Résumé

Work experience

2008 – present
Community Director, Freebase.com (San Francisco, USA)

2006 – 2007
Lead Software Developer, REA Group (Melbourne, Australia)

Realestate.com.au has more than 20 developers,half a dozen websites worldwide, and 6 million unique visitors per month. As lead developer, I provided mentoring and technical leadership to the team, and was involved in everything from recruitment to system architecture to process improvement.

2005 – 2006
Software developer (contract), Optus (Sydney, Australia)

Optus Internet Engineering are responsible for back-end systems for broadband Internet provisioning across Australia. I developed and maintained some of these back-end applications, and overhauled the group’s automated test suite to conform to the Perl testing standard.

2002 – 2005
IT Manager, TransGaming Technologies (Ottawa, Canada)

TransGaming makes Windows games run on Linux and Mac. I led a team to manage all the IT infrastructure — networks, Linux servers, and websites, including a complex online ordering/subscription system and financial backend — for this early-stage startup, as they grew
from 5 staff to 25.

2000 – 2002
General Specialist, e-smith / Mitel (Ottawa, Canada)

As “general specialist” my role had a great deal of latitude to find what needed doing and make sure it was done. My work included community relations and evangelism, software design, toolsmithing, and agile development coaching. During e-smith’s acquisition by Mitel I helped manage the transition to a new open source licensing model and liaised with technical teams within Mitel to teach them about e-smith’s product.

1995 – 2000
Founder and Chief Consultant, Netizen (Melbourne, Australia)

Initially a part-time consulting business, Netizen grew in 1998-1999 to become a company of approximately 12 people providing training and consulting in Perl, Linux, and other Open Source software. As “fearless leader” I set direction for the company, led a variety of projects, and forged excellent relationships with other Open Source businesses in Australia and internationally.

1998
Internet Applications Development Specialist, Monash University (Melbourne, Australia

Working in the computer centre, I developed a range of web applications in Perl, and prototyped the My.Monash education portal, which went on to win “Best Web Application” at The Perl Conference/OSCON 2000. I also proposed the foundation of a “Web Resource Group” to centralise web development resources at the
University; this was implemented after I left.

1997
Internet Programmer, Mira Networking (Melbourne, Australia)

My role with this small ISP included web application development, webserver administration, and second-tier technical support.

1995 – 1997
EPOS Support/Technical Analyst, Australia Post (Melbourne, Australia)

At Australia post I did data munging and ad hoc report generation using any and every tool at my disposal, all in aid of distributing point-of-sale software to post offices across Australia.

Technical community involvement

Editor, Perl Buzz blog (current)
Volunteer (informal) in various community computing initiatives in Vanuatu, in the South Pacific (2007)
Organiser, Perl Survey (2007)
Contributor, Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) (1999-present)
Founder, Melbourne Perl Mongers (1998)
Chair, Perl 6 Language Design Working Group (2000)