Basics
About Me
I am an experienced web developer and project manager. I am honest, smart, and I get results.
My strength is the strength of a generalist. I approach web projects holistically: as a programmer, interface designer, and business technologist who can understand the complexities of your business needs, and map them to the appropriate technological solutions.
Experience
Self-employed
Web Applications Developer. 1997 — 2002, March 2004 — present.
As a free agent, I’ve done consulting, contract programming, and design work for clients including the Kauffman Foundation, Blood:Water Mission, Waterdeep, and Grassroots Music. 
Work sample...
Grassroots Music
IT Director. January 2002 — March 2004.
Grassroots Music is an independent music distributor and online retailer. As IT Director, I managed the implementation of our technology infrastructure, and constantly sought ways to improve the efficiency of the business. I coordinated a small staff of developers, designers, and content creators responsible for the information architecture and development of a medium-sized e-commerce site. My responsibilities included evaluating staff candidates, project management, managing vendor relationships, evaluating technology investment, establishing security policies, and enforcing consistency and usability standards across sites. Work sample...
Grassroots Intranet. The Grassroots Intranet is the informational backbone of company operations. It provides interfaces to administer all business objects — from artists and albums to email newsletters and promotional campaigns. Its integration with our e-commerce application allows flexible sales reporting and analysis. The entire system is built atop a custom application framework, which fosters rapid development and interface consistency.
Grassroots Order System. I was directly responsible for the design and implementation of the Grassroots shopping cart system, which replaced a third-party legacy application. In addition to providing new features, such as gift certificates and user accounts, the new system had to fully interoperate with the old, to allow a phased switchover. I collected the requirements data and designed every aspect of the application, from database structure to instructional text. Before launch, I conducted usability tests to refine the checkout process, and integrated reporting tools on the Grassroots Intranet.ngenius media labs
Contract programmer. 1997 — 2002, part time.
I’ve worked with ngenius as a consultant, developer, and graphic designer on a wide range of commercial projects, including inter- and intra-net sites for the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the Missouri Forum, SICKC, Business Personnel Services Inc., RTConnect, and others. Work sample...
Waterdeep
Webmaster. 1999 — 2003, part time.
I worked with the music group Waterdeep to develop and maintain their official site, which includes custom ecommerce applications, discussion boards, annotated touring database, automated mailing list functions, and setlist abstraction tools. Work sample...
LYNQS newmedia
Web developer/programmer. Summer 1998.
At LYNQS I wrote perl scripts, HTML, and JavaScript for clients such as Hoechst Marion Roussel, NCR, and various internal projects.
BlairLake New Media
Interactive Programmer. 1996 — 1998, during breaks from school.
I worked with project managers and clients to implement effective web solutions, utilizing client- and server-side JavaScript applications, Oracle database connectivity, custom CGI scripting, and DHTML, for clients such as Sprint, Hoechst Marion Roussel, KCAutonet.com, and KMBC-TV News. Work sample...
Fearless Eye
Webmaster & Intern. Summer 1996.
I developed and deployed the first incarnation of fearlesseye.com from the ground up, including server configuration and content creation. I also assisted with production art, and various administrative duties.
VPR Creative Group
Intern. Summer 1995.
As an intern, I was involved with the creation of speaker-support graphics for clients such as Yellow Freight, video pre-production and shooting, set-up/strike of meeting facilities, and development of the company web site.
Education
University of Kansas
BA, Linguistics. Fall 1997 — Fall 2001.
In addition to my Linguistics study and a broad liberal arts foundation, some of my coursework involved technology directly relevant to my work. I studied Scheme and C++ programming, Computational Linguistics, Semantics, and Computer Mediated Communication. More...
Skills
Operating Systems
Mastery of Mac OS X, and Windows in its varieties. Proficiency in many flavors of UNIX and Linux.
Languages
I have a broad base of experience with programming and markup languages. I have mastery of Ruby on Rails, PHP, XHTML, CSS, XML, RDF model and syntax, server- and client-side JavaScript, and SQL. I have working experience with Ruby, ColdFusion, Perl, Java, C/C++, and shell scripting. I’m also familiar with the web services stack and the REST architectural style, and low-level protocols such as HTTP and SMTP.
Applications
I have mastery of the various office productivity applications, the standard range of Internet clients, site-management tools, image manipulation and graphic design programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver, and servers such as Apache, Microsoft Internet Information Server, and Oracle. I’m familiar with other relevant applications, including Macromedia Flash, Director, and FreeHand, Adobe Premiere and Illustrator, Microsoft Visio and Project, and OmniGraffle.
Selected URLs
www.grassrootsmusic.com
I led the team that structured and designed the main ecommerce site for Grassroots Music. On an ongoing basis, I maintain the code that drives the site as well as the backend systems.
www.waterdeep.com
I have developed waterdeep.com through many incarnations, the most recent including a custom application for MP3 sales. The Swimteam is a special members-only sub-site that hosts an active community of fans and fosters interactivity and social networking.
www.scottraymond.net
My personal site provides a space for random comments and observations, as well as a playground for graphic design ideas and emerging technologies, such as FOAF and web services.
Etcetera
I bathe regularly. I’m pretty easy to get along with. I tell the truth. I love my work. I am a quick study. I know my weaknesses, and I work to compensate for them.
I speak English, and I’ve studied some French. I’ve travelled throughout the US, western Europe, and southeast Asia.
All of this is to say: you won’t be sorry you hired me.