Since early 2002, Jabber Inc. has generously paid me to work full-time on my many roles in the XMPP Standards Foundation (XSF) and the broader Jabber community. These have included XSF Executive Director, XMPP Extensions Editor, XMPP Council Chair, protocol author, documentation lead, chief evangelist, website manager, and mailing list admin.
In particular, I have edited the XMPP specifications and shepherded them to RFC status within the IETF; written dozens of specifications in the XSF's JEP series; worked with the W3C on a profile of XHTML for instant messaging; authored the technical specification for presence within Liberty Alliance; collaborated with Lawrence Lessig and Molly van Houweling on an IPR policy for the XSF; launched an intermediate certification authority for Jabber server administrators; and managed both the XSF's standards process and its protocol registries.
From October 2000 to early 2002, I worked as a Systems Analyst and Product Manager at Jabber, Inc., where I applied my experience in the Jabber community to help drive the design and development of products that extend the reach of Jabber Inc.'s XML-based platform for real-time messaging (e.g., multi-user conferencing, a web client, and database integration components). Because my work at Jabber, Inc. involved heavy use of UML and a slimmed-down combination of the Rational Unified Process with Extreme Programming, I became deeply familiar with use-case driven design, domain object models, sequence diagrams, and the effective facilitation of software design sessions. I also functioned as a technical liaison to customers and to open-source developers, helping to maintain Jabber Inc.'s balance as a commercial company in an open-source community.
From November 1999 to September 2000, I applied XML, XSL, and Java to several successful product launches at Webb Interactive Services. Then I got hooked on Jabber. :-)
As a web developer and internet consultant for Logical Design Solutions, Inc. (Morristown, New Jersey) from December 1996 through October 1999, I delivered the analysis, design, and ongoing implementation of an award-winning human resources self-service intranet application for Lucent Technologies. As a content designer/writer, business systems analyst, and web developer, my accomplishments included:
Due centrally though by no means exclusively to my efforts, this web application garnered the following recognition:
In addition to my project work, I collaborated on the development of LDS's project methodology and supported some marketing initiatives at LDS (for example by working directly with the president of the company to develop a tagline defining LDS and its place in the market).
As an editor for M. F. Smith & Associates, Inc. (Morristown, New Jersey) from August 1995 to October 1996, I edited training manuals, system documentation, user guides, methods and procedures, policies and procedures, instructor guides, participant workbooks, and reports on business and technical topics for billion-dollar corporations in the United States and Japan. Also wrote and edited sales proposals, letters, presentations, and consultant resumes. Much of this work involved rewriting and "creative editing" as necessary to ensure the quality of client deliverables and company documents while meeting extremely tight deadlines.
As staff writer for sales trainers and consultants Porter Henry & Company, Inc. (New York, New York) from December 1993 to August 1995, I developed and edited instructor guides, participant workbooks, video and audio scripts, speeches, newsletters, and other deliverables for Fortune 100 clients in the consumer products, health care, pharmaceuticals, computer hardware, and telecommunications industries. Specific accomplishments included:
As development director for Achievement Plus (Atlanta, Georgia) from November 1991 to July 1993, I co-developed a management training program integrating time, project, and people management skills, with applications to current business challenges and issues of work-personal balance. Assumed responsibility for editing and standardizing all company documents, including participant materials, marketing brochures, and sales proposals. Strongly involved in the development of marketing strategies and the corporate vision.
As part-time assistant editor for Aristos, a respected New York-based journal of art and aesthetics, from 1991 through 1994, I proofread the complete text of each issue, provided editorial advice, and performed layout and editing of marketing brochures.
As an instructor with Education for Democracy, an international volunteer organization, from 1990 to 1991, I taught English as a second language to engineers and technicians at the Temelin Nuclear Reactor Project in southern Czechoslovakia.
As a researcher for Niederhoffer Investments, Inc. (New York, New York) in 1987, I investigated historical trends to discern the extent of randomness in securities price movements.
As a researcher in materials science under IBM Fellow Jerry Woodall at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Laboratory (Yorktown Heights, New York) from 1985 through 1986, I developed two proprietary techniques for the processing of gallium-arsenide semiconductors in molecular beam epitaxy.
