SimplePie — Open-Source Project

Creator and Co-Developer (July 2004 – Present)

• SimplePie is an API library, written in PHP, that enables web developers to simply and easily integrate RSS and Atom syndication feeds (from blogs, news sites, etc.) into their websites and web applications.
• Spent much time looking for pain points involved in working with feeds, and removed those impediments from the developer's workflow, enabling a more efficient experience.
• Engineered the entire user experience: design, code, usability, copywriting, support, evangelism, managing customer feedback, maintaining the ongoing vision for the project, etc.
• Engineered SimpleReader Mobile, a web-based feed reader geared for mobile devices.
• Engineered SimplePie Live!, a web service providing an AJAX-friendly JavaScript API for integrating feeds.

Tarzan — Open-Source Project

Creator and Developer (Early 2005, July 2007 – Present)

• Tarzan is a fast, powerful PHP toolkit for building web applications with Amazon Web Services.
• Supports Amazon S3 (storage), EC2 (cloud computing), SQS (messaging), AAWS (ecommerce data), and SimpleDB (schema-less database).
• Design decisions are made in the best interests of performance, ease of use, and overall usability.
• Goals are to provide a high-performance developer toolkit for leveraging Amazon's in-the-cloud infrastructure, to grow the community around it to leverage understanding, and to build useful user-centric apps based on the toolkit.

Rearden Commerce — Foster City, CA

Senior User Experience Developer (July 2008 – Present)

• Built and documented a number of JavaScript-based UI components for the Rearden Personal Assistant.
• Lead the research phase of a project to extract a UI toolkit from existing app code, document the visual/interaction pieces, and get all of UE on the same page.
• Heavily involved in the initiative to document the engineering build process for UE Development.
• Involved in the startup of the Web Accessibility Initiative as a subject matter expert.

Freelance Web Developer

Consulting and development services for hire (2007 – Present)

• Leveraging a deep understanding of best practices in front-end development, layout and design, information architecture, usability, accessibility, and web culture to provide value to clients.
• Providing guidance to people and teams about how to maintain best practices after the project ends.
• Technology: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Ruby on Rails, MySQL, RSS, and Amazon Web Services.
• Clients: Synonym, Red Giant Software, ShoeDazzle, New Beginnings Church, individual developers.

Foleeo — Morgan Hill, CA

Co-Founder, Chief Information Officer, Board Member (September 2006 – Present)

• Co-founded Foleeo, a company focused on online music and video, to answer the question: "How do you make money when copies are free?" Focused on the ethics, legality, sustainability, and scalability of such a model.
• Developed through a variety of ideas, building and scrapping several prototypes.
• Launched the Foleeo Media Widget, then pulled the plug as soon as we realized it was a failure.
• Developed an internal PHP toolkit for building our app layer around Amazon Web Services, then cleaned it up for public consumption and open-sourced it as Tarzan.
• Worked alongside a variety of people across the technical and media industries to refine the idea and begin pitching to the venture capital crowd.
• Lead the development and refinement of our intended launch architecture, and acted as liaison to external development teams to help us get us a VC-facing demo.

Yahoo! — Sunnyvale, CA

Contracted Front-end Web Developer, Yahoo! Messenger (November 2007 – January 2008)

• Lead the front-end development of the Spring 2008 re-launch of the Yahoo! Messenger website.
• Collaborated with a core team to provide increased usability, accessibility, organic search engine optimization (SEO), and simplified maintenance, resulting in exceptionally tuned performance for 29 locales.
• Involved in tuning the front-end stack for performance, where we employed semantically valid HTML/CSS, server and client-side caching, gzipping, image spriting, code minification, and reduced HTTP requests, resulting in exceptional load times for A-grade desktop web browsers.
• Involved in upgrading and porting the existing site over to a pure PHP5-based MVC framework.

Stryker — San Jose, CA

User Interface Developer (May 2005 – September 2006)

• Authored functional specs and collaborated on technical specs for our Oracle Portal implementation.
• Conducted usability testing sessions as part of our "User-Centered Design Initiative."
• Developed UI, front-end development guidelines, and AJAX-based portlets compatible with Oracle Portal.
• Collaborated with development teams to ensure that new web applications adhered to UI guidelines.
• Wrote numerous articles for the monthly ERP-related newsletter.
• Collaborated with the eBusiness team to improve maintenance and development for the UI of the worldwide GlobalSource project.
• Re-engineered the public Stryker Endoscopy site to follow modern web standards, and built a PHP-based templating system that significantly sped up website development.
• Maintained multiple internal websites and web applications.
• Entrusted with additional project management responsibilities during the last 6 months of the project.

Acxiom Digital (née Digital Impact) — San Mateo, CA

Production Specialist (March 2004 – April 2005)

• Coordinated campaign integration, change requests, and ensured content consistency.
• Performed the quality tracking and reporting of campaign integration-related metrics.
• Consulted on text and HTML templates and personalization link issues.
• HTML and email package expert for client and team.
• Worked with client-provided HTML templates and provided simple HTML design and image editing.
• Developed HTML code guidelines and processes for design optimization.
• Participated in periodic reviews and provided suggestions for strategic and process improvements.
• Acted as syndication expert for internal RSS development team.
• Clients: Banana Republic, SBC, Hewlett Packard, Sony Style, Lexus, MAC Cosmetics.

Golden Rule Produce — Morgan Hill, CA

Technologist (September 2001 – March 2004)

• Designed the company logo, business cards, and established the company branding guidelines.
• Managed development, design, and production of corporate website from concept to finished product.
• Produced our weekly customer newsletter: market research, layout, design, copywriting, proofing, production, and distribution.
• Managed server and client configuration and maintenance (Windows 2000 Server, Windows XP Professional)
• Automated a 16-hour/2-person task down to a 15-minute/1-person task, saving the company over $15,000 per year in labor and production costs.