Paul James

paul at peej.co.uk

Objective

To be an integral part of a system design, development, implementation and support team, where I can apply my current skills and expand my knowledge of Internet system design and development, new Web technologies within the Open Source arena, in a fast-paced and challenging environment, while evangilising the RESTful principles of the Web and their importance to businesses and Web software development.

Relevant Skills

Programming

PHP (2000 - present), JavaScript (2000 - present), SQL 92 (2000 - present), Ruby (Experiment), Python (Experiment with Google Appengine), HTML 4 (1998 - 2010), XHTML 1.0 (2000 - 2006), HTML 5 (2009 - present), CSS (2000 - present), XML (2002 - present), XSLT (2001 and 2007), Smarty (2003 - present)

System architectures

HTTP (1998 - present), REST (2002 - present), LAMP (2002 - present), MVC

Software systems

MySQL (2000 - present), MS SQL Server (2000 - 2002), PostgreSQL (2003), MemcacheD (2008 - present), Redis (Experiment), Apache HTTPD (2002 - present), CVS (2004 - 2008), SVN (2007 - present), Git (2008 - present)

Skills

Experience

October 2003 - Present : Tribal DDB London : Programmer : Full Time

Responsibilities included development of data driven services for client and internal sites using PHP/MySQL and building of standards compliant, DDA compliant HTML and CSS code.

Monopoly City Streets

During the buildup to Christmas 2009, we developed an online game for Hasbro to promote a new version of the Monopoly board game. We created an online massively multiplayer game of Monopoly played upon a Google Maps mashup, allowing players to buy any street in the World and earn rent and build buildings upon them.

The project involved a complex Javascript application and a highly scalable PHP/MySQL/MemcacheD backend that was stretched to over 200 Web servers and 14 database servers so as to handle the 1.4 million active players.

Guinness.com

TribalDDB designed and built a new global Guinness.com website for the famous beer brand and migrated it away from a Microsoft Sharepoint Server setup to a LAMP stack.

I was responsible for designing a site architecture that would allow individual local territories to update and manage their own sections of the site without effecting other territories work while still allowing for global site-wide updates. Separate SVN repositories for each locale and careful segmenting of the codebase was designed to allow development, testing and deployment of each of the 14 locales in isolation while still making sure that the whole site worked together as a whole.

Volkswagen UK

In 2007 we rebuilt the Volkswagen UK site from scratch. I was technical lead on the project, responsible for application architecture and integration, and HTML frontend lead in charge of the HTML/CSS/Javascript build. This involved managing a team of 7 developers and working with the Flex and and project management team leads. The project was built using a Java/Spring/Hibernate/MySQL/JBoss combination for the backend, a large Flex/Flash component and HTML/CSS/Javascript on the frontend, we also designed, built and hosted a fully redundant virtual server setup for the final deployment. The project was delivered early 2008.

Marmite

We designed and built the new look Marmite Web site, using the distinctive love/hate theme to create a dual personality site. I was responsible for defining and building HTML page templates and CSS that would translate the graphically intense and visually impacting design into a standards compilant and accessible Web site.

Monopoly Live

We developed an online game for Hasbro in collaboration with DDB London. We placed GPRS enabled GPS devices in 18 London cabs and tracked their movement around the city, turning the capital into a real life game of Monopoly. We used PHP and MySQL exclusively for storing and processing over 190,000 users data in real time. I worked mainly on the SMS integration and the initial HTML/CSS build.

Guardian Jobs: People Profiler

In March of 2006 we developed a Web based personality profiler for a Guardian Jobs promotion. I designed the PHP/MySQL backend that collected the user data and processed it overnight to generate the statistics the site is based around. I was also responsible for developing the sites information architecture and building the HTML/CSS.

VW Golf Night Driving

As part of an integrated television and online campaign for the new Volkswagen Golf, I designed and built this Google Maps mashup allowing users to view and create driving routes. It uses a PHP/MySQL backend and a Javascript/Ajax frontend.

LiveSimplicity

We created a bespoke community forum system for Philips to promote discussion around their corporate positioning of simplicity in product design. I designed and built an MVC based PHP/Smarty/MySQL application framework to build the site upon and worked along side a HTML/CSS developer to produce an accessible and modern community site.

TribalDDB Ticket System

I designed and built a Web and e-mail based ticket system for internal use by the TribalDDB Volkswagen team. The system allows the management team, developers and the client keep track of outstanding work and it's progress from a single Web based interface.

Austravel

I spec'd, developed and built a CMS system and Web site for antipodean specialist travel agent Austravel. The project involved HTML/CSS build, development of a Web based content management system, user training, and support and maintenance.

June 2007 - June 2011 : to.uri.st : Core developer : Part Time / Hobby

In 2007 I built and launched the tourist attraction search engine; to.uri.st.

The site contains information scraped from the Web and contributed by users plotted on a Google Map, and works in a wiki style to allow updating of information by anyone. A simple XML and Atom based RESTful API allows data to be used by third parties.

In 2009 I ported the site from a PHP/MySQL codebase to Python and Google Appengine.

The code is on Github.

August 2003 - Present : PHPDoctor : Core developer : Open Source Project / Hobby

PHPDoctor is an attempt to create a simpler and faster PHPDoc (Javadoc style comment parser for PHP) that produces standards compliant HTML.

The project is open source (GPL2) and available from Github

April 2003 - Present : Tonic : Core developer : Open Source Project / Hobby

Tonic is an open source less is more, RESTful Web application development and Web site management PHP script designed to do things "the right way", where resources are king and the framework gets out of the way and leaves the developer to get on with it.

The project is open source (MIT) and available on Github.

August 2002 - April 2003 : Travelling in Australia & New Zealand

Krista and I travelled to Australia in August of 2002 flying into Sydney where we bought a Volkswagen Kombi van to travel around the country and to become our home for the next 8 months. As part of this journey, I took over 1300 pictures of Australia and New Zealand, ranging from outback Northern Territory OZ to picturesque South Island NZ.

Dec 2000 - July 2002 : Aonix limited : Programmer : Full Time

Responsibilities included development of data driven services for client and internal sites, web server administration, client management.

July 2000 - October 2000 : Games Inferno Limited : Developer : Full Time

A company part owned by Powernet International.

Responsibilities included design, implementation, testing and maintenance of the Games Inferno web site and associated web-based applications.

Features of the web application included database driven product catalogues, customer-generated content, an integrated message forum, cross-referenced news feeds and export functions (for syndication of content). A username/password secured user interface for control of all features, including user administration, demographics and product management.

It should be noted that due to a lack of second round funding, the company no longer exists this system was never published.

June 2000 - July 2002 : QMap : Developer and webmaster : Part Time / Hobby

On-line message forum and community web site.

Responsibilities included design, implementation, testing and maintenance of the QMap web site and web application, including database backup.

Features of the web application included database driven message forum, and integrated news feed with user feedback. A username/password secured user interface for control of all features, including user and forum administration.

It should be noted that after 2 years of successful operation the site has been decommissioned.

Summer 1998 & 1999 : Ricardo Consulting Engineers : Full Time

Education

Sept 1997 - July 2000 : University of East Anglia (UEA)

1990 - July 1997 : Steyning Grammar School