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My name is Dan Karran and I'm a 25 year old graduate. Originally from the Isle of Man, I have studied in Manchester and London, worked down in London and am now living and working in Stuttgart, Germany as a Software Engineer with a geographic information speciality.

I have been interested in computing and geography for quite some time but I decided to follow that path after taking A-levels in Computing, Geography, General Studies and Maths Mechanics at Castle Rushen High School in the Isle of Man. After finishing there I started studying for a BSc in Computing and Geography with Industrial Experience in Manchester, a joint degree course between UMIST and the Victoria University of Manchester - now jointly called The University of Manchester. Having accomplishing a 2:i (hons) degree I embarked upon an MSc course in Geographic Information Science at University College London (UCL) to further my knowledge in the area. You can find out more on my GIS page.

Between leaving school and finishing my undergraduate degree I was working part time and through the summer holidays trying to earn some money. Having started out doing part time office junior work, I soon began to do something I enjoyed a little more - web development work. I had a number of summer jobs as a web developer based on the Isle of Man but in June 2002 I began working as a web developer for Reuters in London. This placement was for a year and formed the year in industry which was accredited as part of my undergraduate degree course in Computing and Geography.

In my spare time, I often enjoy designing and developing websites and over the years have started many projects of my own. I have been creating websites since 1995, the year in which I created my first personal page. Not only have I designed websites for myself, I have also designed them for others whenever I get a chance. To find out more or to view a portfolio of some of my sites, please visit the web design and development part of my site.

Besides working with websites, my other main hobby is photography. I began to take lots of photos around the Isle of Man before going off to university, and often still take many more whenever I am back on the Island. I have also taken photos in many other places including London, Manchester, New York and countries around Europe. You can find a lot of these photos along with hundreds of others in the photography section of my site.