| C# and Microsoft .NET Framework | PHP | MySQL | ASP.NET |
| JQuery | Web Services (SOAP, REST, JSON) | JavaScript | Amazon Web Services (S3, EC2, SQS) |
| Facebook (FBML, FQL, FBJS) | ADO/ADO.NET | HTML Document Object Model | Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) |
| memcached | Adobe Fireworks | N-tier business logic implementation and architecture | XML |
Instructor
University of Victoria Continuing Studies
September 2009 to present
Taught TECJ230 (Web Design & Management), which introduces Web development principles
to novice web developers. Redesigned the course curriculum to add information pertaining to
emerging Web standards, design and management practices, including CSS page layout, HTML5, search engine optimization, and specifying requirements for Web site development.
CEO
Platform Associates
August 2006 to present
Founder and principal consultant for this firm, which provides platform product management and developer outreach strategy to clients ranging from one-person stealth startups, to fast-moving venture-backed companies such as Twitter, to government organizations (BART) to the largest technology company in the world (Hewlett-Packard). Our services include technical and business strategy pertaining to platform products and developer communities as well as tactical assistance on platform initiatives. As CEO, I lead a globally distributed network of consultants and developers.
In this capacity, I led a project to design and develop an open-source customer inquiry portal system, Tinypug, currently in development.
Speaking engagements during this period included Infoworld's SOA Executive Forum (November 2006), Office 2.0 conference (October 2006), Evans Data Developer Relations Conference (February 2007), VSLive San Francisco (March 2007 and March 2008), VSLive New York (September 2007 and September 2008), VSLive Orlando (May 2008 and October 2009), VSLive Las Vegas (October 2008), Under the Radar (March 2007), Web 2.0 Expo (April 2007), and MySQL User Conference (April 2007 and April 2008).
CEO/Principal Developer
Approver.com
August 2006 to present
Conceived, architected, developed, managed and promoted this consumer document-sharing and publishing web site. Assembled and managed an international team of product designers and engineers to assist with the site. Interfaced with users, advisors, prospective investors and partners to further the site's reach and accelerate adoption, taking the site from zero to thousands of verified registered users in less than four months. Used ASP.NET, MySQL and Amazon S3 for data storage.
Director of Product Management
Director, Yahoo! Developer Network
Yahoo!
April 2005 to August 2006
As the co-founder and manager of the Yahoo! Developer Network, my team and I were responsible for launching, managing and supporting Yahoo's developer products. We assisted properties across the company and internationally to provide integration points for third-party sites and tools using Web Services APIs and other developer tools. The team I built and led was a unique, interdisciplinary group comprised of engineers, product managers, evangelists and technical marketers.
Developer products launched by my team include the Yahoo! Developer Network RSS Directory (May 2005), Maps API (June 2005), Shopping API (August 2005), AJAX and Flash Maps APIs (November 2005), Travel API (December 2005) and Javascript Developer Center (December 2005). This included the Yahoo! User Interface Library, a popular open-source library for building rich user experiences in browsers. Each developer product we launched was supported by its own developer community, which my team typically created and managed. I also performed public relations on behalf of the company during this time, entertaining press and analyst inquiries regarding our various initiatives.
My team drove the strategy that led to the July 2005 acquisition of Pixoria, the makers of Konfabulator (now known as Yahoo! Widgets). I also performed technical due dilligence on the Konfabulator product and its competitors.
During my tenure the community of third-party Yahoo! developers grew from less than 100 individuals and companies to tens of thousands around the world, facilitating the creation of compelling third-party tools and businesses built on Yahoo! services and placing Yahoo! on the map of the developer world.
Speaking engagements during this period included Adobe's annual internal engineering all-hands (February 2006), Evans Data Developer Relations Conference (February 2006), O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference 2006, Microsoft Mix06, and a keynote address at XTech Amsterdam (May 2006).
Senior Manager, Platform Evangelism
eBay
May 2003 to April 2005
I was eBay's first platform evangelist. I created and managed the team responsible for evangelizing eBay Web Services to third-party software developers. My team and I were responsible for the eBay Developers Program Web site, and I created and managed the Community Codebase site, eBay's first foray into open-source co-development with its developers and partners.
My team's mission was to raise awareness of the eBay platform and to ensure the success of the third-party developers who integrate with eBay using eBay's Web service APIs. My team accomplished this through direct contact with the developers who utilize the eBay technology platform, as well as one-to-many communication through press, analysts, conferences, and user groups. I interfaced frequently with eBay sellers, small and medium-sized businesses, large retailers and manufacturers, and software development organizations both inside and outside eBay. Representing the voice of the customer within the platform business unit, my team frequently transmitted feature requests and conveyed the value proposition of new technologies to the platform product organization to ensure that our developer community received the right features at the right time.
Under my leadership, my team created the first eBay application to run on Tivo, developed the first integration between eBay and Microsoft Office (demonstrated by Bill Gates at the Microsoft Office 2003 launch event) and the first eBay application to run as a Macintosh OS X "Dashboard" widget (demonstrated on stage by Steve Jobs at MacWorld 2005).
I frequently wrote articles and weblog posts to promote the program, and spoke on behalf of the company to industry press and analysts in partnership with eBay's corporate public relations team.
Speaking engagements during this period included eBay's 2003 Developer Conference, eBay Live 2003, O'Reilly Open Source Convention 2003, VSLive New York 2003, O'Reilly "Foo Camp", DevConnections 2003 (participated in keynote), COMDEX 2003, O'Reilly Emerging Technology 2004, WWW2004, the eBay Developer Conference 2004, eBay Live 2004, and O'Reilly Open Source Convention 2004. I also gave presentations to numerous regional software development user groups to promote the program.
As a technologist, I served as an advocate for the use of new technologies within eBay. I was responsible for eBay's first public adoption of wikis, weblogs and RSS syndication to provide more effective communication with developers and customers. In 2004 I was given a company award for my work in this area.
Publications during this period included "Using the eBay SDK" (OnDotNet.com, 2003) "Integrate Your Inventory System with the eBay SDK" (DevX.com, 2003) and "Creating a Product Search Application Using the eBay SDK and Visual Basic .NET (Microsoft Developer Network, 2004).
Senior Developer
Vertigo Software
January 2003 to May 2003
Developed custom software using Microsoft tools and technologies (including .NET framework in both C# and Visual Basic .NET with Windows Forms and ASP.NET, Dynamic HTML with VBScript and JavaScript) for a variety of corporate clients, including Microsoft. In that capacity, I assumed sole responsibility for performing a developer-oriented technical and competitive analysis for one of Microsoft's flagship products. Working on my own initiative, I brought the firm a new financial services customer in the first month of my tenure.
Publications during this period included Database Access with Visual Basic .NET (Addison Wesley, 2003) and "Using NAnt to Build .NET Projects" (OnDotNet.com).
Senior Product Manager
Kenamea
May 2001 to December 2002
As a part of Kenamea's engineering organization, I served as principal product manager on Kenamea's real-time, message-based communication platform. I interacted regularly with customers as well as every department in the organization (including engineering, sales, marketing, technical documentation, business development, and executive management) to foster interdisciplinary communication, obtain and clarify customer requirements, resolve workflow blockages, and encourage adoption of the Kenamea platform.
I created applications using Kenamea technology with Visual Basic 6 and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), COM and Microsoft .NET in VB.NET and C#, SOAP and WSDL, and Dynamic HTML with JavaScript. From 25% to 75% of my time was spent coding. In this capacity I also provided direct asstance to the engineering team and the sales force to integrate various Microsoft technologies with the Kenamea platform. I was intimately involved in the design and implementation of COM, .NET, and SOAP APIs for the Kenamea platform. I created an internal database application to facilitate the tracking, reporting and prioritization of product requirement data. As part of my developer relations responsibilities, I frequently interacted with customers both on my own and as part of a team comprised of sales engineers and business development specialists. I created the specification for and managed Kenamea's developer support community online. In August 2002, I led a team that rolled out the Kenamea platform to Kenamea's first Japanese distributor in Tokyo.
Publications during this period included C# Developer's Guide to ASP.NET, XML and ADO.NET (Addison Wesley, 2002), and VB.NET Developer's Guide to ASP.NET, XML and ADO.NET (Addison Wesley, 2002).
Founder, President, and Chief Developer
Insero
August 1999 to May 2001
Managed a team of 20 technical and non-technical staff and contractors for this Internet community consultancy. Served as primary developer and evangelist for the company's flagship software application, a Web-based online message board system. In this capacity I spent approximately 75% to 90% time coding in VB6, COM/ActiveX, ASP, SQL Server, ADO, HTML, JavaScript and XML. I authored the company's project management intranet application (using SQL Server and ASP) which we used to track consultants' activities and provide regular project status reports to customers. I designed, maintained and updated the company's marketing Web site in HTML, JavaScript and CSS using Macromedia Dreamweaver. I interacted with customers and potential customers on a daily basis to manage both technical and business side of the relationship.
Publications during this period included Database Access with Visual Basic 6.0 (Sams, 1999) as well as numerous articles for Visual Basic Programmer's Journal (now known as Visual Studio Magazine).
Independent Software Application Development Consultant
September 1990 to August 1999
Developed custom software systems based on client specifications. I spent from 25% to 100% of the time developing solutions for customers using the Microsoft tools — primarily Visual Basic 6, SQL Server with ADO, and Active Server Pages (ASP). Clients included:
A large part of my consultancy involved serving as a mentor and advisor to other developers and teams. As a developer mentor, I have given seminars to thousands of developers in six countries, speaking at the VBITS/VSLive, European DevWeek, CNET Builder.com Live! and ASP Connections conferences as well as a number of private corporate seminars and user groups.
Publications during this period included Database Access with Visual Basic 5.0 (Ziff Davis Press, 1997), The Visual Basic Components Sourcebook (Ziff-Davis Press, 1997), and How To Program Visual Basic 5.0 Control Creation Edition (Ziff-Davis Press, 1997), contributions to Inside VBScript With ActiveX (New Riders, 1997) and Managing Windows NT Server (New Riders, 1997), and articles for PC Computing, Hotwired (now Wired.com), Salon, CNET ActiveX.com (now Download.com), and Visual Basic Programmer's Journal (now known as Visual Studio Magazine).
Newspaper Reporter
Camarillo Daily News
September 1990 to January 1992
As a police reporter for the Camarillo (Calif.) Daily News, I covered police, fire, city and county government, wrote feature stories, and developed original color news graphics for the paper using Adobe Illustrator and Aldus (now Macromedia) Freehand.