Simon Michael

• Experience
  • Free software/community projects
  • 2013-: Consultant, Joyful Systems
  • 2011-2013: Full-time contractor, Gehry Technologies
  • 2007-2011: Consultant, Joyful Systems
  • 2006-2007: Web developer, Bitscribe
  • 1996-2006: Consultant, Joyful Systems
  • 1991-1996: Software engineer, Retix/Sonoma Systems
  • 1990-1991: Support engineer, Retix Ireland
  • Early projects
• Skills & technologies
• Education

Experience

Free software/community projects

I lead and operate a number of projects, including:

• hub.darcs.net, a github-like site for darcs users (haskell)
• hledger, a personal finance application (haskell, javascript)
• hackagebot, the Haskell community's package announce-bot (haskell)
• shelltestrunner, a command-line testing tool (haskell)
• Zwiki, a powerful wiki engine (python, zope)
• planet.darcs.net & planet.squeak.org, blog aggregators for the Darcs and Squeak communities
• ledger-cli.org, website for the ledger application

2013-: Consultant, Joyful Systems

• I have been maintaining & enhancing a 100k-LOC php line-of-business app for Champion Windows for several years. I keep it running, investigate and solve problems, add new features and manage technical debt.

2011-2013: Full-time contractor, Gehry Technologies

• I was lead front end UI developer (plus back end java work) on GTeam, a relatively complex SAAS app for architecture/engineering/construction collaboration. I worked onsite for a year with a medium-sized local & global team to rework and enhance the web UI, resulting in a successful product launch.

2007-2011: Consultant, Joyful Systems

• refactoring, upgrades, development and maintenance of kcrw.com & related systems (plone, zope, zeo, apache, squid, php, javascript, postgres, mysql, filemaker, gnu/linux systems administration)
• built a team and solved critical performance problems with KCRW's plone setup, rescuing their multi-year investment
• helped design, build and integrate a new state-of-the-art media player/promo management system for kcrw.com
• provide design review, support and technical liaison for other projects/contractors
• provide support and training for KCRW web team
• set up a staff wiki, code revision control; analyzed, documented and refined content management and development processes

2006-2007: Web developer, Bitscribe

Built and maintained diverse rails and php enterprise apps within a high-throughput agile team:

• a warehouse inventory tracking system
• a complete operations management system for a large window manufacturer
• a project management and dubbing/casting application for a leading movie dubbing service
• a personalized stress-reduction service
• ordering and fulfillment back end for wearefamily2006.com
• recruitment extra/intranet features for Bitscribe

1996-2006: Consultant, Joyful Systems

1991-1996: Software engineer, Retix/Sonoma Systems

• embedded systems, bridges/routers/switches, C, debugging..
• designed and implemented new menu system for Retix product line
• network management, SNMP, C++..
• systems/network admin, scripting languages, web evangelism..

1990-1991: Support engineer, Retix Ireland

• customer support, troubleshooting & debugging X.400 mail server and OSI network protocols

Early projects

• 1989: Hypercard-based midi music sequencer
• 1986: Irish Young Scientists exhibitor, english instructional program for schools

Skills & technologies

Unix, GNU/Linux, Windows & Mac OS systems administration & support (20 years) - Website & web app development & hosting (17) - Free/open source software project management (12) - Wiki building & engine design (12) - Technical writing & documentation management (11)
Python (12 years) - Zope (11) - Plone (7) - C (6) - PHP (4) - Squeak Smalltalk (4) - Postgresql/Mysql (4) - Haskell (3) - Ruby/Rails (1) - Emacs Lisp, Scheme/Racket, Perl, IO

Education

• BA, BAI in Computer Engineering & Mathematics, Dublin University, Ireland, 1990