I'm a software professional and protocol geek specializing in the full-cycle development of XML-based systems. In particular, since late 1999 I've been focused on helping to build Jabber, an open protocol for streaming XML whose first application is an instant messaging and presence network that is widely acknowledged as "the Linux of instant messaging". In addition to my relatively recent focus on Internet infrastructure, I have a wide-ranging professional and academic background encompassing content development, business systems analysis, programming, writing and editing, instructional design, scientific research, economics, and the arts and humanities. A major strength is my ability to apply that broad background to the "big picture" of a project while using my technical skills to ensure the accuracy of the smallest details. I also seem to have that rare talent of understanding both the art of business and the science of technology, enabling me to (among other things) smoothly translate plain-English business needs into specifications that only a developer could love.
My proven creative and analytical abilities, coupled with my exceptional interpersonal and organizational skills, have enabled me to regularly delight the customer while staying on schedule and under budget. Almost as important as what I deliver is how I deliver it: with intelligence, professionalism, attention to detail, and an extremely positive attitude. My project experience includes my roles (both commercial and open-source) in the Jabber community as well as work with companies in telecommunications, computers, financial services, health care, pharmaceuticals, consumer products, management training, securities, customer service, and publishing.
In addition to my work within organizations, I have significant experience as a writer on philosophical topics and as a musician (could it be a coincidence that the groups who scored highest on the old IBM Programmer Aptitude Test were musicians and philosophers?). In particular, I devote what spare time I have to composing and songwriting, writing essays and poems, and maintaining a hypertext dictionary of philosophy -- plus writing in my weblog, of course.