Blue Sky Minds is a young Sydney-based software company that knows how to:

• simplify complex problems and ideas;
• clearly communicate solutions;
• express good ideas in code; and
• create code for good business.

We’re committed to create useful online businesses, not the temporary (but shiny!) websites pushed by digital media and web-design companies.

We aren't a consultancy or service company. Instead, we invest our resources in real businesses, some branded as our own and some with partners.

Strategies we've learned to follow

• We only create systems that can be easily extended and maintained
• We accept that needs often change, and change is often needed
• We reuse, not reinvent
• We release early and often
• We reduce bloat
• We open interfaces
• We support open-source software

People behind Blue Sky Minds

Jeromy Evans (Founding Director)

At the age of 13 and a half, Jeromy, his brother and the other "cool" kids dodged the school security guard to stay in the computer rooms until dark, hacking Digger levels, writing demos and learning to code.

He graduated university as a computer systems engineer and first developed prototype sonar and submarine combat systems for the military. Jeromy’s enthusiasm for “big complex systems” led him to a role managing the design and architecture of a new combat system for the Collins Class submarines.

Eventually fed-up with the bureaucracy of the defence industry, Jeromy consulted to an enterprise-software company as it made the transition from building one-off applications to projects using a reusable architecture. This challenge led to the opportunity to work with PeopleInsite and Jeromy’s concepts for good business software platforms.

In 2005 Jeromy combined these interests, involved smart people and founded Blue Sky Minds.

Other businesses we're proud to be involved with

PeopleInsite Pty Limited

PeopleInsite provide an online records management system for some of Australia's largest companies and associations. The business was created to help companies comply with turbulent industrial relations laws and has since evolved around the life-cycle of employment and commercial records management. Blue Sky Minds have helped build PeopleInsite since inception and are responsible for most aspects of its technical strategic direction.

Depreciator Pty Limited

Depreciator's customers identified the need for a tool that could estimate the depreciation of residential investment property. Basic calculators existed but Depreciator devised a new algorithm with accuracy comparable to actual surveyed properties. Blue Sky Minds developed the Depreciation Estimator under an agreement to share the intellectual property. This benefited Depreciator by eliminating most the up-front development cost, while the intellectual property and on-going relationship continues to benefit Blue Sky Minds other aspirations.

Resources for developers

We value the opportunities created by open-source technology and contribute to their communities when we can. Jeromy is a member of the Apache Software Foundation (jeromy at apache dot org). Blue Sky Minds encourages its employees and partners to support open-source projects.

FreeMarker Tool

A simple tool for java developers to prototype their FreeMarker templates with an interactive context

Struts 2 URL Hierarchy Tutorial

A tutorial for Struts 2 developers introducing RESTful applications with parent-child hierarchies represented in the path (like "/book/2/chapter/1")

How to contact Blue Sky Minds