- Vast experience writing API and other technical documentation for many platforms.
- Proven record of delivering high-quality technical and non-technical doc projects on time.
- Ability to learn new technologies quickly and explain them thoroughly.
- Experienced with web, mobile, and desktop application development technologies.
Other skills and experience:
- Provided advanced developer support to software engineers and product support to non-technical users.
- Developed and delivered key training classes, conference presentations, and demos.
- Delivered keynote addresses at MacHack and Mactivity conferences.
- Managed groups of writers and developer support engineers.
"Getting Scott Knaster to teach you programming is like getting Michael Jordan to teach you how to play basketball."
- Guy Kawasaki, Managing Director, Garage Technology Ventures.
Employment History
Google, 2005 to present. Technical Writer.
- Editor of Google Code Blog (over 75,000 subscribers) and Google Mac Blog (over 100,000 subscribers).
- Wrote external API documentation, including Google Checkout launch docs that enabled 10 merchants to launch concurrently.
- Wrote documentation for App Inventor, an extremely popular app development environment for semi-technical users.
Freelance technical writer, 2003 to 2005 (selected highlights)
- Wrote more than 20 articles for MacTech, O'Reilly Net, Macworld, and other publications.
- Wrote API docs for the pioneering Danger hiptop platform. Hired as the company's first technical writer.
Microsoft Corp., June 1996 to February 2003. Technical Writer and Program Manager.
- Wrote Inductive User Interface Guidelines, the highest-rated Microsoft developer article the year it was published.
- Wrote Microsoft Windows Longhorn User Experience Guidelines, requiring interviews with more than 100 engineers and designers.
- Co-designed and managed Outlook Express 4.5, which shipped on time in 9 languages and won Macworld Best of Show.
- Selected to speak in two Macworld keynotes and dozens of other trade shows and conferences.
General Magic, Inc., 1990 to 1996. Writer and Documentation Manager.
- First technical writer hired by the company that was called "the ultimate start-up".
- Wrote more than 1000 pages of programmer documentation.
Apple Computer, Inc., 1983 to 1990. Technical Support Manager and Technical Writer.
- Created and delivered Mac College training for Apple's top developers during the Mac's infancy.
- Wrote technical docs for a large object-oriented platform that later became a joint venture with IBM and HP.
- Managed 16 engineers who helped Apple's most important external developers create software.
"Scott's book 'How to Write Macintosh Software' was required reading for Mac programmers for more than a decade."
- MacHack
Books published
Wrote and published 15 books, including the following selected highlights:
- Learn Objective-C on the Mac (with Mark Dalrymple). Four stars average review on Amazon. Formerly top 200 in sales among all books on Amazon.
Directed development of Addison-Wesley’s Macintosh Inside Out, a collection of 19 technical books, as Series Editor.
"Without Scott, there would be no Electronic Frontier Foundation."
- John Perry Barlow, Co-Founder, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Areas of expertise
Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, web apps, APIs, SDKs, REST, Java, JavaScript, Python, C, C++, Objective-C, mobile, iOS, Android.