From the Big Hole to Custer’s Last Stand technology warrior, Bill Ruediger seeks next technological battle front in Big Sky Country.

In the West when the funding dries up we move on to new watering holes.

Bill Ruediger has found himself in exactly that situation after spending the last 5 years working for GalleryPlayer, a now defunct Seattle based new media and software company. But there’s a twist, Bill was able to run the technology company remotely from Missoula Montana, allowing for the best of both a good living and the great quality of life offered here in Montana.

Bill is searching for Montana based technology companies that need his expertise in bringing software products to market. Working at GalleryPlayer presented him with opportunities to work with some of the largest technology companies in the world. Among his accomplishments he designed and helped develop an image format and system for protecting high quality digital imagery and artwork. This allowed them to offer content from companies like National Geographic, MoMA, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, among other highly recognized museums. In his effort to build the company and make it easier for customers to purchase and display imagery, he worked with consumer electronics companies helping them build in support for the protected images. In 2007 Panasonic was the first big company to support the image format in all their plasma displays sold in North America. In 2008 Samsung and Mitsubishi followed with support for the image format. Bill’s role was managing the technology integration with each of these companies. There were challenges we didn’t think we could overcome. We didn’t let that stop us, we thought of ways push everything to its limits to make it happen. The computers that run in consumer electronics devices are far more limited than the PC’s most people use every day.

Despite these successes the company was unable to secure funding to continue operations and in June this year the company went though the painful process of shutting down and ending the service. “I’ll never forget that experience, but its time to move on.”

Bill is hoping to find new opportunities right here in Montana, and if possible one that allows him to stay in Missoula. He likes to say “hope is not a strategy”, so he’s been talking with a lot of friends and companies and is encouraged by the number of software related possibilities in Montana. If you have a software vision, company, project or idea you would like to discuss, Bill would love to hear about it. Bill’s email address is [email protected]