About the Author
Preston So (he/him) is a product strategist, digital experience futurist, innovation lead, developer advocate, three-time SXSW speaker, and author of Voice Content and Usability (A Book Apart, 2021), Gatsby: The Definitive Guide (O’Reilly, 2021), and Decoupled Drupal in Practice (Apress, 2018).Preston has been a programmer since 1999, a web developer and designer since 2001, a creative professional since 2004, and a CMS architect since 2007. Since 2015, he has led product, design, engineering, and innovation teams at organizations like Acquia, Time Inc., and Gatsby.A globally recognized subject matter expert on omnichannel content strategy, immersive digital experiences, conversational design, and the decentralized web, Preston is Senior Director, Product Strategy at Oracle, where he oversees developer experience, developer relations, developer marketing, API-first CMS strategy, and open-source strategy for Oracle Content Management.Preston is an editor at A List Apart, a columnist at CMSWire, and a contributor to Smashing Magazine. Named “probably the smartest person working in this industry right now” by Web Content Management author Deane Barker in 2020 and a top influencer in Onalytica’s “Who’s Who in Digital Experience” in 2021, he is also Editor in Chief at Tag1 Consulting.Preston has spoken at An Event Apart (2020) and three times at SXSW Interactive (2017, 2017 encore, 2018), in addition to dozens of conferences and keynotes around the world in three languages.At Gatsby, Preston led the product and design teams for the general availability release of Gatsby Cloud, one of the most anticipated Jamstack product launches of 2019. As Director of Research and Innovation at Acquia, he launched the Acquia Labs innovation center, directed groundbreaking voice-driven experiences for clients like the State of Georgia and Nestlé Purina, and drove Acquia’s API-first CMS and decoupled Drupal strategy.Previously, Preston oversaw the Entertainment Weekly website and its development team at Time Inc. (now Meredith), contributed to Drupal’s open-source Spark initiative, operated a lauded freelance web and print design studio with a diverse clientèle across the United States, and directed the 2013 redesign of The Harvard Crimson’s online edition, the first student-designed responsive newspaper site in the Ivy League.Preston has given free web development classes in public libraries and in 2017 founded Decoupled Days, a non-profit conference about the future of content management systems, now in its fifth year. He also writes on a diverse range of topics at his blog, preston.so. Preston is based in New York City.
