✹ Ben Bright

I am available for contract computer work. I enjoy working with talented teams to develop easy to find, fun to use, value driven, robust, beautiful websites and related tools.

My mission is to get things done for my clients on the Internet. I spend my days helping clients code, promote, sell, develop, create, collect and invent on the Internet.

Skills

  • Specialty

    • Custom WordPress development, including e-commerce, mapping and intranet tools

  • General

    • Fluent in programming, design, rollout and maintenance of Internet projects
    • Advanced experience with configuration and administration of hardware, software and network solutions
    • Advocate of organic search engine optimization, website analytics, security auditing, smart caching, server scalability and speed, speed, speed

  • Programming

    • PHP, SQL, jQuery, Javascript, XML, XHTML, HTML, CSS, Bash

  • System Administration

    • Unix (favorite flavor: Debian Linux), iOS, OSX, Windows

  • Software

    • Vim, Apache Web Server, mySQL Database, Cyrus IMAP, SVN, CVS, Sendmail, SpamAssassin, SSL/SSH/SCP, IPTables, Nagios, Nessus, ProFTPd, DHCP, Bind (DNS), Gimp, ImageMagick, Quickbooks, the GNU tools and a quiver of other applications, plugins and utilities as-needed

Experience

  • Seedling Online » Chief Technology Officer, 2001 – Present

    • Contract network computing work, including web interface design, business workflow/data modeling and network architecture
    • Responsible for 24/7/365 uptime of network services
    • Responsible for implementation of development projects
    • Partial list of Seedling Online projects
      ( for a complete list, see seedling.com )
      • Prudential Keyside Properties » WordPress based web site redesign and intranet upgrade in support of real estate sales. Includes Google Maps integration and custom fit Administrative tools for managing Listings, Agents and Amenities.
      • Ruby’s BBQ » WordPress based web site to support restaurant promotion and accept catering and delivery orders.
      • Sparrow’s Wheel » WordPress based musician website. Includes shopping cart with digital and physical product delivery options.
      • Poetry Matters Now » WordPress based website promoting documentary film making. Includes extensive use of AJAX to enhance navigation.
      • Carillon Beach » WordPress based web site redesign and intranet upgrade in support of real estate sales. Includes custom interactive Javascript based map. Ran a successful multi-outlet internet advertising and SEO campaign.
      • Artisan’s Jewelry Shoppe » WordPress based web site to support jewelry store promotion and accept orders using Google Checkout.
      • Veritas Custom Homebuilder » WordPress based web site to support business promotion using a blog, portfolio, slideshows and social network integration.
      • Cindy Cashdollar » PHP/mySQL backed web site and intranet in support of a nationally touring musician.
      • NuStats, Inc. » PHP/mySQL backed intranet tools for production use in projects doing statistical sampling for NOAA fisheries research and city transit systems. Included Windows/Linux/Palm Pilot integration and attention to process improvement with respect to both efficiency and accuracy of data processing.
      • Old Settler’s Music Festival » PHP/mySQL backed web site redesign in support of festival promotion and e-commerce ticket sales. Included a new look and feel, attention to standards compliance and low-bandwidth users.

  • SchoolPeople, Inc.» Senior Engineer, 1999 – 2001

    • Responsible for designing, implementing and maintaining a production web application
    • Highlights
      • » GUI Design for SchoolPeople platform
      • » Implemented network architectures for premier client sites and internal company needs
      • » Worked with a team of 5 engineers to port existing applications into a J2EE production environment
      • » Technical lead for Dell Education Alliance relationship
      • » Successfully delivered PHP/mySQL product for 2 SchoolPeople Beta Districts for 1999-2000 school year
      • » Successfully delivered JSP/Java/Postgres/LDAP backed product for 4 SchoolPeople Premier School Districts for 2000-2001 school year
      • » Supported sales efforts with training, product demos, documentation, status reports and sanity/reality-checks

  • Shoal Crest Labs, Inc.» President & CTO, 1995 – 1999

    • Contract network computing work, from hardware configuration to database implementation to web interface design
    • Web site design and maintenance for a variety of corporate and private clients
    • Partial list of Shoal Crest Labs projects
      • Orthopaedics International » Windows NT/95 network design and build-out for a 25-person office
      • Northwest Florida Daily News » Designed and implemented a Perl-based web-publishing engine which allows the paper to automatically publish existing articles and photos to their web site on a daily basis

  • Trilogy Development Group» Programmer, 1995

    • Ported software from Windows 3.1 to OS/2, Motif and Macintosh
    • Created build system with built-in regression testing
    • Tested, reported and debugged software

  • IBM Austin» Junior Engineer, 1994

    • Configured TCP/IP based consumer test environments
    • Programmed test suites for Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) and Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) products

Education

    • 1995 Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science from University of Texas at Austin
    • 1992 Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and English Literature from Vanderbilt University

Appendix