epc

Stigmergy is commonly defined as the swarm intelligence exhibited by ants. I am developing a business which combines my interests in “big–data” analysis, geographic information systems and graphical visualizations of data. The target customer set is small-to-medium businesses in the US and Canada.

Rowland LLP was a private investment vehicle which was dissolved in March 2012.

Boutique consultancy focused on web site operations and digital strategies. Developed content management systems and e–commerce systems for several clients. Advised several clients on how to manage growth in technology and in their technology teams.

I was recruited to take on this position responsible for managing the development of a multimedia authoring tool and player in Java at this New York City based startup.

I was responsible for evaluating existing client Internet services and architectures and recommending IBM solutions to optimize performance and reduce cost.

My responsibilities for the Sydney Olympic Games web site consisted of managing a fantastic team of 35 application developers spread across the US, Spain, and Australia. I was responsible for personnel and project management as well as serving as a technical liaison between the development team and IBM, IOC and SOCOG executives. As with previous Olympic Games web sites, in late 1999 I was recruited to take on managing aspects of the official web site for the Sydney Olympic Games. Over the course of 1999 I had advocated transferring www.ibm.com operations to IBM's Global Services arm and I had also transferred many of my Corporate Webmaster responsibilities to the IBM CIO's new Business Transformation process. As it was impractical to continue in both roles full-time, I decided to end my tenure as IBM's Corporate Webmaster to take on managing the Olympic Games web site. I developed and managed the plans to transfer our team to Sydney with minimal impact on development. I coordinated various tests of the web site as well as our participating in the formal dress rehearsals. I briefed IBM, SOCOG and IOC executives on various issues, problems and activities related to the web site. During the Olympic Games my role shifted to be one of two operations managers for the web site. In this role I was the sole contact with other Olympic Games organizations for any issues concerning the web site and was responsible for quickly analyzing and resolving any issues related to the site during my shift. As Sydney was IBM's final Olympic Games, my post-Games responsibilities were to help transition my staff to other positions within IBM as well as to prepare contractual transfers of information about the web site to the IOC.

The Corporate Webmaster was primarily a communications and business strategy role distinct from my parallel responsibilities for managing the technology operations for www.ibm.com. It was my responsibility to review and approve or reject all IBM web sites after consulting with peers in IBM Security, Legal, and Communications organizations. I was also responsible for coordinating communications to all technology professionals managing IBM web sites and Internet services. As Corporate Webmaster I was directly involved in developing naming strategies for IBM’s online presence and enforcing the policies and practices of IBM’s Marketing Communications organization. I worked directly with security and legal organizations to identify rogue IBM sites as well as non-IBM sites and services masquerading as IBM owned or endorsed. I helped develop and implement a technology architecture to consolidate IBM’s web presence from a haphazard collection of systems to a professionally managed service operated by IBM’s Global Services arm. The final step of this process was to help develop and evangelize a corporate–wide process for designing, developing, approving, measuring and managing new web sites and Internet services and transfer those responsibilities to the office of the CIO.

Over five years I created and developed the role of a technical webmaster position responsible for systems and application operations for www.ibm.com. My responsibilities grew from application development on Unix systems to designing, deploying and managing a mirrored Internet services deployment using IBM’s RS/6000 PowerParallel SP/2 architecture coupled with the Andrew File System (AFS) and later Distributed File System (DFS). I developed a variety of applications in C and Perl to manage content and services for IBM’s primary corporate site as well as secondary sites we were expected to support for related corporate organizations. My team grew from myself in December 1994 to fifteen application developers, systems administrators and webmasters responsible for operations of the web site in 1999. In 1996 and again in 1998 I was seconded or temporarily assigned to IBM’s Olympic web site efforts. These are detailed in separate entries below. In late 1998 I and my team designed, deployed and managed tools to support the development and testing of IBM’s “Bullseye” redesign, coordinating content development and deployment over hundreds of disparate servers and organizations while presently a unified look to outside world. Over the course of 1999 we migrated www.ibm.com to the remnant Olympic Games systems and transferred systems administration and security operations to IBM’s Global Services organization and IBM’s CIO. In 1999 I was also responsible for IBM’s Year 2000 reviews of Internet services. I developed tools to help audit IBM’s web sites for Year 2000 compliance, as well as advised on how to mitigate Year 2000 exposures in JavaScript and other web technologies. My role evolved over time to become less technical and more about the business of managing IBM’s presence online. While still responsible for technology operations of www.ibm.com, my day to day activities in 1998-1999 are best described under the "Corporate Webmaster" role above.

After IBM’s corporate site launched on May 24, 1994 there was a rapid effort to develop web sites for IBM’s divisions. As one of a few people in IBM’s mainframe division active in Internet technology use and development, I was tasked with developing a web site for the LSCD division. Over the summer of 1994 I met with various marketing communications and support organizations to both learn about what needed to be on such a site as well as evangelize the use of Internet technologies to communicate with customers. On launching the site in September 1994 I began working closely with IBM’s Corporate Communications staff responsible for www.ibm.com and in December 1994 I was asked to take a one year assignment to IBM Corporate to support www.ibm.com.