Mark Lavin is the Technical Director of Caktus Group, the largest US Django firm. Mark co-authored Lightweight Django (O’Reilly), a web application development book on integrating complex client-side interactions and real-time features. You can also often find him contributing to the Django project or answering questions on StackOverflow. He fights the uncomfortable sense that he might only exist digitally by appearing in person as a conference speaker, a volunteer for women-in-tech organizations, and as a TriPython member. He also enjoys homebrewing, Ironman triathlons, and spending time with his wife and their two young daughters.