• Derek Willis is a web developer at the New York Times and writes about ‘investigative and computer assisted reporting’ on this awesome blog.

• Tyson Evans is a self described ‘developer, designer, journalist’ on the Times’ interactive news desk. All his info available on this appealingly simple homepage. Note here his volunteerism at the Society for News Design, which I’m betting is about to become this paper’s resource in chief.

• Patrick LaForge deals with ‘News Presentation’, among other things, at the Times. A glance at his Quora page indicates he’s interested in the process of digital journalism and how publications integrate journalistic processes across platforms. Here’s a batch of his City Room blog posts for the Times and his Wired Journalists profile, just in case. Quel boss.

• Fiona Spruill self defines - on Twitter, at least - as ‘Editor, Emerging Platforms, at The New York Times’ which sounds a lot like a job title I’d like to get out of this paper if it goes outrageously well. Spruill is behind the new Times iPhone app for the 2012 US election (also here) as she’s responsible, according to News Xchange, for: 

“all New York Times products on mobile phones and tablets, including The Times’s apps for Android, iPhone and iPad, and the mobile Website. She is the newsroom’s lead on the development of all new mobile products, working closely with business-side and software colleagues to define the company’s mobile strategy.”

• Michael Zimbalist is ‘leading R&D for the New York Times Company’, which sounds outrageously huge. Times Company bio here but highlights include former head of the Online Publishers Association (from which a ton of great research is available), and about the most amazing media CV I’ve peeped [read: seen, for the uninitiated]. 

• Rich Meislin is former editor in chief of NTYDigital and current digital publishing and design consultant. Mini Bio here, used to blog here and here, interesting chat (video) here. Also, humorously, Rich wrote:

“Google must be accumulating some fascinating information about people by watching how G+ circles are being built,”

on Google+ on 11/07/2011 before never posting again. 

These are some NYT heavyweights I’ll be contacting, pestering, badgering and hopefully impressing enough to get some time out of them over the coming week. 

Thought on approach or anything else welcome as always.