Portfolio: Pixel Pusher

Experience

Web Design

Les Habitations Communautaires NDG (HCNDG) and Les Habitations Sherbrooke Forest (HSF) are two affiliated non- profit community-housing organisations who have played an important role in providing affordable housing to the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighbourhood in the west end of Montreal. HCNDG and HSF recently won a development competition to purchase 3 properties on the Benny Farm site in the Notre-Dame-de-Grace section of Montreal. I designed their website that was a crucial tool in their bid to create affordable homes at Benny Farm.

In my current employment role I am lead PHP programmer, developing a large scale corporate Intranet which integrates legacy systems and new web application solutions for over 300 users and 150 stores across Canada and the USA. My work on the Le Chateau Intranet began with a complete code audit and eventual redesign of the application architecture. In addition:

• I implemented globalisation features to the company Intranet allowing applications to work in multiple languages;
• trained developers in the application architecture;
• introduced a source control management system;
• and implemented a coding standard to enhance our team based development environment.

Lastly, I play the role of the resident researcher in Free and Open Source Software for the web environment, making recommendations on viable solutions to the various problems we need to solve.

Azur Development is a Congolease run development organisation committed to address issues of gender equality, ecology, HIV/AIDS, and information technologies. In conjunction with Block, Street & Building, I redesigned their website to better reflect the work they do.

The War & Peace Foundation, originally founded in 1982 as an anti-nuclear organisation, is committed to the promotion of world peace through the development of a well-informed public. Starting with a simple re-design of a previous web-site, I implemented a customised "Geeklog" content management system for the organisation. Geeklog is a PHP/MySQL driven open source CMS. This installation included the development of a news syndication module, as well as hacking the main code to get it to bend in ways it didn't.

The IAS is a foundation that offers grants to writers promoting critical scholarship on social domination and the reconstructive vision of a free society. The web site target audience includes prospective applicants, grant recipients, supporters, and the Board of Directors. It is entirely built with PHP & MySQL, based on a heavily modified version of the eZPublish 2.x CMS, and a home rolled email newsletter application & grant application manager. It includes groupware tools such as a calendaring system, discussion forums, articling system, a file manager, and newsletter builder. Back end administration handles user accounts, module configuration, and content management. I am responsible for the development and maintenance of the entire project—from the server (Red Hat Enterprise) to front end design.

Ontario Institute PMAC— Ottawa District is a national association of supply management professionals. The mission of the Ottawa District is to provide a forum for educational and professional development. This project included a complete reconceptualisation of the architecture and redesign of the District's original web site. Part of the project also included the development of a newsletter web application that facilitates the construction and distribution of rich text email newsletters. I built the newsletter application in PHP, running MySQL on the backend.

AFADD is a now defunct confederation of anti-authoritarians working toward the realisation of a free society. AFADD believed that there can be no justice without freedom, and no freedom without the power to participate directly and democratically in the decisions that affect our lives. I constructed a rudimentary web-site for the organisation, as well as ran several mailing lists (2003).

The ISE provides college level courses in the field of Social Ecology. This web-site target audience included present and prospective students, alumni, and researchers. The web-site was composed of both dynamic and static content. Dynamic components include a calendar, discussion forums, and a monthly newsletter—that I edit—which where all built by myself in PHP with MySQL. Other dynamic components include an email list to html archive gateway built using MHonArc and Mailman, and a search engine using mnoGoSearch. Email services where also provided (Postfix). I was responsible for the conceptualization, development and maintenance of the entire project—from the server (freeBSD) to front end design (2001–2003).

internal.social-ecology.org was a Extranet for faculty and staff of the ISE. It was entirely built on a BAMP platform, primarily based on a hack of eZPublish CMS. It included groupware tools such as email list archives (Postfix, Mailman & MHonArc), a calendaring system, discussion forums, articling system, and a file manager. Back end administration handled user accounts, module configuration, and content management. I was responsible for the development and maintenance of the entire project—from the server to front end design (2001–2003).

The SESB organizes lecture tours for faculty of the ISE. The web-site's target audience includes university administration, professors, students, and community groups. The web-site is composed of dynamic and static content. Dynamic components include a newsletter system and calendar which are PHP/MySQL driven. This web site also integrates with the ISE search engine that I built. I was responsible for the conceptualization, development, and maintenance of the entire project—server to front end design (2000–2003).

Harbinger, a Journal of Social Ecology, is an in house publication of the ISE. The website target audience includes university professors, community groups, faculty, alumni, and the ISE student body. The web site is composed of dynamic and static content. Dynamic components include a guest book which is PHP/MySQL driven. Along with filling the position of Managing Editor (2000—2003), I was responsible for the conceptualisation, development, and maintenance of the entire project—server to front end design.

The Community Arts Project is a South African organisation dedicated to providing people-centred education and training in the visual and performing arts. CAP works with youth and unemployed adults and is committed to promoting the arts for community development. Part of a 5 month long work placement with CAP had me developing their web site. The project included collaboratively developing the web site's objectives with the organisation and implementing a design solution. Unfortunately, this web project remains unfinished, as the organisation has gone under some dramatic changes. A draft of the project is still available online.

Adult Learning South Africa is an on-line resource for adult educators and learners in South Africa. The project is a collaborative effort between several South African organisations and government, but primarily steered by IIZ/DVV. I served as the Information Architect in the early phase of project development while I lived in South Africa. For many months following this, I offered technical support during the design phase.

flag.blackened.net is an all volunteer run Internet server which provides free services for libertarian-socialist organizations from around the world. Spanning over a few years (2000 to 2002), my contribution to this project included a complete redesign of the front page, along with implementation and support of various other Internet technologies (mailing lists, content management systems, etc.) that met the needs of flag users. My responsibilities included monitoring systems status (flag runs on freeBSD), maintaining systems (Apache, MySQL, and Mailman primarily), and supporting users.

Training people how to use computers and particular applications has been ongoing work that I have been involved with. I get a great amount of personal satisfaction training people in web and desktop publishing as I put a great amount of value in helping individuals express themselves through such mediums. In addition, as a web application developer it is important that my final deliverable includes training on the given solutions I produced for them. Some recent highlights of my computer training work include:

• As coordinator of QPIRG at Concordia University, I provided ad hoc technical support for people involved in creating web-site and print media related to public interest campaigns we were involved with. I also ran numerous workshops on everything from HTML & web publishing, desktop publishing, and graphic manipulation.
• A major component of my work with CAP in South Africa was focused on computer literacy training. I conducted basic one-on-one computer training with staff—many of whom never had access to computers previously. I also ran a small introductory course on web publishing for a staff member and Intern in tandem with the development of the CAP web-site.
• I ran a weekend workshop for a Johnson State College faculty member as well as members from the Vermont community media organisation. The workshop provided an introduction to web publishing, as well as email security.

Left Green Perspectives was an sporadic publication of the Social Ecology Project spearheaded by American intellectuals Murray Bookchin and Janet Biehl. LGP focused on the development of a new Communalist perspective.

The goal of this project was to provide an on-line archive of past issues. This web site was one of my first, and has not been updated for just under a decade.

Print

Harbinger, a Journal of Social Ecology, is an in house semi-regular publication of the ISE. The print edition's target audience includes university professors, community groups, faculty, alumni, and the ISE student body. Along with filling the position of Managing Editor (2000–2003), I was responsible for print layout, and the web-site.

This eight page mailable photocopied pamphlet was created in Adobe Pagemaker and Photoshop to promote two ISE programs.

This tri-fold mailable pamphlet was created in Adobe Pagemaker and Photoshop to promote the ISE's B.A. program.

This bumper sticker was created in Adobe Illustrator as a promotional tool for an ISE fundraising campaign.

This flyer was made in Corel Draw to promote CAP's Grahamstown Festival showing of 9437 to Stadt, a theatrical drama based on true stories of people from South Africa's townships who travel to the city by train. The flyer is design to look like a standard metrorail train ticket.

This program was made in Corel Draw to promote CAP's Grahamstown Festival showing of 9437 to Stadt, a theatrical drama based on true stories of people from South Africa's townships who travel to the city by train. The flyer is design to look like a standard metrorail train ticket.

This annual report was made in Adobe PageMaker to reflect CAP's year end accomplishments. It was hand stitched with a wool binding.

While working in Cape Town, South Africa, I was asked to create a flyer for a local freestyle hip hop show. The flyer was created in Corel Draw and Adobe Photoshop

This photocopied 8 page zine sought to promote QPIRG-Concordia University's upcoming events and volunteer opportunities. It featured one article and an event calendar.

This photocopied poster was made for a QPIRG-Concordia University open house.

Illustrations

This illustration was created in Macromedia Freehand just for fun. It is a spoof on a famous Commie poster.

This illustration was created in Adobe Illustrator for the ISE's magazine Harbinger.

This collage was created in Adobe Photoshop for an article on biotechnology in the ISE's magazine Harbinger.

This collage was created in Adobe Photoshop for an article on urban agriculture in the ISE's magazine Harbinger.

This collage was created in Adobe Photoshop for an article on urban agriculture in the ISE's magazine Harbinger.

This collage was created in Adobe Photoshop for an article on biotechnology in the ISE's magazine Harbinger. I work on the magazine in a variety of capacities between 2000–2003.

Skills / Tools

I launch my first web site back in 1996 for a Concordia University association. I am continually upgrading my skills for this medium. More recently, I have been working with Web 2.0 technologies.

Tools of choice:

• XHTML 1;
• CSS 1 / 2;
• W3 Validator / Tidy;
• Javascript 1.5;
• JPSpan for Rich Applications using AJAX;
• Web Services with XML-RPC
• RSS syndication;
• Dreamweaver MX 2004, Quanta, or any text editor for coding.