu Academy of Theology, a small private Christian college located in Tartu, the second largest city of Estonia. The courses taught are as follows:

• at TUT:
  • Social Software and Network Communities - offers a wide view on the contemporary Web 2.0 infrastructure and runs at [L] Wikiversity.
• at TAT: People with Special Needs in a Changing Society - the course offers insights into the world of disability issues, including historical perspective, disability models (medical and social) as well as descriptions of more common disabilities and an overview of assistive technology. The course will be offered as requested by TAT, it is held typically in every third year or so.

And finally, I am also an [L]independent consultant and a registered entrepreneur.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Engineering, received in 1999 from Tallinn Technical University (nowadays [L] Tallinn University of Technology). My thesis can be found [L] here.

• Junior Level Linux Professional (LPIC-1) - LPI 2011, valid until 2016
• Novell Certified Linux Administrator - Novell 2011, valid until 2016
• Kobudo (Ryukyu kobujutsu) trainer (Level 2) - Estonian Olympic Committee 2009, valid until 2013

I have run [L] a special website for my students since 1995 - it is called "Owl Academy" and provides all the necessary information on my courses, including all the course materials under the [L] GNU Free Documentation License - in 2009, this was complemented by adding the [L] Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike as an alternative license, based on the similar move by Wikipedia). I am also a supporter of [L] Open Access movement and believe that sharing my materials rather promotes me than makes me poorer. Accordingly I have grown to deeply dislike the current mechanisms of the so-called intellectual property (this includes excessive copyrights, BSA-type witchhunters and technological weirdoes like DRM)..

Note: for a long time, most materials were only available in Estonian as my courses were mostly run in my mother tongue. This has however changed during recent years.

My main research focuses currently on the use of community-based approach and free software in distance learning applications, somewhat also including educational technology standards. I also try to go on with my earlier main topic of rehabilitation technology, especially concerning the use of online communities, free software and accessible design/methods in the empowerment of people with disabilities. So I could describe my research as a triangle: distance education - free software - disability issues. Recently, some ethical and legal issues have also been mixed in.

As of 2011, I have supervised 8 B.Sc. and 11 M.Sc. theses (plus a number of diploma theses at EITC, see also a list [L] here), with a number of students working at different stages of their theses (including my first Ph.D. student). The topics are mostly in line with my research interests and courses, but having a quite diverse background allows me to consider a wide range of subjects from disability studies to software engineering. Estonian students could visit [L] my supervision page.

• Operating systems - administrator-level skills with Linux (my main system since 2000), Windows (skills decaying due to disuse as I have grown to dislike proprietary systems) and DOS (still playing with the FreeDOS and DR-DOS sometimes), user level with Unix, limited experience with Apple systems (almost never had one near me - and recently, they have shown quite nasty lock-in attempts, so I have very little motivation to try them out)
• Programming langugages - once a nearly full-time professional (freelance) programmer in dBase/Foxbase/Foxpro, nowadays have got working skills in (X)HTML, CSS, PHP, (My)SQL, Pascal, BASIC, plus some quite limited experience in XML, Python, C, C++ and Perl (again, I try to avoid proprietary languages like C# or VBA). I've been active in web maintenance since 1995.
• Applications - all desktop applications available in modern Linux distributions (OpenOffice.org, GIMP, Evolution etc), can use most of the popular Windows applications too.
• Hardware - I like old PC's and have played with a number of different machines, rebuilding some of them. Although I consider myself a complete amateur in hardware issues, I am trying to learn more. Due to objective reasons, most of my computing experience has been limited to IBM PC compatible machines.

I am a keen supporter of [L] open source and [L] free software - I do not use any commercial/proprietary software since 2000 (well, except some occasional uses of Windows to browse the web at some of my Windows-based employers or to solve some Windows-related problems at some friends' machines). At the moment, my main productivity system, a Dell XPS M1330 laptop, runs [L] Ubuntu Linux 10.04 Lucid Lynx.

I have run my home server (where you are now) since 2002. It keeps teaching me a lot.

I have the following command of languages:

• Estonian - native
• English - professional level skills in speech and writing
• Finnish - professional level skills in speech and writing (will need some brushing up after long periods of disuse)
• Russian - basic speaking and moderate reading skills
• German - very basic speaking and reading skills
• Scandinavian languages, French, Japanese - some very basic knowledge

I have ample experience both as a lecturer and a technical writer (see [L] the writings page), having also prepared and carried out a number of E-learning events. Besides my native Estonian, I am able to write and lecture in English and Finnish.

I can be contacted to give speeches/presentations in a variety of subjects, including disability issues (especially those related to IT and Internet), free/open source software and web-based learning.

Tallinn Technical University, 1994-2002

Starting during my Master studies, I went through most of the academic ranks, holding the positions of assistant lecturer, research assistant, lecturer and associate professor. The courses included

• Computer Science I (1994-1999) - at first it mostly involved introduction to programming using Pascal, later reforms shifted the main focus on MS Excel and VBA, the practice I fought against with no success (it also contributed to my decision to move my main position away from TTU in 2002).
• Computer Science II (1995?-2002) - the continuation of the previous course.
• Internet Basics (2000-2006) - the course that I had tried to introduce since 1994 and finally managed to push it through the bureaucracy - until then, no formal course on Internet basics was offered at TTU. Included both practical net skills - web, telnet/SSH, FTP, search engines, basic HTML etc - and lectures on more general subjects. Despite its late delivery date, it was a successful course with 100+ students each year.
• Network Applications I (2003-2009, lectures only) - the younger but bigger brother of the former, targetting more technical audience and introducing a number of more 'hackish' subjects.
• Communication Systems (2000-2003, spring term, lectures only) - it was a short course for non-IT students introducing both practical network skills (taught at lab classes) as well as some more general lectures.

Another half of my work at TTU was research in rehabilitation technology. Some of the highlights from that time include:

• In 1992, I organised one of the first IT training courses for people with disabilities in Estonia at TTU.
• My Master's thesis from 1994 - "People with disabilities and information technology" - was probably the first Estonian-language scientific writing about these issues.
• Our web server [L] Apollos (launched in 1995 and named after a distinguished spokesman in the New Testament) was, besides being the first Estonian web server dedicated to disability issues, also the first Estonian web system with certified accessible web design. Apollos also received the Mihkel Award in 1996 (issued annually by the Estonian Board of Disabilities for remarkable achievements in empowerment of people with disabilities).
• In 1996 we launched The Old Town - a talker (chatroom) specifically designed for people with disabilities, and also studied online identities of people with disabilities. After my departure from TTU, the talker moved to the private server of its "Boss" and my old friend Mr Meelis Luks, a foot-painting artist and IT specialist - and despite the onslaught of newer media like MSN and Skype, it keeps serving people and bringing friends together at [L] http://vanalinn.lux.ee.
• In 1997, we were the first in Estonia to obtain and introduce a set of assistive IT solutions (touchscreen monitor, special keyboards, switches etc) for people with disabilities.
• My Ph.D. thesis from 1999 - [L] Using the Internet in Rehabilitation of People with Mobility Impairment - Case Studies and Views from Estonia - was still one of the few papers written in Estonia in this field.
• Our laboratory (later centre) was a central (in fact, nearly only) consulting point in IT solutions for people with disabilities throughout the 90s.

However, the years of struggling on without official recognition (we were allowed to use the name of Rehabilitation Technology Laboratory and given premises to work in) and lots of work done on hobby basis (with never more than 2-3 volunteer assistants) had been tiresome, and even if we were officially recognised in 2000, there was no more energy to keep going. In 2002, I found myself badly burned out, handed the Centre over to colleagues and moved my primary position away from the TTU.

Astangu Rehabilitation and Training Centre, 1994-1997

Nowadays [L] Astangu Rehabilitation Centre, it was the first ambitious project in Estonian social security sphere to create a modern rehabilitation and training centre for people with disabilities. The first ideas and concepts dating back to the end of 80s, the project went through many contradictions but the centre was finally officially opened in 1994. I held the position of Head Counsellor of IT and was responsible for creating the IT curriculum. Even if many ideas were dropped and the launch delayed a couple of years, the curriculum was still used for some 5-6 years. Looking back, I am not completely happy (the outcome was perhaps 70% of what I had envisioned) but not ashamed either - considering the circumstances, this chance to learn was very valuable for people with disabilities at that time. My increasing workload at TTU combined with Ph.D. studies finally caused me to quit the work at Astangu in 1997.

AS IT, 1995-96?

The work as the editor of a corporate newsletter gave me further insight into technical writing and introduced me to the state of the art of IT, even if only theoretically (while we got good general education and ample knowledge of more formal IT disciplines at the university, the latest technology was quite scarce at that time).

Estonian Union of Disabled Persons Organizations, 1990?-1994

My interest towards accessibility and assistive technology started here from practical experiences as a computer specialist and a programmer born with a disability. I worked at the Estonian Disability Registry project - sadly, the impressive amount of collected data were transferred to the Ministry of Social Affairs a couple of years later, where it was left to rot in someone's cupboard...

Being one of the so-called "Foxpro generation" in Estonia (at the beginning of 90s, the freshly re-independent republic had an urgent need for all kinds of registries and databases - lots of young programmers took the chance; on the negative side, many of them quit their studies due to this) I worked on many other projects too, like the database used at social security offices in Tallinn. These were busy but interesting times...

Some projects I've been involved in

• 2005-2007 The Cultured Engineer, a SOCRATES/Erasmus project to create a book and course on philosophy and ethics of engineering
• 2005-2006 [L] iCamp EU 6th Framework project on building open-source learning object interchange mechanisms for different e-learning systems (I have shifted away from the project for now, due to most focus on teaching).
• 2003-2005 - [L] SOCRATES UNIVe/Estonian E-University, special needs/accessibility research
• 2002 - EU FP5 project THINK Baltic Extension; authoring of two courses
• 2002 - Counsellor to the IT campaign of Estonian Union of Disabled Persons Organizations and IBM Estonia (donation of 35 Linux-based personal computers to individuals with disabilities)
• 2001 - Main coordinator of the E-Citizen training for people with severe mobility impairments
• 2000-2002 - Estonian coordinator of the [L] PHARE VISIOCOM project.
• 1998-1999 - assistive technology counsellor to the [L] Tiger Leap Foundation.
• 1997-2000 - assistive technology researcher in the Tempus JEP 12418 "Creation of Master Degree Programme in Multimedia and Learning Systems" project.
• 1995-98 - IT counsellor in the TEMPUS SJEP 9523 "A New Structure for Training SEN Teachers in Estonia" project.

... can be found on [L] a separate page. Since 2005, I try to use the "green" model of Open Access publishing (self-archiving my publications) whenever possible.

Some of my presentations can be found on [L] Slideshare.

See also [L] the writings page.

• IS or not to IS: thoughts of information society, people with disabilities and a society in transition. Towards an Inclusive Information Society in Europe symposium (by European Commission), Heraklion, Greece 2003.
• Give Us Bytes Rather Than Bucks: New Technologies in Empowerment of People with Disabilities. Tripartite Seminar on the Restructuring of Disability Pensions in Central and Eastern Europe (by International Labour Organization). Prague, Czech Republic 2002
• E as in "empowerment" - People with Disabilities and E-society. Without Barriers conference of Union of Baltic Cities. Gdynia, Poland 2002.
• Helsinki-Tallinn Cooperation: A Disability Perspective. Euregio 2001 Forum. Helsinki, Finland 2001
• Use of Internet by people with disabilities - an Estonian perspective. ICTA 1999 World Conference. London, UK 1999

In an effort to contribute something back for the free software I use daily, I have been involved in some translation projects:

• WordPress, a leading blog engine and content management software: main Estonian translator since version 2.2 (July 2007)
• The Battle for Wesnoth, a multiplayer, turn-based, fantasy-themed strategy game: main Estonian translator since version 1.4.3 (June 2008)

I also maintain Estonian translations for the [L] Hacker-HOWTO by Eric S. Raymond as well as [L] The Gospel of Tux.

• Since 2010 - [L] Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
• Since 2005 -[L] Internet Society (associate member)
• Since 2005 - [L] The Charismatic Episcopal Church of Estonia
• Since 2004 - [L] VK Budokan martial arts club (Ryukyu kobujutsu, Yuishinkai karatejutsu, some Hontai Yoshin Ryu and BIFF Escrima)
• 2004-2009 - [L] Estonian Society of Information Technology, also a board member (the Society closed down in 2009)
• Since 2000 - [L] Estonian Defence League
• Since 1998 - [L] Estonian Union of Persons with Mobility Impairment, board member 1998-2001 and 2004-2007
• 1991-2000 - [L] TTU Shotokan Karate-do Club

• 2010 - E-Course of the Year Award from the [L] Estonian E-Learing Development Centre
• 2009 - Letter of Appreciation, Estonian Ministry of Education - for long-term efforts in promoting education of people with mobility impairments
• 2007 - Best Lecturer, spring term, [L] Estonian Information Technology College
• 2006 - [L] The Outstanding Young Person, [L] JCI Estonia
• 2004 - The Order of the Estonian Red Cross, 5th class
• 2003 - Badge of Merit, Staff Company of Tallinn Chapter of Estonian Defense League
• 1999 - Tallinn City Council trophy
• 1996 - Mihkel Award by the Estonian Board of Disabilities

• My work is fortunately also my hobby - I am deeply interested in [L] hacker culture, [L] free software movement and Internet history.
• As probably already seen from above, I do not believe in imaginary property. My favourite comparison for 'intellectual property' is the guinea pig - just as those nice furry guys are not pigs and not from Guinea, the IP is neither intellectual nor can be considered property. And I am definitely not a communist (actually, no sensible Estonian can be one, considering our past!), but just support common sense and dislike greed. To practice what I preach, I have published more or less everything I've written freely (under a free license) since about 1995.
• I like to read (wish I had more time) - a long time absolute favourite is [L] J.R.R. Tolkien (not so original for a geek, eh?).
• Despite being nearly pronounced dead at birth and having had a serious case of cerebral palsy in my childhood, I have been actively involved in martial arts since 1990. For nearly a decade I practiced classical Shotokan karate-do under Sensei Alar Põllu (Godan JKA), nowadays I study Hontai Yoshin Ryu Iaijutsu (Japanese art of sword drawing) and B.I.F.F. Escrima (Filippino art of stick and knife fighting) under Senseis Kai Koskinen (Finland) and Priit Dello, and Ryukyu Kobujutsu (art of fighting with weapons like nunchaku, bo, sai, kama etc) under Senseis Ilpo Jalamo (Finland) and Rein Paluoja. Since 2008 I am also a certified instructor of Ryukyu Kobujutsu (Level 2 since May 2009). During the recent years, I have also been introduced to more modern armament via Kaitseliit (Estonian Defense League). And finally - we have recently taken up teaching adapted martial arts to wheelchair users (I will cover it more when we get some real results to display)
• I love to listen to and play music. I must be Irish somehow... At least my musical home (and perhaps also the spiritual one - in [L] Glendalough!) lies in that island, no doubt. The styles vary from the Dubliners to Enya, Iona and Maire Brennan (favourites include also Eden's Bridge who, although coming from England, have really nicely caught the Celtic spirit, and Urban Trad - a very interesting "modern folk" band from Belgium). I have been playing piano since age of 4, mostly as a pastime. However, I have been somewhat active in Estonian gospel music circles since 1990, playing in various projects (besides keyboards, also some bass guitar and harmonica) and nowadays playing some Celtic-influenced (again!) musical meditations with my [L] KORG 01W/fd synth at [L] Harkujärve Charismatic Episcopal Church near Tallinn during their Sunday services. In Spring 2005, I bought a Vintage V950 bass and am since then trying to brush up my bass playing skills. Besides the Celtic stuff, my favourites include ABBA, Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, Mike Oldfield, Queen, Scorpions... In summer 2006, our old band Taevatee (Way to Heaven) had a reunion after 15 years, resulting in a recording session in Saaremaa. Whether a real record comes out of it, remains to be seen.
• I have been a Christian since about 1990 - it has been a long journey of personal growth. I am also interested in the church history and theology. Since 2005, I am a member of [L] The Charismatic Episcopal Church of Estonia (my duties there are mostly as a musician and a staff hacker)
• As somewhat a militarist (albeit a purely defensively-minded!), I have interest also in military history - from ancient weapons to WWII to Afghanistan and Iraq...
• I started my personal web space in 1994 and began to blog in 2004 - at first [L] in Estonian, but since June 2006 also [L] in English (the latter had a hiatus for some years, but is now back online; it is just a little more sparse than the Estonian one).

Back to Kaido's homepage
Back to the server home

© 2002-2012 Owl