Steven Arkonovich Creator of Big Sky on Alexa - Voicebot Podcast Ep 90

Steven Arkonovich is a professor of philosophy at Reed
College by day and a leading Alexa skill developer by night. He
began developing Alexa skills in 2015 before the ASK SDK was
released and is best known for having the top-rated Alexa skill
for weather. Big Sky has over 2,500 reviews and a 4.5-star
rating. That puts Big Sky in the top 20 for skill reviews overall
and number one in the weather category. Number 2 is Alexa’s
native weather skill with about one-ninth the reviews and 2-star
rating. An extraordinary element of Steve's story is that he had
never done any software programming before starting with Alexa
and he still developed some of the more complex skills on
the platform. Steve earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from
Berkeley and an undergraduate degree from UCLA.