Eric Soto

Themed Entertainment & Technology Leader

Orlando, Florida USA

561.318.1610

Welcome to my world! I'm Eric Soto, a Partner and Senior Vice-President for Themed Entertainment at Gigantic Playground, nestled in the heart of Orlando, Florida's vibrant themed entertainment scene. My journey in software engineering and technology leadership spans over three decades, specializing in app development for, creating robust interactive theme park systems, developing backend systems and APIs, and deploying scalable cloud solutions on AWS and Azure.

At Gigantic Playground, I have the privilege of leading a team of exceptionally talented engineers and creatives. Together, we push the boundaries of imagination and innovation, creating interactive experiences that resonate with audiences of all ages, turning dreams into reality, and engineering moments that endure. Our work blends hardware and software seamlessly, resulting in magical and immersive experiences for high-profile clients such as Universal Studios Parks & Resorts, Walt Disney Imagineering, and GoPro.

Agile methodologies are at the core of my professional ethos. With over a decade of experience as a certified Scrum Master, I champion the power of iterative software delivery, consistently driving positive outcomes for the teams I've led and the projects we've undertaken. My technical proficiency is broad and deep, with a particular affinity for the Apple macOS and Linux ecosystems. I'm an adept user and advocate for macOS, Ubuntu, and various Linux distributions, seamlessly navigating the complexities of Azure and AWS.

Beyond my professional pursuits, I have a deep passion for photography, aviation, and drones. For 35 years, I've been capturing the world's beauty through my camera, utilizing Lightroom for my workflow. My love for aviation and unmanned aircraft systems (drones) complements my technical expertise, allowing me to explore new heights and perspectives.

Join me on this journey as we explore the intersection of technology, creativity, and innovation. Welcome to my world of endless possibilities and boundless imagination.

OPEN SOURCE CONTRIBUTIONS

Welcome to my Open Source page, where my passion for the open-source community comes to life. For me, Open Source isn't just a software development paradigm; it's a philosophy, a way of life, and an unwavering belief in the power of collaboration and transparency.

I've always been a staunch advocate for Open Source, firmly convinced it's the catalyst for some of the most remarkable innovations in the tech world. It's a testament to the idea that when knowledge is freely shared, it has the potential to transform industries, empower individuals, and drive progress at an unprecedented pace.

In my journey as a software engineer and technology leader, I've made it a personal mission to contribute to the open source ecosystem whenever possible actively. It's not merely about the code; it's about fostering a vibrant and inclusive community that thrives on shared expertise and collective effort.

Below is a small sample of some Open Source projects I’ve led or contributed to.

Explore a complete list of my Open-Source projects at https://github.com/ericwastaken/.

Sponsor my Open Source Projects on GitHub

A Web Server front-end to access data from PLCs. Uses the Pylogix library and provides a controlled, structured environment for selected PLC data. Supports authentication and rate limits. (Original Author + Maintainer)

https://github.com/ericwastaken/pylogix-webserver

PLC DATA PROXY SERVER

RAPID API FRAMEWORK

Focus on your API, not boilerplate code! ApiFocus is a scaffold project that brings together Swagger + ExpressJs to quickly create working APIs that dynamically change based on an API definition. (Original Author + Maintainer)

https://github.com/ericwastaken/ApiFocus

JAVASCRIPT RULES-ENGINE

Rule Harvester is a general purpose rules engine. The rules engine receives an input and then processes rule definitions against the input, changing that input along the way. Finally, the processed input is passed to an output. (Contributor + Maintainer)

https://github.com/ericwastaken/rule-harvester

ENHANCED AMQP CONNECTION MANAGER

AmqpCacoon is an abstraction around node-amqp-connection-manager that provides a simple interface with flow control, retries, reconnects, and more included out of the box. (Contributor + Maintainer)

https://github.com/ericwastaken/amqp-cacoon

DOCKER: RABBITMQ

A Docker Compose structure for creating RabbitMQ instances. (Original Author + Maintainer).

https://github.com/ericwastaken/Docker-RabbitMQ

Software Engineer, Technology Leader, Pilot, Photographer, Dad, Husband, PITA.

Orlando, Florida