Resume of Peter Saint-Andre Resume of Peter Saint-Andre

Internet professional versed in protocol design, content development, systems analysis, programming, user-centric design, and project management. Focused on creating value and delighting the customer, not on technology for its own sake. Have built award-winning internet applications in a strong team environment, on time and under budget. Extremely productive, creative, adaptable, and easy to work with. Outstanding client and communication skills.

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, XEP Editor, Jabber Council Chair, protocol author, documentation lead, chief evangelist, website manager, and mailing list admin.

In the standards area, I have edited the XMPP specifications and shepherded them to RFC status within the IETF; written dozens of specifications in the JSF'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 JSF; launched an intermediate certification authority for Jabber server administrators; and managed both the JSF'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'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.

Applied XML, XSL, and Java to several successful product releases at Webb Interactive Services, a local commerce internet infrastructure company, before moving to Webb's Jabber, Inc. subsidiary.

As a content designer/writer, business systems analyst, and web developer at LDS, I delivered the analysis, design, and ongoing development of an award-winning human resources self-service intranet application for Lucent Technologies.

  • Defined business requirements and application specs, most recently in an OOA/OOD (Java) environment using UML
  • Created an XML DTD defining the format for data interchange between the web application and middleware supporting an SAP database
  • Analyzed client materials in the light of business requirements and developed personalized content (text, navigation, layout, HTML, Perl, JavaScript, and data files) for over 1000 dynamically-generated web pages
  • Coded Perl for key initiatives within the project and performed some Unix system administration functions
  • Worked directly with the main Lucent contact, subject matter experts, and vendors in planning new initiatives, reviewing and approving content, and solving problems in the production environment
  • Developed and maintained project documentation (site organization, application logic, system functionality, configuration management, styleguides, etc.) and took the initiative to ensure the structured communication thereof via project intranet and extranet sites
  • Collaborated closely with LDS team members to design and deliver the application's structure, functionality, and "look and feel", including a highly scalable information architecture, an innovative hybrid navigation model, extranet links to Lucent vendors, and personalization of content driven by business logic applied to data elements retrieved from client databases

Due centrally though by no means exclusively to my efforts, this web application garnered the following recognition:

  • 1999 Gold Quill Award of Excellence (International Association of Business Communicators)
  • 1998 Gold Quill Award of Merit
  • 1998 WebBusiness 50/50 Award Winner (CIO magazine)
  • 1997 Top Ten IT Application of 1997 (InfoWorld magazine)
  • 1997 Top HR Product (HR Executive magazine)
  • Coverage in Inter@ctive Week and other publications

In addition to my work on Jabber and at LDS, I have devoted most of my extracurricular energy since 1995 to building the Monadnock Review (a literary webzine), The Ism Book (a dictionary of philosophy that is considered a model of hypertext publishing), and an online tutorial on How to Create Elegant HTML.

Prior to my internet work, I had significant experience as a writer, editor, and instructional designer, creating and editing diverse client deliverables and company marketing materials. During that time I worked with firms in computers, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, consumer products, health care, management training, publishing, and financial services. My previous positions were:

B.A., Philosophy and Ancient Greek, Columbia University

Self study, on-the-job learning, and formal training courses on software development and project management

See www.jabber.org and www.xmpp.org for examples of my technical writing, especially in the area of protocol specifications. A complete list of my non-Jabber-related writings is available at http://www.saint-andre.com/thoughts/published.html.

My Jabber page at http://www.saint-andre.com/jabber/ lists the articles and documentation I have created related to Jabber. In addition, a complete list of my non-Jabber-related writings is available at http://www.saint-andre.com/thoughts/published.html.

Gladly provided on request.

A more detailed, hyperlinked version of this resume is available at http://www.saint-andre.com/work/. Or feel free to contact me via email or Jabber at stpeter@jabber.org.